I write an article !

Photography

Since many years, I noticed anytime that if the texts are well written, the photos are usually poor or bad, making the illustration of an article unuseful or impossible. As the IBA stated on his site, I tried to write some explanations to help you to improve easily and efficiently your shots.

I purposely wanted to try to give to each one the possibility of photographing in the best possible conditions, the elements of our various collections and why not improve the illustration of the family holidays… While to some extent wanting to standardize the methods of shots, my goal is double: initially to allow each one to be able to illustrate an article, a question, an answer, but also to allow the magazine creative Director, my job, to be able to insert good quality, but also as far as possible consistent, illustrations any origin they are.
To make the photo a good one, both as a description and as a technical illustration, it is necessary to know what you want to pinpoint. For us, the bayonet, you can want to show the bayonet in its entirety, partially, to show a detail etc… In all the cases, it is necessary that the displayed item is clear, well lit and that the background is adapted to emphasize the object. It is also necessary that there is no shadow which generally does not allow a clear picture.
The background colour will be a problem at one time or another. I tested the whole of the colours of the spectrum, and the sky blue background was the most satisfactory and emphasised the best for the brass or bronze parts. It is my personal choice, others are possible. Below is an example :

First how to avoid shadows. You need a pretty sunny day, preferably without clouds or fully cloudy, depending of your choice. In any case you need some light.
If you live in a home with a garden :
If the day is sunny and not cloudy, just go in the shadow, no direct sunrays mean no one shadow on your photos.
If it’s not a sunny day, if it’s a cloudy day, just take your photos.
If you live in an apartment :
It’s the same, but as the light come through a window, you will always have shadows, so you will need a reflector as shown :

On the left the window from where the light is coming, on the ground the item to be photographed and on the right a reflector made with some aluminum foil. The results are usually fine.
I spoke about shadow, term which is explained simply if you look to the drawing on the following page. There must be a straight line between the eye, the camera, the background and the bayonet. But as a source of light is needed, this source must be on the side, but surely not in the alignment of the other points already mentioned. As you see on the drawing, the background on which the bayonet lies should not be marked by its shadow, all is a question of adjustment. But the drawing is clear enough; this is why I have reused it from Gazette issue number 7.

Now that we saw the bayonet partially photographed, it is necessary to see how to shoot the whole bayonet. If the bayonet to be photographed is lying directly on the coloured background, there will be automatically a more or less important shadow.

Here is another style of background, frequently used. It is generally a table, a piece of wooden furniture. In my opinion, depiction is not as good, because the item is not as well emphasised. In addition the shadow harms the good observation of contours; the quillon is doubled by its shadow. The light of the flash is seen on the blade.
Of course if you want to only show the “1920”marking, that is sufficient, but if someone must work on the photograph, the difference between the dark parts and the clear parts are too important and emphasise is poor. This photograph drawn from an Internet site is characteristic of what is to be avoided. The only thing which is in its favour is that it is clear, which is not always the case.

I will show you other backgrounds to allow you to have a general idea of what is necessary to make or not.

Some examples of usually observed backgrounds. On the left a light green background, but presence of a double shadow. In the middle light diffuse shade, but the background is probably a blanket or a carpet, as frequently seen. On the right red decorated fabric. It is the characteristic of the salesman on Internet. The drawing of the background attracts the eye as much and may be more that the pictured item.

Her are a few other examples taken from Internet. On the left red background and shadow, that does not inevitably harm the shown item, even that gives it some relief. In the middle, a wooden background, undoubtedly floor of one terrace in the mountain, and here too some shadow. There too the bottom attracts the eye as much as the item (a faked engraving). On the right, a wooden parquet floor. Pretty nodes!

To finish, my expected explanatory drawing :



I Cannot say any more, and it is exactly the same idea for digital photos, but the shadow is less present.

I.B.A. Photographie (26.10.08)