Photographing Your Collection, Part 1: Your Equipment

PHOTOGRAPHS as DOCUMENTS:
If you are taking documentary photographs, the first thing to keep in mind is to do it from the front, from the side, from above, etc. Add as many other sides or views as the size and value of the object seem to justify. If it opens somehow, open it and shoot again. It’s up to you, but digital photos on CD are cheap enough that your patience is a better guide than the cost of film and prints. Imagine explaining to your insurer why it costs $$$$ and shoot accordingly

Here’s another suggestion for the documentation side of the coin: place a ruler on the image and place it close to your collectible and position it perpendicular to your camera angle. Or make a small scale using paper and a black marker. Or a measuring stick. It depends on the size of your object. You can do the documentation this way and remove the rule for the pretty image leaving everything else set.

NICE PICTURES:
Fabulous photography is made up of many things like technique, composition, and vision. I can’t help you with composition or vision, but I can offer you a few points about the technique, and as far as it is applied, the technique works for documentation purposes as well as for aesthetic purposes.

Consider this: you feel very invested in your collection, right? You would not have gone to the effort to collect all this material if you did not find it fascinating. So let your photographic vision reflect your feelings about it. This means that if a photo looks good to you, it’s probably pretty good. But give some thought to showmanship – cool backgrounds and props and all. Collect civil war pistols? You should have a flag there somewhere. Costume jewelry? How about an ostrich feather boa? pick up rocks? How about photographing them on the appropriate USGS topographic map? The one that shows where you found the particular rock. At the very least, invest in some fancy velvet from the fabric store. Do it in black, white and/or grey: colors can clash or detract from what you are photographing.

There is an important caveat here. If you are taking pictures for both documentation and aesthetics, take two pictures. One with the colorful backgrounds and one without them. It would be better not to have to explain to a lawyer type (insurance adjuster) what the black feathered boa is doing there.

EQUIPMENT:

TRIPOD
Yes you need one. Life is much easier and the photos come out better. End of discussion. Well, not quite. If you’re taking REAL close-up photography (see below for macro lenses), you may find it easier to pop the riser part off the leg support and reattach it from the bottom. (I have an old tripod where this is easily done, but my new one, the up and down bit attached to the camera is stuck there permanently.) It has a bit of a fun look to it but makes for an easy to wear outfit. You are working between the legs of the tripod and can shoot straight down without leaning over things or anything getting in the way.

CAMERA
I guess there are still people who use movies and they probably have good reasons for doing so. It’s not me. I’m also assuming these people know exactly what they’re doing, so I’ll be referring mainly to digital cameras. Wonderful little things: digital cameras. Mine is a few years old now, middle of the line at the time and I have no doubt that it is now hopelessly out of date compared to the latest and greatest, but, and pay attention here, a well-used regular camera will give you better results than an expensive camera misused. But I have a suggestion to improve your small digital, especially if you are shooting small items. You can make yourself a fast and cheap…

LENS MACRO:
These are sometimes called ‘close-up lenses’. Most digital ones – or the less expensive ones anyway – have a universal focus and don’t focus well up close. They don’t really focus at all, and that’s part of their appeal: one less thing to do before pointing and shooting. But what about photographing, for example, a little gem? From 5 to 10 feet away it will look like a blob. Here’s what you do.

Go to the dollar store and buy a pair of reading glasses. Let’s say a #1.25 and a #1.75 or 2. Also get yourself some of that yellow goo they sell at the office supply store. I think it could be called a Handy-Tack. What you are going to do is take one of the lenses off the glasses and use the adhesive material to stick it onto the lens of the camera. Now you need to calibrate it, unless your digital lens is focusing through the lens and your eyes are younger than mine. Easier than it seems.

Set your camera with its macro lens on the tripod and place it a foot or two higher than your dining room table. Lay a tape measure across the table from just below the lens to the other end of the table and take a picture. Now don’t move the tape and go to the computer and find out where on the tape measure the image is in focus. You’re not done yet. Your camera is working diagonally. You can simply measure from your camera lens to where the tape measure is focused. Or if you remember the Pythagorean theorem, do it and make your old teacher proud. Do the same for the other lens: the one with the higher number will allow you to get even closer. I keep lenses and sticky stuff in sandwich bags WITH the focal length WRITTEN ON THE BAG. It seems that an ancient memory is as fallible as an ancient sight.

If you have a lot of photos to take, you might consider trying a small string on the front of your camera and cutting the end off at focal length. Then simply hold the rope with one hand and move the tripod in or out with the other hand. MUCH easier than squinting at/through your camera every time.

FLASH:
This will be short. F’ged-abou’did. The sparkles are meant to illuminate the rooms. Use a flash to illuminate your best brass belt buckle and you’ll have a dazzling image. There’s nothing a flash can do that a little preparation and setup can’t do better. The flashes are fine for working in the field, sports, weddings and so on, but we are working in the studio, a studio done at home, but a studio nonetheless. This brings up the latest and greatest equipment, your studio.

In Photographing your collection, Part 2: The setting: your studio I return to the themes of his “study”. Don’t laugh, a little effort to set up any workplace can pay off your investment. It makes work easier and faster, as well as a better product: images.