"The Dragon"

I have a passion for beautiful and unusual knives. This is one of Gil Hibbon finest efforts. Lighting the blade on a knife is not always easy. I do feel that it should be entirely filled with light but in such a way that it shows the texture and tonality of the metal. I have seen an image of this knife before

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where lighting was not done well and the center part of the blade and the top part blended together leaving the impression that they were one surface. I stacked lava rocks against a large brick to make the diagonal flow. I wanted the hot look of these rocks combined with smoke which would be pumped in from behind so it literally came up and out of the rocks. A total of four lights were used. One on the background, one for the amber smoke color, one for the blade and one for a large panel located in front of and above the knife for general fill. All other light sources were small mirror reflectors used to create reflections in various parts of the knife. In the diagram you will see the location of the amber gelled light source. Notice the amber light on the bottom and back of the handle. All of these warm highlights are being supplied by small reflectors.

Lighting the blade was done by using a seven foot by 40 inch diffusion panel located just to the left of the camera and directly in front of the knife, a single flash head was moved around behind the panel until the right amount of shading could be seen in the hollow parts of the blade. Without this shading, the blade would lack dimension.