Need assistance photographing cards

dtkk49a

I want to start photographing my cards. I am looking for assistance in creating large scale and smaill scale photos. Can someone here point me in the right direction? I have both raw and slabbed cards. Thanks !

lawnmowerman

You will get better quality scans if you use a scanner plus its alot easier than dealing with glare from a camera

Griffins

Where to start?
I photograph all of my cards, instead of scan them. It is considerably faster, and IMO better quality.
The key thing is to set up a system that makes the images consistant.
Ideally you want to be directly over the card, and far enough away so as not to get distortion (from zooming out to wideangle) and avoiding any reflection of you or your camera in the graded holder.
Lighting should be even and not have any hot spots or reflections. Open shade (such as the shady side of a house, or just inside of a garage with the door open) works, but the best is a light on either side placed at 45 degrees to the subject.
If you are using a SLR macro lenses are especially helpful- they are corrected for better image quality at closer focusing distances and enable you to fill the frame better. If you're using a point and shoot camera use the close up setting- it's usually a flower icon. Be sure to zoom to the longest possible focal length (telephoto).
As with any image, I would recommend shooting at the highest possible resolution and sizing it down if needed in an image editing application- the best is Photoshop CS3, but Photoshop Elements is fine for most purposes, and I'm sure there are others.
If you have more specific questions, or want to assemble is quick and inexpensive (about $125.) product photography setup that will enable you to shoot high quality images of cards or other similar objects shoot me a pm.

Griffins

Matt-
No glare here. Copy shot with a camera. And last time I did it I got just over 400 cards done in an hour.

leadoff4

Beautiful picture and card!

Ladder7

griff; thankyou for detailed post.

What do you do for background reflection off a slab?.. ie; white ceiling reflection.


My master work;

cravetopps

I use a black coated particle board slab (not shiny, dull) as the platform upon which to place the cards. this, coupled with even light sources as Griffins suggests, should eliminate your reflection problem.

Griffins

Ladder, the first thing I would suggest is turning the camera vertically when you have a vertical subject.
The rest of the room is as bright as your subject- if there was light just on the slab you wouldn't see the cieling and loft.
A lot of my clients (I'm an advertising photographer) need to shoot down and dirty product shots themselves, and I set them up with either a small product tent to give even light, or some frames made with pvc and cloth with home depot work lights (being careful not to torch the cloth with the lights by putting them too close). Works great and avoids the type of reflections you're seeing there.
They key to this is control and certainly speed. Scanners are painfully slow.

I'm also guessing you're using the widest possible part of your zoom- that is the exact opposite of what you should do, moving to the opposite end of the range will make your reflection less prominent.

Like MarkB, I use either a black board (for white bordered cards) or a white board (for dark bordered cards) as a background.

cravetopps

I would also invest in a tripod. you can easily find one that will fit your DC. it makes for consistent images and always at the correct angle.

dtkk49a

If you have more specific questions, or want to assemble is quick and inexpensive (about $125.) product photography setup that will enable you to shoot high quality images of cards or other similar objects shoot me a pm.

PM sent.

Thanks Griffins