Wood photos, professional VS quick

Greenberg Woods

Greenberg Woods

Joined
Dec 27, 2013
Messages
2,670
Hey Guys, As you probably know, I have always tried to have accurate, high definition photos of my woods to make selecting your handle material easy.

The issue is, the process i currently use is slow and time consuming. I have been experimenting with a much faster way to get blocks listed on my website after they are sanded and prepped, but the photos are not as "professional" looking as my old style.

I only started doing these recently, But i was wondering if anyone has any strong feelings one way or the other. My current plan is to use a hybrid, and see which does better. I do worry though that the diffrent types of photos on my website would add something of a cluttered feel.

Maybe im overthinking all this and people just order what they want. Any thoughts?

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Well, Ben, I'm not sure if the photos in this thread are part of your new more efficient approach or if these are part of the more time consuming process, but I see absolutely NOTHING wrong with these photos. These show an amazing amount of detail. The size of the photo is a little larger than what I personally like to see, but others might totally disagree with that. To answer, I think you're over thinking it a bit, but nothing wrong with that either.

Good looking photos of good looking wood species. I put "species" at the end of that to hopefully stave off some jokes!
 
Ben, I get close to unfollowing you on Instagram every day because my bank account suffers any time I linger on your photos too long. I think that the photos in your hand you post on IG are fantastic. I like them better than the ones that used to be predominantly on your site. I like being able to see all the sides, and the lighting is fabulous. Now please stop torturing me.
 
I think your newer photos are better. The wood looks more real, while the older photos have more of an abstract feel. The background is not ideal, but not really bad. A more natural background might be better.

As to the wood itself and your knives, I am very impressed!
 
I also like the balcony shots. You get a better sense of scale, natural color, and figure. The IG clips with motion are great for chatoyance. Some of that just cannot convey unless you see it in real life, but natural sunlight with motion video is second best.
 
Ben
i like the detail of the wood shots. .the more detail the better. i would say you should make a 3 sided "Box" out of some pipe
cover it with a very light fabric to diffuse glare ,and take all your pictures there on the balcony...
the box helps you to not show the neighbors house as a back ground.. i would also point out a ruler or square helps show actual size..
when i repossessed cars we took pictures from the corner view ..it shows things differently .
 
distracting background. mid-day sunlight is generally not your friend. consider getting a simple smooth toned background (art paper, Foamcor, fabric) secured to rigid surface. Keep it handy when you are needing photos. I have a diffusion panel I use to cut down direct sun which generally soften shadows and provides a more useful dynamic range to the photo. It can be a simple as a white nylon shower curtain. give that i'm a professional photographer, I have more purpose-made tools at my disposal.
 
Crop out the background.
If someone is viewing in a phone, more than half the screen is taken by useless background.
If they zoom in, half the photo quality is gone.

Take the photos straight level and true so the perspective is not warped.
For some reason now, every one holds their phone crooked and I can't understand why.
 
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Nothing wrong with those pics, they show a lot of detail and can be zoomed in to show more detail then even an eye can see at the distance of knife held in hand.

I do agree that a neutral background and a more diffuse light would be better. Taking picture when there is clouds and/or before sunset might help with that.
 
People re commenting on the background, I guess the question is, is the less professional background something that would factor into your choice to purchase or not? Or is it simple aesthetics.

As to the photographing in diffuse light, Lots of people have advised me to do that. However, it goes against my experience quite sharply. Here are some photos i snapped on an overcast day.

I have always found that direct sunlight shows off figure, especially curly and other chatoyant figure better than any type of diffuse light. The explanation to me seems simple, chatoyancy is caused by differing optical properties of the wood grain. In curl, the angle the grain makes with the surface changes, which means that the reflectiveness of the wood varies along its surface. So using a bright, point light would accentuate those differences, where as a diffuse light would mute the differences in the curl.


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I think your argument regarding light is valid. Show the wood in the best light regarding its features. The counterargument is that direct light and phone automatically enhacing colors show wood more lively then it is. I would say that finally it's down to your expertise, you are the guy holding it in your hands and your buyers already appreciate you a great deal for selecting the best pieces for them. So, put your standards in rating high and your customers will value it. The picture should represent the wood best to what you see.

The background does not distract so much, but in my opinion your wood at the prices you are offering deserves better.

My 2 cents in best intentions.
 
I am left wondering that if you have such strong opinions and are so quick disregard the feedback, why did you bother to asks the question in the first place.
 
In a photo of a girl at the beach, some background is nice.
In a photo of a block of wood, all I want to see is the wood.
I would set up a small photo box with good 6500K lighting and take all photos in it. No hands, no background, nothing but wood and good light. This should show the block in its most clear and true form. A dedicated camera shooting straight down is best. If the wood is chatoyant, take shots with the block tipped at several angles.
Use a neutral gray background sheet..
Set your white balance before each photo session.
Adjust brightness in editing only as needed and do not adjust contrast or color.
 
Not sure if my thoughts will be helpful, but I'll throw it out there.
I think that if your target audience is knifemakers who are already familiar with the quality of your products, then the balcony photos are fine.
If, on the other hand, your target audience is the general population who has no idea who you are, then I'd suggest going with the more 'professional' photos with a neutral background. My reason for this is that the balcony photos can give one the impression that you are merely a 'fly by night' guy who found some nice looking wood and thought they could make a quick buck by selling the blocks online. Whereas the 'professional' pics imply that some effort was made by a legit business willing to invest some money/time in advertising in order to show that their product stands out from the rest.
 
Maybe it is because I am a professional photographer, I generally suggest consistent, repeatable set-ups when images are going to be compared side by side. Diffused light is consistent. Directly is anything but. It is not hard for even non-photographers to imagine that there will be color, contrast and spectral differences in what people would say is a 'sunny day'. I would be the first to say- what do you mean sunny?

Using diffuse material where the lighting angle and contrast is consistent will provide more reliable results and, if you know what you are doing, actually save time is processing. If I were doing it myself, I would shoot one frame at the start of each session of my X-rite Color Checker (though you can also just buy a simple 18% grey card) to establish any color bias from the time of day or other lighting conditions. I look at the color balance in the middle grey areas to find the balance point. I apply that to all subsequent photos. A consistent work flow like this will allow photos from different days to have a consistent look. If you want to take color control to the next level you can pull back enough to have the color checker or grey card at the edge of each photo to analyze when processing the file.
 
a consistent lighting setup is probably a good idea, but whenever i see highly staged photos i'm a bit skeptical that it won't look like that in real life due to the photo being edited or just really carefully staged.
my mid-point would be a standard background and lighting setup inside but not to the point of making it look like it's floating in a void
 
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