Just going back to some of my basic suggestions in this thread. I found this photo, and thought of this thread. I took this using a camera phone (nothing high end). The lighting was two desk lamps, with dollar store lightbulbs. The photo was taken in a light box that was made out of a cardboard box. The background is a basic white piece of poster board, that you can also get at the dollar store.
I am not trying to dictate that this is professional stock photo quality. This is to show what can be achieved DIY wise with an investment of only a few dollars. Assuming you already own a desk light or a lamp. Otherwise, you can find them at thrift stores for cheap.
I took this using a camera phone (nothing high end)
Which phone it is? The way it picture details and colors this is not a 50$ one too
I really still think the camera has a big part to do in the photos quality. I experimented a lot since i started this thread and i realised that my phone camera gave me better colors on low light, but colors on the reverse on the cards were not natural at all. So either i had good lightning, washed colors. Or low lightning, good colors, but reverse looks like it's a fake card cause it's too dark. Whatever my light set up is, i do not have good results with my actual smartphone, it's clearly the problem. My phone also adapt the brightness and the saturation automatically. I even wonder if my sensors are defective. Sometime it looks good for a second and for no reason it automatically wash up the colors like its trying to raise the brightness, but if i set up more lightning it automatically goes darker. There's not much i can do
I asked my mother to share her smartphone to me to let me experiment, she have a mid range phone like me but it's a moto (i have a galaxy), and now i just can't use my phone anymore to take pictures... The difference is huge, so much smoother, better details, better colors, better focus... Better everything. And our phone are same price range. Something i liked from mine is that i had a 1x1 ratio, but if it's to take washed colors pictures it's not worth
With her phone. This one is a bit low light but it does not matter if the card looks that clean and shows natural colors
There's still a focus problem with this phone on the reverse the pokeball shows some blurry details on the grey tone. But those details are not even on the card. Seems like a focus problem
Lightning is important but after testing different material, the camera has a big part to do in the pictures quality. Lightning does not make the phone sensors and features better
I'll no brainer need to buy a better camera
Your camera crush mine. Can't believe the A31 is a 350$ phone, every mid range smartphone camera i compare actually crush mine
@byto253 Thank you for the kudos. No one else really cares but you do and you have great photos!
Bravo byto253 ! I'm onboard with everything you suggest. I prefer a Nikon over a phone for reasons I outlined here plus being both a drummer & professional painter I need to hold something that has substance. It's easier to make "photo love" to a $45 nice 2 lb chunk of Nikon than a slim stick.
On Tripods
I see from your listings we both list a lot of 3D objects. Shadows can be a problem. I moved all tripods out of my Ebay studio into my video studio. No tripods here either. I have to say I use a monopod 1/3rd of the time. For objects the size of a toaster & larger a mono lets you "hover" steady and it gives me a fulcrum to pivot with stability. Hovering using the timer reduces or eliminates shadows.
On Stability
I have a YouTube channel on advanced painting techniques. As a veteran professional painter one of my secrets when drawing out a long straight line with a brush or painting a tricky graphic with a sprayer is to slowly exhale while you do it. The same technique helps with camera stability. Inhale. Hold. Breath out slowly.
On Photo Booths
With respect to your top notch suggestions about your photo booth one of my painting customers was a wedding photographer who helped me with back lighting. I paid $15 at Princess Auto for this 6,000 lumen secret trick from Princess Auto. It has 3 led "wings" that swing out. To reiterate what I've said before, ALL LIGHTING used anywhere near my photo booth must be of the same Kelvin rating. I prefer 5000K. I have it on a stand in BACK of the sheet about 12". On the business side the object is 8 -12" in front of the sheet. For verical objects it will eliminate both rear shadows and grey backgrounds using the Nikon. For your horizontal objects it's not necessary.
