Taking Pictures: Introduction
Taking Pictures: Making a Marker Podium
Taking Pictures: Outdoors
Taking Pictures: Indoors
Submitting Pictures: Photos
Submitting Pictures: Scans
Submitting Pictures: Digital

Taking Pictures: Introduction
First some suggestions for taking pictures in general. First you need to have a good camera to get a quality photo. By good, we mean one that has an adjustable focus length for starters. You don’t need to have a $1000 professional set up to get good pictures. Most cameras over $50 have some sort of zoom and auto focus feature that will often take great pictures. The focus length is where both digital and film cameras can leave you with bad photos. Most cameras require a minimum distance in order to focus. Check your manual to find the recommended distance from your subject you should be. If you can’t find this information, standing 15ft away is a good rule of thumb. Cameras equipped with a Macro feature will allow you to take images from very close up and take detail shots.

Taking Pictures: Making a Marker Podium
A simple device that will aid in taking pictures is making a marker podium. This simple device can be used indoors or out doors and clamped to a table or held down with weights on the ground. First you need a board about 2’x 1’ and about 1 ½” thick. Take this board and drill a ½” hole near one edge. Insert a ½” dowel rod that is about 22” long in the hole and use wood glue to insure that it remains straight and steady. You may need to use books or something to keep the rod straight as the glue dries. Allow the glue to dry a day before use.

Once you have done that, clamp the board to a table, or use weights on the end to hold the board steady. Then you can place the marker on the dowel rod, inserting the rod into the barrel. This will allow you to take side photos of your markers quickly. You can turn the marker on the dowel rod to take shots of any angle of the marker. You don’t have to worry about the dowel rod damaging your barrel, as the wood is much softer than metal. If you take pictures with your full air tank and other items on the marker, you will want to exercise care that the marker isn’t too heavy to break the dowel rod.

Taking Pictures: Outdoors
Outdoors really is the best place to take pictures of your marker. With out a doubt, bright natural sunlight will provide the truest colors and best detail. Make sure the sun is not behind your subject, casting a shadow on the subject and backlighting your photo. You may use the Marker Podium mentioned above, or place it in a creative setting, such as by a tree or rock. One may opt for minimalist setting on concrete or propped up on a white door or wall.

Taking Pictures: Indoors
While outside photography is much preferred due to light, indoor photography can turn out well too. It is recommend you make a “studio” for your shots. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. It can be as simple as making a Marker Podium (as mentioned above) and clamping it to a table. Another suggestion is to hang a sheet around the subject. This will help bounce light back onto the subject and is referred as a “light tent”. It will also make reflections look better in chrome plated items.

Try taking pictures with out the flash. Flashes often wash out image or cause bright glares in the middle of the subject. You can experiment by either diffusing the flash (with some paper over the flash or a diffuser if available for your flash unit), or “bouncing” the flash off the ceiling or light tent (only available if you have a flash unit that tilts).

If you want to go all out, get some natural lights from a photography store. Light bulbs in your lamps cast a yellow glow and will make your pictures look yellow. You can buy blue lights from photography stores that cast a blue light and will make your images more the correct color. Of course these put out more heat (usually they use 250wt-500wt bulbs and require lamps that can handle them).

One other trick is to over expose your photos if the option is available on your camera. Indoor shots will generally come out dark and over exposure can help actually have a more natural looking exposure. Using a tripod may be required as they shutter may stay open so long that if taken by hand the photo will be blurred. (See what a pain indoor is, take your photos outdoors)

Submitting Pictures: Photos
If you want to submit the actual photos, email us for information as to where to send them. Arrangements can be made to return your photos.

Submitting Pictures: Scans
If you wish to scan your pictures, please scan them at 100% at 300dpi to insure a good scan that we can use and alter if need be. You may then email us with arrangements to mail us a CDROM, or give us information to a site to FTP the images.

Submitting Pictures: Digital
If you want to send digital images, email us so we can make arrangements to receive a CDROM of the images or information to FTP the images.

If you got your digital image by taking photos and having the developer put them on CDROM, you may want to make sure that you add a bit of a margin around the subject as some developers may crop off you images.

If you digital image are from a digital camera, use your highest setting if possible. A 2-3 megapixel image or higher is most desirable. If using a higher end camera you may want to use the next highest setting as the quality will be more than sufficient.

Thank you for your interest and support!

- The VintageRex.com Team!