We will now interrupt the regularly scheduled program for this good old blogs micro podcast. You've probably heard the term a picture is worth a thousand words. And that can't be overstated enough with knife photography. Now, whether you're taking photos yourself or you are getting professional photos done, there are some do's and don'ts and some considerations that you'll want to make when selecting exactly when you address knife photography and how you navigate that space. So when you're presenting your work, especially online, uh your knives have to be photographed. There's really no two ways about it. Most customers are not going to deal with just a description of your knives, all right? And there are lots of ways to photograph your work by yourself that produce really great results. And I'll talk a little bit about some of those, but then I'll also go into professional photography and some of the pros and cons of that. So first let's talk about personal photography. When you are taking pictures of your knives, it's always good to make sure that your knives are uh presentable for photography. Now, there's a lot of things that you can hide inside of a photo. The the light will bring to the forefront some flaws in your knives if you have them, uh some less well-executed finishes, and so on and so forth. And something that's important for you to remember is that there are certain types of finishes that photograph better than others. There are certain types of blade geometries that photograph better than others, and a lot of that has to do with light and light diffusion and light sources. So become familiar with the basic tenets of photography if you want to get into it and photograph your own work. Now, as far as uh photo equipment goes, cell phones have gotten so ridiculously good that it doesn't make a lot of sense to photograph with a uh DSLR, you know, or something that's a little expensive uh from a camera perspective. Especially if you're not like an amateur photographer or take semi-professional photos, it doesn't make sense to spend thousands of dollars on a camera. I think I uh I don't really really need to say a whole lot more about that. But something that will help you if you decide that you want to do photography with your phone is a good tripod and also a light box. Now, there's all sorts of different light boxes out there. Um, you want to have something that's appropriate for the size knives that you want to photograph. There's really no light box that's too large, but there are ones that are too small because it's a limiting factor of whether you can fit a large knife in it, especially if you go from pocket knives to cutlery, let's just say. However, something to think about inside of a large light box is providing light itself. Now, uh there's a lot of light boxes out there that have light sources that are included in it, like LED strips or circles or things like that, but sometimes they're not adequate to light the entire uh inside surface. So you just want to make sure that you have good light sources on the inside that you know how to light your work, and uh typically you'll want to light your work with the the brightest K that you can uh you can get. So white light versus yellow light. Because especially if you're not getting into uh photographing images in raw uh raw mode where you can make adjustments to your exposure and everything, you'll want to choose a whiter light because if you're doing especially uh white backgrounds and overexposing to wash out the background, uh you'll you'll want to have a good white light, so 5000k or above. In addition with the light box, you can choose backgrounds, uh, different paper backgrounds, plastic backgrounds. You know, you can you can stage things within your light box to give a feel to your photography uh that is unique to you. Uh some people use old maps, some people use photo uh you know old photographs of of people or you know or props like watches or stones or wood or things that they work with uh from a like a natural material perspective, and you can you can mix that up. Just make sure that you have a light box that's big enough for you to play with it, and you can also pick and choose your backgrounds. One thing that's really good to do when you're photographing your work, especially in the digital age, is to take enough photos where you can uh play around with them and see which ones you like the best. A tripod helps to get the most uh crisp pictures because even in good lighting situations, you can still have wobble in your uh in your camera that when you take the picture, even though it tries to stabilize it, it washes the image out. Uh so just be careful of that. Use a tripod when you can and use good lighting. Again, I'll I'll I'll go back to lighting uh quite a bit. But with certain types of satin finishes, I've noticed personally that I have some issues. Uh, even even though they're a really good satin finish to the eye, sometimes the light doesn't play very well on the blade. I'm not sure if that's because they're 14-inch hollows, so on and so forth. I might just be making excuses. But uh it's not like when I uh have a perfectly executed satin finish that I can just throw it in a light box and it'll always look the best. And I even though some makers will use a light box to give a an indication of whether their finish is good and they can look at the knife in all of its parts with really good lighting in order to inspect it for quality, uh, that that doesn't necessarily mean that the knife was made poorly or that the finish is poor when it doesn't photograph well, especially when you know that the the finish looks really good to the naked eye. And if you take it out into the sunlight or with natural light, you don't see any flaws. Sometimes uh artificial light and this the way that it's sourced uh makes a difference and it can be difficult to photograph. So when you're messing with your lighting sources, remember that diffused light or light that is uh is you know scattered. So if you have a uh an opaque filter or um a piece of