Best way to take picture of slabbed card?

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Posted By: Joe_G.

This has been discussed before, but the discussion usually shifts to scans as opposed to straight up digital pictures. I'm trying to take some good pictures of my SGC graded cards but have the following issues:

1) My light source, camera, or both reflect off the slab. I've seen nice pics of slabbed cards that don't even show the light reflections around the outside edges. I can position the camera to the side to eliminate the camera reflection but then the card and holder are skewed.

2) My T206 white borders look more like T206 tan borders. My pictures lose the clean white look some of my cards possess.

I firmly believe my issues stem from the user (me) and not the camera as it's a fairly new high end piece. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Joe Gonsowski

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Posted By: Cy

Your best bet would be to get a scanner and place a dark piece of paper behind the card. I like to use poster board. It is thicker stock and you can pick the color.

You can buy a good scanner for $100-$150.

Cy

[Archive]

Posted By: petecld

When using a digital camera I had my best quality having all the lighting I needed coming in from the left and right sides and don't use your flash. For best results, shoot during the day using sun light. Again, no flash. Yes, it limits your shooting time but it works.

Scanners: A better option but try to test the scanner first. Not all scanners scan cards in the holders well. I bought a nice scanner (read: kinda expensive) about 2 years ago that scans photos great but cards in holders come out pretty blurry.

Believe it or not I use my 8 year old Agfa Arcus II scanner which is huge, loud, and kinda slow but scans cards in holders perfectly. Go figure.

[Archive]

Posted By: Joe_G.

So scanners are preferred over a digital camera?

Usually the scanner will give you a giant picture if you scan high resolution. Do you then just simply resize with a photo editor?

Thanks,
Joe Gonsowski

[Archive]

Posted By: petecld

I have a friend who uses a digital camera and gets AMAZING results but he is a proferssional photographer and his camera set him back $18K. So for the rest of us I do suggest a scanner over digital cameras but there are some good low(er) cost cameras that should work with a little practice.


When I scan my cards, I scan at 300dpi at 100%. I then use photo software to resample and/or resize the image for use.

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Posted By: jay behrens

My old Umax scanner with a SCSI conenction scanned slabs great. My new, expensive scanner sucks scanning slabs. I set the scanner at 150dpi. That is more than adequate for posting on the net and no need to resize.

Jay

I saw wierd stuff in that place last night. Wierd, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.

[Archive]

Posted By: Anthony

What you are attempting is known as a copy shot. The standard lighting for this is 1 light on each side, at 45 degrees to the subject. As the slab is very reflective take the zoom to the longest focal length (more telephoto, getting you physically further from the slab) you can. If you are still getting a reflection of the camera (don't use an on camera flash) use a black matte board and cut the smallest possible hole the lens will fit thru, and shoot it.
If you don't have external lights (these can be as simple as two desklamps, assuming they give enough light that you don't need a long shutter speed that would cause camera shake) put the slab in indirect light, the shady side of a building.
The tan borders are a result of lack of contrast. If you have photoshop kick the contrast up a bit, or do the same in whatever photoediting program you have. Try not to over do it as you'll get that phony screaming white border look that a few auction houses have embraced.
I get much better results shooting copy shots of cards than I do scanning, but like Pete's friend it's what I do 12 hours a day. Even with minimal equipment you should be able to get similar results to an inexpensive scanner, with a much higher rate of production.
E me off list if this is too techno geeky, or you want more detailed info.