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Hi all,
I'm trying a new technique for taking photos of my plates and wanted to hear which y'all prefer. I'd love to hear y'alls opinions. I've been having a lot of trouble finding a method for taking these photos that I'm satisfied with, and I've gotten conflicting opinions between the two. The white background is using my lightbox, and the black background is a book scanner. Saying neither is also a valid opinion 🤣 If anyone has any tips too, that'd be much appreciated.
I think white background with no shadows.
Thanks Brian! Getting no shadows is a pretty tough feat with my current setup, but I'll try to see if I can do that. Maybe I can find a white mat for the bookscanner.
I like the dark background on lighter pieces. I think google images might discriminate against them though.
The dark background seems to bring out the color and vitality to the details, making them more attractive. Are you using the same lights?
The dark background brings out the details very nicely.
I am liking the book scanner. But are the colors really that vivid? Will the buyer complain?
I like the dark background though the white looks more professional (museum, auction house) The most important is to get the colors and the white of the porcelain right. I use a spyder cube which is a small gadget related to a grey card.
Birgit
I am not sure. I think the black does highlight the colours well, as would any coloured background that picks out a dominant colour in the decoration, but as others have said, that can lead to disappointment if these are for selling rather than display as it can make the piece look more vivid than it will first appear when unboxed on a kitchen table.
I think for selling white is probably safest and I think I prefer the shadows. 😊 Or lead with a shot of a coloured background but include white ones?
I have just sold some cloisonné and took many of the photos outside as indoors didn't do justice to the colours, but as that is what buyers will be living with, I explained that reasoning. It hasn't arrived yet, so even having been cautious, I am concerned it won't look as good as the outside pictures.
Thank you, everyone! It seems the majority is in the black background, so I'll see how I can incorporate your comments moving forward. The lighting is different for each method since it's all built-in, but I just bought some cheap studio lights from Amazon that might help.
You all brought up a good question that I never considered - which one is more representative of the plates' true colors? After staring at the plates closer and comparing, neither are! The colors in the white background are washed out/paler, but the black background photos are more vivid than in reality. I think the reds especially are coming across very strong with the book scanner, which I didn't notice. It looks like the grisaille pieces do really well with the bookscanner, but maybe I should stick to the lightbox for the other plates.
Luckily I've abandoned the idea of trying to become a Chinese export porcelain dealer since I like them too much, so these photos are just for my reference as I work on cataloguing my small collection. No angry buyers to be worried about 😀
I really want the photos to be uniform, so I might have to check out that spyder cube for the lighting adjustment. I'd never heard of that one - thank you, Birgit!
John,
First at all you are comparing pictures of different size, and that counts a lot.
Besides that, you are comparing two different source lights, without saying if you adjusted the white balance of the camera accordingly. Most probably not, because the white of the two types of pictures doesn’t look the same.
The problem is much simpler than what it may appear. For taking good pictures, the most important thing is the one that, I can’t never understand why, is the less cared of by the great majority of people: the White Balance.
It is so simply, so logic, so basic, but for some reason it is not taken into account by almost all people.
In fatc, it is often heard that a picture is taken indoor, and the other picture in the Sun light, etc, which, from the point of view of color rendition, is a non-sense. A picture taken in shadow is perfectly comparable with a picture taken under Sun light, if the white balance has been properly set (matter of a few seconds).
What changes, is the distribution of the light. In shadow, the light is becoming from several directions, while in Sun light, the great part of the light is coming from a single point (the Sun). That has a great impact on the details of the image. Under Sun, the image is sharper, just because of the type of light source. Exactly the same happens in taking pictures with the white box or with direct lamps. Diffused against direct light, the same as above.
So, at this point, two important things: select the type of light in order if you need a softer or sharper image, and set the White Balance on the camera.
Now, the difference between white or black background. This is influencing the sharpness of the image; with black background, the details of the object are sharper. I suppose that this happens because the quantity of white surrounding the object is causing light reflections between the surfaces of the lenses of the objective, resulting in an optical interference that is “veiling” the image. Hence, images with a black background have a better contrast.
There is a further point: the auto exposure. This is good in general, but if we are willing to take several pictures of, suppose, dishes, then I strongly recommend to set the camera to the Manual mode. With auto mode, the exposure changes if the decoration of the object is of light tones or of darker tones. It means that the camera is setting the parameters to yield an image of average, uniform light density, which is far from the real. Once the camera is in Manual mode and the proper Aperture/Shutter speed couple is selected, all the images must be taken with the same parameters. That way, the black is black and the white is white, instead of being light or dark greys, regardless the nature of the object. Very important. Of course, with the camera and the lights at the same distance. If you change the distance, then you must change the aperture or the shutter speed, because distance has a strong influence on the illumination level (lighting level changes at the square rate. Doubling the distance, the illumination drops to ¼).
In conclusion, if you have to take a series of pictures like those shown above by you, decide the type of illumination, decide the type of background, set the White Balance, set the proper exposure in manual mode, and take all the pictures at once, without changings.
Regards,
Giovanni
I wish I could program the white balance in my Canon EOS Rebel SL1. I check the manual for it and it shows me a menu option that I don't see on my screen so it's very frustrating. I need to consult with a Canon expert to see what the glitch is.
That said, the manual said the white balance is done automatically and to only change it if I notice inaccuracies.
I don't think I understand what the book scanner situation is. Is it like a photocopier where you lay the place down on glass? That can't be it. It's not one of those hand-held wands. I'll go look this up. 😜
ETA: OK, it's a contraption with a base and an arm with a camera, correct?
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