paper or something like that to to soften the light, um it'll actually help quite a bit in uh providing a softer glow or light source to your work where you don't have to worry about like the individual light bulbs or uh light elements on a LED or things like that affecting uh how the light is refracting off of your blade. So I I highly recommend getting into um uh photographing your your knives by yourself because that plays into being able to publish uh to social media and things like that and and draw in people uh to your work. It's also important to know that you don't need necessarily need a light box if you're doing like natural um uh you know bespoke type of uh surroundings, like outside, you know, holding it in natural light or propping it against something, but um, you know, like logs or fences or rocks or grass or whatever it might be that's outside where you get natural light. The problem with that is that even though they look really great, the timing at which you photograph your knives might be inconsistent, and therefore the lighting and everything is inconsistent. So if you have a really great source for taking outside photos, I think that they look really great. Uh that's one of my favorite ways to take photos. However, I will say that it's also one of the most unpredictable, so sometimes it can be frustrating. Now let's go into professional photography. The largest benefit to professional photography over your own is that unless you want to spend a long time uh buying the right equipment and uh getting tied in with publishers and things like that, uh, a professional photographer does it for a living. Uh, just like you might uh source out sheath building or things like that or engraving in your shop, uh sourcing out photography is good uh in a lot of cases because the equipment to get just really clean, high-resolution pictures is difficult. But then also to think about um all the different backgrounds and props and things that a photographer does artistically to stage the photograph, um, for you to learn that, I mean, it takes forever. Now you can do it, obviously. I mean, people uh get into engraving and spend tens of thousands of dollars on engraving equipment because they want to do everything themselves. But I will say that like Sharp by Coop uh does a really, really great duck job of um of photographing knives with a lot, like a low overhead to get it in getting your work in there. Um the one thing I would recommend with professional uh photographers is that if there was ever a time to make sure that everything is absolutely photogenic and perfect on your knives, it would be during photography. Um, like no scratches that are not supposed to be there, good clean buffs on your handle material that you're expecting to be there as part of the knife build. Uh don't wash out your maker's mark or leave low grit scratches or things like that in there. Like it should be pristine. The reason why is because when you take it to a uh professional uh photographer, they can play with the light to hide things. Um a photographer that has a lot of integrity towards just representing the work as it stands uh will not really try to fudge or mess with it too much. And no photographer in knives should be photoshopping flaws out of your work uh just to make them look better than reality. And part of the reason uh I I would discourage you from working with uh photographers that that photoshop everything is if a if you're getting your knives photographed and then a customer gets it in their hands and it looks like hot garbage, then I I feel that's disingenuous and false advertising. Uh now that's my opinion, and take it for what it is. And I know lots of photographers do Photoshop their work or to take uh minor flaws or things like that out. But rather than giving a photographer the uh decision on on whether to make those modifications uh in in post for you or not, why don't you just send them out a really stellar blade and allow their their natural art uh and and capturing your work to stand on its own? And I I think it's really important. Like don't don't make a photographer make the decision to um to fudge the quality of your work by sending in shoddy work. It's it's a waste of your money, it's not a waste of their time because they're getting paid for it, but uh I think that your your work will be better represented if you do everything that you can from a diligence perspective to get it uh like primed and prepped um before you send it in. Another good thing about using uh photographers is their ability to network with different magazines and publishing to get your work seen by others. Uh, my work has been published several times in Blade magazine, and uh one benefit of that has been obviously my exposure that I've gotten, but also um I didn't have to do any of the work to get it in there. I I got my knives photographed by Coop and he went through all the rigor mole to uh submit to publishers and it got picked up in Blade Magazine. And I think that that was probably the the easiest time I've I've spent marketing myself uh through photography. However, it's a little pricey. Um, you know, a a standard uh single-side photograph might cost you around $175 to $200. And that can be a lot when you're trying to build your portfolio up because you know the the cost of a photograph might be the cost of a knife. And uh it gets kind of difficult from an economics perspective to do that all the time. But you know, if you think wisely about it and you choose works that really uh represent your progression in knives uh and and the envelope that you're pushing, I think that you'll you'll benefit by getting them uh photographed by a professional. I hope that helped. I hope you guys can think a little bit more about uh knife photography, both at home and uh and you know getting a professional to do it. I don't think that you'll be disappointed if you send it off. Uh they they always look stellar. Uh, I've never been disappointed by any knives that I've had to photograph. So uh good luck and let me know if you have any questions.