All About Crystal Valerie

Okay, you've been collecting figurines for awhile and your curio cabinet is filling up and looking beautiful. You're proud as punch and decide to mark this beautiful display for posterity by taking a few photographs. After all, the display is gorgeous and the photographs will record your collecting and display skills.

So, out comes the digital camera and snap, snap, snap! With great anticipation, you view the images in your camera and disappointment overwhelms you. The photos look terrible! What happened? You did everything correctly, right? Well, not exactly.

Let's take a look at some of the problems you might have experienced. First, you stood directly in front of the cabinet to take the shot. When you viewed the photo, there was a big glare in the center. You might even see your reflection in the photo. This effect is the result of the camera flash reflecting off the glass doors and everything that is in front it.

Second, you are undaunted so you open the glass doors to catch the sparkles dancing off the figurines. Snap, review image, no sparkle! Once again, the intensity of the flash wiped out any sparkle that your cabinet light created.

Third, you get a good shot, but the cabinet looks cluttered. (View photos of these crystal figurine image problems at Official Blog of CrystalSplendor).   Your frustration is really growing. What happened this time? It's simple. Your camera saw everything in front of it and recorded it. If you have a mirror in the back of your cabinet, your camera recorded the front of the figurines and the back of the figurines as reflected by the mirror. You can focus your eyes to see one thing, but the camera sees everything. Notice how the mirror reflected the back of the door panels. Also, in the lower right corner five Swans appear. There are only two. Your eyes and the camera see two different things.

This cabinet in the photo looks cluttered and disorganized. But it is not. This is the manufacturer's display case of over sixty figurines nicely arranged so each individual piece can be seen. If you stood in front of the display, you could focus your eyes on one figurine, a small cluster of figurines or the whole shelf without ever noticing the mirror reflections.

What does this all boil down to?  Simply stated, crystal, crystal figurines and glassware are very difficult to photograph, whether shot as single units, as a group or in a display cabinet.

Unfortunately, to get really professional looking photos requires a huge investment in photography equipment ($4000 to $10,000) and a great deal of training and experience. But don't despair.  You can get some good shots with your digital camera if you are willing to experiment and exercise a huge amount of patience.  Here are a few things to keep in mind as you venture forth into the world of crystal photography.

1.  Don't shoot crystal behind glass doors.  If you must take a photo of the whole cabinet, take the shot at an angle so that the flash reflection bounces away from you..

2.  If the back of the cabinet has a glossy surface   (or a mirror) block it off with a flat finish material. 

3.  Stand four to six feet away from the cabinet and use  the zoom lens to frame the shot.

To Shoot Individual Figurines on a Tabletop:

1.  Be certain to have light fall behind and in front of the figurine and use the flash.  Shadows will create dark spots on your photo.  A lack of light can also create dark shaded spots on the figurine's image.

2.  Start taking your shot 12" to 14" away from the figurine  and check the image.  If the outline of the figurine is fuzzy, you are too close or have too much zoom power.  Move back in 2 to 3 inch intervals until you have a clean outline of the figurine.

3.  You can use color lighting or colored background material to help bring out the outline of the figurine.

Remember, all photography is trial and error until you achieve mastery.  Keep experimenting and sooner or later you will find the right combination of techniques to achieve good results.