Seeking opinions on some photos... (1 Viewer)

[Drum]

Hi folks,

I have begun to catalog the first cabinet and, like all projects that take a while, this one is evolving as it progresses.

Though we flatter ourselves as we imagine the finished product in the form of a highly detailed and glossy compendium like Opie's Britains book, neither of my Mom nor I have any experience at all with toy soldier books. Our family has been "collecting" (ie packratting) all manner of stuff forever and while we have many "collectors" books on various subjects, we have no toy soldier books.

So... the pics are evolving slightly and I wanted some thoughts from our preferred audience, our fellow collectors.

Recently, I have been taking more shots that involve the original packaging in the picture instead of focusing completely on the figures themselves.

Some recent examples;

HS2

Set #2

Set #18

I would like some your opinions on these types of photos as compared with what I have been taking previously, namely photos like this;

I am particularly interested in your thoughts on the backdrop to the HS2 pic above and the relative detail of these shots that include the packaging.

I am going to enroll in a photoshop course in a few weeks that will hopefully teach me how to clean up backgrounds and prepare such shots for "publication" in whatever form or media. These are reduced versions of raw, untouched shots.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on these and I appreciate any and all criticism, constructive and otherwise. I have a thick skin and long ago learned that the best way to learn is from my fellow Humans.

Cheers,
Drum

 

[Currahee Chris]

...... I have a thick skin and long ago learned that the best way to learn is from my fellow Humans.

Ok- here's my thoughts on the subject

I think people from the Lehigh Valley are a bunch of derelicts that dirty up our great state- I think Easton, Bethlehem and especially Allentown should do us all a favor and go join New Jersey!!!!

- Just kidding man.

I think those pictures look SUPERB- you have some extremely wonderful figures there and the condition of those boxes are museum worthy!! In fact, those are some of the best looking glossies I have seen in quite sometime.

I think the pictures with the boxes work just as well as the ones without- I think you should consider taking both types of pics as the closeups allow us to see the detail and the inclusion of the boxes really add to the charisma of the sets. I miss those old boxes- I think the boxes of todays figures are fine but back with the older stuff, there was a certain charm that is just gone today.

i'd save your photoshop class money and dump it back into your collection- you look the pro to me!!

And for what it's worth, I think some of the hardest working Pennsylvanians are from the LV!!

Take care and keep the pics coming
CC

 

[dkelly]

Drum,

The photos look great!!! I'm with the prior post. I would take shots both ways. I think the early Imperial sets and some of the specialty sets benefit from having boxes in them. For a number of the other sets, including the Naps, I would probably just do them without the boxes. I love seeing the details on these. For the catalog or book, one thing we should consider is adding in the description for each box. I'm happy to start typing that up for the Imperial sets I have to save you some work.

I can't wait to see the final product. It will look superb and I'm happy to pay whatever it costs to have this kind of reference guide for Imperial.

Dan

 

[jrsteel]

I really like the photos with the boxes included. Man, that Heirloom set is beautiful. I'd love to get hold of one someday.

 

[Gideon]

I used a 5 megapixel camera for some really nice photos we use on our postcards.

I would recommend one of the higher res digital cameras - around 7 megapixels or higher to get a truly print worthy image. I would hate to think how large that image file would be at that res but it would be worth it.

Other than that, for catalog/book purposes, your images are great.

 

[vandilay]

Hi Drum

The photos look great , I,m in agreement about including
specialty boxes ,but for the more generic realeses It maybe
isnt important to show the box.
The only comment i,d make about the heirloom set is maybe
try the box as a background as it quite busy looking with
the soldiers on top of the label .
Either way your doing a super job of photgraphing these
figures.

 

[Drum]

Thank you very much for your praise and your thoughts on improvement.

I agree that the HS set needs some tweaking and I also agree with the idea that not every box is worthy of inclusion in pics.

I was thinking that it would be good to show some of the earlier boxes and, of course, the inserts with the picture backgrounds, but also some of the more recent sets with the boxes to illustrate the differences.

Anyway, I am off to take some more. These digital cameras (mine is a Canon S3 IS with 6 mp) are still so amazing to me.
The very thought of taking 3-400 pictures in one sitting still boggles the mind of one who grew up with film cannisters and winders.

Cheers and thanks again for all the encouragement.

D/

 

[kilted vampire]

Definately like the boxes in the shots and have done so with the Imperials because they have some of the nicer box art.

 

[sam04]

The soldiers without the boxes show off the soldiers nicely, but some boxes are almost as impressive as the soldiers. I would photograph them both ways if possible.

Thank you for posting them.