Photography

In earlier posts, I have described how I have been helping my 80-year-old mom downsize her home. Since she collected much depression glass and more expense brands of glassware, I decided to help her sell them via an online sales site. And since I now possess a DSLR camera for my studies, I could produce high quality images .

The first item was a Fostoria Opalescent Pink Heirloom dish. I began by placing it on a white background. The lighting was a mixture of led lights and tungsten lights. I also included different perspectives of the dish and also used a series of lens extensions to create a macro image of the dish.

On the photo above, and after adjusting the white balance, I used a wide aperture of f5.8, 1/25 exposure, ISO of 100.

On the photo above, I used a series of extension tubes a1/20 exposure and ISO of 100.

And just for an experiment, I selected just the dish and chose a white layer background.

The second item I photographed was a Waterford Crystal glass. This item had many challenges due to its transparency and reflection. Again I started with a white background, tungsten and led lighting and adjusted for white balance. The below photo was shot with F9.0, 1/10 exposure.

The below photo was shot with a series of three extension tubes, an exposure of 1/80. The camera was held on a tripod while a white board was held behind the etched mark.

I also wanted to show the gold rim and its excellent condition.

In the fall of 2018, I enrolled in a course at Southeast Technical Institute which taught Adobe Photoshop. One of the projects involved refurbishing a damaged vintage photograph.

My maternal grandmother’s 1937 wedding was referred – back then – as a “double” wedding. On that date, not only were my grandmother Esther and grandfather John joined in holy matrimony, but also her older sister, Lily, and his older brother, Harry. (My grandparents are on the left side.)

I remember that my grandmother would display the above pastel colored print of this photograph in her dining room and whenever she caught me looking it it, she would offer the following backstory: She explained that the photographer who had applied the color “paint” had confused the hues of the individual brides. Lily’s dress had been pink and my grandmother’s had be blue. By her expressive words as she retold this story many times, I realized, even as a small child, that this mix-up was very upsetting to her.

So, as I stated previously, since I now have knowledge of Photoshop, I placed this “wardrobe change” on my list of summer projects. Even though my grandmother has passed away many years ago, I know she would have enjoyed seeing the photograph in the correct corresponding bride’s colors.