As indicated by my previous thread on inventory tracking, I’m starting to seriously look at selling cards on eBay. I absolutely have listings with bad photos so I want to make sure mine are high quality. I’ve got a good phone for it, a Samsung Galaxy S8+, but I need some advice on lighting, shooting, etc.
For lighting, we live in an apartment that sorely lacks dependable natural lighting. Currently, I’m looking at a light box to remedy the situation. Foldio has my attention right now, but the different versions are a bit confusing. Their versions are numbered 1, 2, and 3; the higher the number, the newer and bigger it is. I think a 1 would work size wise but it appears to be the least feature rich version. 2 seems like the best middle ground, but I wanted to see if anyone here uses a light box they really enjoy before making my purchase.
Secondly, I need a tripod for the my phone. Are there any that people recommend? I’m guessing whatever the best seller is on Amazon would work, but wanted to see if anybody has one they think blows away the completion.
Lastly, how do people take the straight down shots where the card is laying flat on a surface? I can’t hold a phone still enough to take decent pics that way, so I’m guessing there must be a special tripod for it. Also, in that situation, is the lighting coming from both sides?
I’ve experimented with light boxes and a few different setups for photographing straight down. This is the setup I’ve arrived at that gives me the best images with the fastest workflow:
The two task lamps are at a low angle so that cuts down on the glare. I put the card(s) on the playmat and photograph straight down. There is enough light that I don’t need to worry about blurry images, even though my hands are a bit shaky at my age
I usually lean against the desk, hold my elbows into my body, exhale and snap. This give satisfactory handheld images and the process is quick.
I also got tired of seeing the phone’s reflection in the images, so I cut out this “mask” from black construction paper which I tape to the back of the phone.
It’s surprising how much of a difference this makes!
Following up on this thread, I’m doing something very similar to what you do @surfnsnow, thanks for the advice!
I bought the S-V IMAGEMAKER PLUS from a local photography store. It comes with a tripod (made for cameras, not phone mountable without a separate adapter), a foldable light box, 2 lamps, and some back drops.
In hindsight, I don’t actually need the light box. When I took pictures while using it, my phone stood out very clearly in the holographic pattern. I ditched it to see what would happen and I actually got what I wanted.
This first pic is from me using the lightbox and you can clearly see my phone outline:
And here are the pics I took after ditching the light box along with a pic of the set up.
The controller (sitting by the left lamp) is something I got a while ago just to play games on my phone, but it also allows me to snap pictures without having to tap my phone. I need to work on better centering and focusing, the grip I’m using wobbles a little too much and the stiffness makes it hard to adjust. I’ll also try to find a better black cloth to use as my background, or maybe I just need to adjust my levels.
Can’t wait to photograph more of my collection! Thanks everyone for the advice and help; hopefully this thread will prove useful for future reference.
Haha yes, unfortunately we live in an apartment with not a lot of space. We ditched the dinner table when we moved because it took up a lot of space in the old apartment and we never used it. I think that was probably for the best, our toddler likes having the extra room to run around in. She’s also got the only desk in the apartment on lock down as her changing table. Once we get a house, I’m looking forward to making a home office for stuff like this, but for now, I’ll just snap pics while loading the dishwasher.
Haha I can understand appartment living ! Did it once with my little one and just not enough space! Building atm so will have a proper space for me and my pokemon either way the lights still are working wonders for you I need to buy some proper lights myself
I need to buy some proper lights myself