See Photo
On Mini Photo Tables For Small 3D Horizontal items (smaller than a baseball)
@byto253 this one may interest you. You might want to try this. I'm experimenting with an ugly 1970's big wooden picture frame that has a 16 x 22" piece of non reflective glass in it. Available in ugly frame section of most thrift stores for $3. Throw away the picture. Put the frame upside down on a white dollar store card. Photo your small 3D objects on the glass. I bought an led ring to use under the glass for backlighting but so far it's not been necessary. the reflection from the white stock is enough. so now you object is suspended by about 2" over white on a non reflective clear back ground. so far it's amazing for small 3D items with zero shadowing.
See photos.
Expenses
Camera cost = $45 (Goodwill) Backlight cost = $15 (Princess Auto on Sale) Cost of White sheet = Ask my mother. They are 50 years old. I have 3. Horizontal table cost = $3 (Salvation Army) Monopod = $4 (Princess Auto)
It's good to know one person (@byto253 ) is reading my photos posts and is also contributing your experienced ideas as you are. Best Wishes!
I still hope he will be good again one day 😁
Glare is exactly why I don't like photographing cards in toploaders or one touch cases. None of the detail shows through. Here is how I currently photograph cards. Keep in mind, I now have a DSLR camera, an actual light box, and the background is actual photo paper. I photograph cards raw to avoid glare and better illustrate the condition. I understand some people might not like photographing cards raw, as they might be worried about damaging them, since it is extremely easy to damage cards. Obviously, I understand the importance of not compromising the surface or handling a card poorly. I think the trade off of getting a great picture that shows the person the actual condition is worth the risk of photographing a card raw.
I thought that an A5 would be ok, but the camera does matter and was a consideration when phone shopping. I had a Samsung S8 which was pretty good and did the job - older top of the line. The 4a is better.
But there is one BIG pain with the 4a and that is when I plug it into my computer as a USB drive it does NOT show the images. I have to download them to the computer to view them. When I do a lot of photos with a few hundred images I end up downloading a block of pics by date. From a quick net search I found out that is a quirk that is part of the 4a and there is no fix.
The best bit for the 4a is the "Brightness" slider and "Shadows" slider, which is shown in the picture below at the top of the camera screen. Before I found out about that I was not that happy with the pictures. But this lets me lighten things up and colour match the best I can to the actual item. I know nothing about aperture f-stop settings etc., so this is brilliant. I think it also compensates for some of the auto processing the camera software does automatically. The lighting and background still rule though 🙂
@intimewithmusic Whilst I'm a stamp guy, I don't use a scanner either.... I prefer pictures because they allow me to provide much higher resolution. Here are example pics, although the "expand" option doesn't work here in the boards, one can greatly expand/increase the resolution in the actual listings....:
Excellent photos! !
You"re fortunate your items have no glare and your macro is really nice. I use a flat black background for copper or brass metallic objects like cymbals. They look much better on black than white.
I tend to make my mistakes when I'm on "autopilot" during a run of similar objects.
Here's a big goof up I made I have to fix. This shirt got slipped in with a lot of black T shirts and I wasn't paying attention. My bad.... This is how NOT to do it! LOL I should probably leave it up for Halloween... Boo!
Hi there. I'm posting in here to continue this discussion instead of creating a new thread. I changed my phone my camera is much better and time flyed i improved a lot since then
That being said i have a problem with the background if you look the first picture it's white, natural and clean. The second when i capture the phone adjust and the background turns yellowish with colors more washed
My phone doing all the job i don't have any settings. I know this comes from the colors (the back all blue mostly) and also from the lightning. Anyone have an idea how to minimize this background color change from the face and the back, and why this happen?
Maybe i need to have less lightning or take pictures from more far? I don't like this, people could think i'm using filters. I would like to have the smoothest similar color between both but the phone is doing this by itself
Edit: i'm sorry for the side pictures, i don't know why it don't let me put them up like they are originally
Here it is i cropped them it works. I hope that what i meant by the white to yellowish is visible enough
