The Card Photography Thread

[OhioLawyerF5]

One way I am currently enjoying the hobby is by photographing my cards. It is so fun trying to play with lighting and setups to try to capture the brilliance of certain cards.

I am a total amateur who is just using a cellphone camera, but I am working at getting better.

I just got a cheap light box off Amazon and am starting to play around with it. The first card I photographed was my favorite card, the 1998 Donruss Crusade Red unreleased prototype. I took this card out into the natural light yesterday trying to capture its beauty. No matter what I tried, I couldn't come close to what my eyes could see.

Below is my first attempt with my light box.

I would like this thread to be a place where other collectors who enjoy photographing their cards can share their work, along with tips and tricks to help make us better photographers. Please share.

[speedyjg13]

What a great thread! Will be following as I also enjoy taking pictures of my cards. Looking forward to tips and tricks anyone here can share!

[JimEd14]

Here for this thread, pretty first post too.

[ScooterD]

Great idea - looking forward to this instead of all the drivel about the business side of the hobby and complaining about flippers, breakers, pumpers, degenerate gamblers, invested bros, peli bois, etc

[DrSicPkl]

Following. Great idea!

[theshowandme]

delete

[OhioLawyerF5]

I'm learning. Today I learned how reflections are actually pretty challenging with the light box as opposed to my old setup. Definitely some trial and error, but I managed to avoid the blinds in the window behind me with this shot. Also, with my old setup I would darken the pictures to bring out the shine of the cards, but with the light box, strangely enough, I have to lighten them a tad.

Attempt #2.

[OhioLawyerF5]

For those wondering, my old setup was a black mat on my workbench. The card laid flat on the mat, with the LED light on my workbench at about a 45 degree angle. I would take the picture from directly above the card. Then crop and darken a tad in editing. It definitely can look good, but I just want more options. Each card seems to look best in its own unique setup. The same card from the first post looked like this:

[ThoseBackPages]

that is also what i do, but use black velvet as the backdrop and my phone then crop as needed

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

that is also what i do, but use black velvet as the backdrop and my phone then crop as needed

Nice looking photo!

It's a very effective setup. How have you found it works for the really shiny/refracting cards? I always struggled with that. Some of these 90s cards are so breathtaking in person and it's so hard to capture it. I'm always chasing that perfect shot and can never quite get it.

[2soonjr]

Pinnacle Skylines against the skyline

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by 2soonjr

Pinnacle Skylines against the skyline

That's really cool. I wish Larkin had a card in that set. They are so gorgeous and photograph so well.

[speedyjg13]

Originally Posted by 2soonjr

Pinnacle Skylines against the skyline

This looks legit!

[ThoseBackPages]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Nice looking photo!

It's a very effective setup. How have you found it works for the really shiny/refracting cards? I always struggled with that. Some of these 90s cards are so breathtaking in person and it's so hard to capture it. I'm always chasing that perfect shot and can never quit get it.

yes, shiny cards can be a challenge to get the angle correct (and NOT get your damn phone in the reflection!)


you can try a different angles to see what "works"
ive had some cards where i take the image upside down and then rotate it using the cropping features that comes with the phone

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

yes, shiny cards can be a challenge to get the angle correct (and NOT get your damn phone in the reflection!)


you can try a different angles to see what "works"
ive had some cards where i take the image upside down and then rotate it using the cropping features that comes with the phone

Yes, great advice. In order to avoid reflection, I will sometimes take the photo at an angle and use the editing tool to "straighten" it up (not sure what the term is). Extreme adjustments can noticeably distort the proportions, but it isn't too noticeable most of the time. This Fleer Brilliants is probably the most reflective card I own. It's like a mirror. I took thebphoto from a distance, keeping the card on the edge of the screen to avoid reflections, then zoomed in and cropped in editing. Then straightened up the extreme angle. It's a little skewed, but turned out ok.



This card doesn't look nearly as good in the light box because how crazy reflective it is.

[ThoseBackPages]

yep, i know exactly what you mean about straightening and i do the same (getting the bottom of the card/slab "straight" looking

i would also recommend short video clips for the super shiny cards if you are sharing on social media (as i dont know if they would work on here)

[speedyjg13]

I also do the "straightening" feature and feel like it works.

What short video clips do you recommend TBP?

[ThoseBackPages]

Originally Posted by speedyjg13

I also do the "straightening" feature and feel like it works.

What short video clips do you recommend TBP?

just basic point and shoot video for cards that are insanely shiny where still images just do not do the card(s) justice

[REGGIE206]

Great thread topic!

I use my iPhone also.. and I take photos of my cards right on my kitchen counter top.

I like removing the front cover of the one-touch mag case so there is no light glare. Another tip is brightening up the photo a lot in the photo edit app and adding a touch of contrast & a pinch of saturation.

Here is my simple set up:



Here’s a few of my card photos:

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by speedyjg13

I also do the "straightening" feature and feel like it works.

What short video clips do you recommend TBP?

On my android there is a setting in the camera called "motion photo". It is a little button at the top that looks like a play button. It takes a few seconds of video as a photo file (like an animated gif). Works well for cards. I just don't do it much, but it works well.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Let's see if this works on this site. It works on Facebook. This is a motion photo. It saves as a jpg file, so not sure how the board will handle it.



Edit: ok doesn't work.

Edit #2: I exported the motion photo as a gif. Let's see what blowout does with it.

[speedyjg13]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Edit #2: I exported the motion photo as a gif. Let's see what blowout does with it.

Interesting, are you moving the camera from side to side as you do this? How big of a file is this for one card?

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by speedyjg13

Interesting, are you moving the camera from side to side as you do this? How big of a file is this for one card?

The original motion photo is really just 40 frames in about 3 seconds. The file size is about 6MB whereas a single photo is about 1MB using the camera on my Galaxy S23 Ultra. When I exported the motion photo to a gif file to post it here, there is some compression and reduced resolution (hardly noticeable on a website), so the gif file is only about 2.5MB. So file size shouldn't be an issue unless you are hard up for storage space.

And yes, I am moving the camera. Basically, the motion photo just takes a 3 second video (with fewer frames than video), so however you move the camera shows in the final file.

One thing to be aware of is that apparently the motion photo feature on my phone captures 1.5 seconds prior to pushing the button to take the picture, and 1.5 seconds after. So I usually end up getting a terrible take with the first press of the button, but do a second take immediately after and it turns out ok.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Some cards just give fits. For the life of me, I can't get a shot of this card that I'm happy with, regardless of setup. Any tips? This is the best I've come up with, and it required me to turn out all the lights in the room and only use the light from the light box.

[theshowandme]

I flip my light box on its back

I sometimes bring in a second lamp to shine from the side