Best Looking set of all time

[ZenPop]

Speaking as a designer, I'm going to go thumbs down on the '73 set action shots. The backgrounds are too cluttered... and the featured player often gets lost.

I do get (I think) your main point... that this (and the '71 & '72 set) tried to do something different... but it just doesn't work for me...

To each his own...

[VoodooChild]

Hey John, I hear you on the '73's, but I think there might have been some limitations with lenses and film speed back then. I don't think there were large aperture 800mm lenses and 3200 speed film back then to make focused stopped action and "blurred" backgrounds possible. I'm just giving props for the effort for actually thinking about camera angles, composition, capturing different game situations, and playing with depth-of-field (slightly out of focus foreground/in focus background). It's the fist time I saw that with baseball card photography was the point I was trying to make.

[ZenPop]

Originally Posted by VoodooChild

Hey John, I hear you on the '73's, but I think there might have been some limitations with lenses and film speed back then. I don't think there were large aperture 800mm lenses and 3200 speed film back then to make focused stopped action and "blurred" backgrounds possible. I'm just giving props for the effort for actually thinking about camera angles, composition, capturing different game situations, and playing with depth-of-field (slightly out of focus foreground/in focus background). It's the fist time I saw that with baseball card photography was the point I was trying to make.

That makes sense to me... I'm probably spoiled by the Conlon photography (the Cobb sliding shot comes to mind) of dynamic photography...

Maybe I'll take a look at the '73 set again...

Cheers!

[ZenPop]

Although not even in the Top 20 of Best Looking Sets Of All Time... I do like the '72 set (people either love it or hate it)... but I think it's excellent design for its time... There's some cool things in there... including this beautiful idea... Billy Cowan with a halo provided by the Big A in the background. This is what happens when you get a photographer that's going a bit extra and not just lazy shooting in traditional ways...

I also love how the Alex Johnson is perfect framed by the card design... Nice touches, both.

[VoodooChild]

John....yeah the Conlon Cobb Sliding is an awesome shot, but was really cropped. Here's the original. I bet it was taken a few feet away from the 3rd base line. You could probably get a similar shot today with a cheap digital camera from good seats in the stands. Those guys really had skills back then. He had one shot at it with a manual focus large format camera. Not like today where cameras auto focus multiple frames per second.

[nsaddict]

Wow, quite a variety of choices and some strange choices in the poll? Not to go along with the crowd but it has to be T3 closely followed by N162. If you had a large showcase of every card choice in this thread in the same condition I believe my 2 choices would stand out. While I agree the 53B is a beauty of a set , I don't see how any set with actual photo's could even compete with actual artwork.

[ZenPop]

Originally Posted by VoodooChild

John....yeah the Conlon Cobb Sliding is an awesome shot, but was really cropped. Here's the original. I bet it was taken a few feet away from the 3rd base line. You could probably get a similar shot today with a cheap digital camera from good seats in the stands. Those guys really had skills back then. He had one shot at it with a manual focus large format camera. Not like today where cameras auto focus multiple frames per second.

Well... I guess that's my argument in a nutshell for good design. I know that shot was pretty wide... but if it was placed in the context of a card design, you MUST know how to crop a photo that results in the best possible design. It doesn't matter if it's an illustration or a photo... the design of the image is a key to create a beautiful result... I've seen a lot of amazing design ruined by bad crops (among other reasons...). Cropping is a pretty important element that figures in the final outcome.

[ullmandds]

poll has some weird options..55 bowman...REALLY?

[auggiedoggy]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

poll has some weird options..55 bowman...REALLY?

Ya, I know. C46 is not even on the list! An obvious oversight.

[ElCabron]

The correct answer is, of course, N162.

By country:

United States: N162
Cuba: 1923-24 Billiken
Mexico: 1945 issue (unnamed for now)
Nicaragua: 1957 Cocibolca
Puerto Rico: 1951-52 Denia
Venezuela: 1931 Diana

That's how my eyes see it, anyway.

-Ryan