Home Forums Gear Photography What settings for good pics

I see pictures of guns or bows foe sale that are just excellent.What settings are being use to get such great pics. Mine are no where near good. My camera is an XP20 ,which I'm sure is not the best ,but what is the secret? Thank you

No special settings, just take your pictures outside on an overcast day. Use the "auto" setting. Lighting is the key, not settings.

Here's an example from this morning. Camera was my Canon EOS-M, but it could have been any camera. Setting was "A" for aperture priority; aperture was f/5.6, ISO 400 with the camera making the decision what shutter speed to use. I took my little Winchester M12 outside, placed it in some open shade, and took the picture.

Lighting is everything, and pictures taken outside in open shade will almost always look better than pictures taken inside using standard home lighting, or pictures taken with a camera's built-in flash.

Overcast days or in the shade with reflected light, as Oregon noted above. You may need to set the white balance to cloudy or shade to get the proper warmth.
Consider a colored , non-distracting background close to the 18% gray in tone. White or black can mess up the exposure- e.g. the gun may appear too black against a white background like commonly used bed sheets.
Use a tripod for sharpness.