Hey, do you remember those things that people usually buy? you know, they had a lot of paper inside, and they were bound together by a cardboard cover, and there were a lot of words? books! yes, that’s what they were called, they were called books. you might want to take some photos of them before they disappear from our world forever. read on to find out how.
Seriously though, in today’s world, e-books may reign supreme, but almost all of us still have a paperback or two. If you’ve jumped on the e-book bandwagon like many others, the books on your shelf are probably the ones that mean the most to you: treasured heirlooms, books that don’t come in e-book format, or books that seem to have more meaning because They are printed on paper. Now, being a photographer, you have a unique opportunity to immortalize those precious books, either for your own records (which is particularly important if those books are old or valuable), or if you decide in the future that you might want to part with one or more of them.
You are reading: How to photograph books
Now, if you’ve ever shopped on eBay or any of the other popular websites where you can buy used goods, you may have noticed that book listings often have one thing in common: very poorly photographed subjects. The truth is, most people don’t do a great job of photographing books for sale, which is really a shame not only because a good book deserves a good photograph, but also because a poorly photographed book tends to sell for less What a well photographed book. So first, let’s take a look at some of the typical problems photographers encounter when shooting books.
- motorola 1.3 megapixels
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glare
In this example, the glare takes center stage, and not in a good way. glare, in fact, is one of the biggest culprits in poor book photography, especially for books that still have their dust jacket on. the dust jacket is usually printed on glossy paper, and when you photograph it, it can easily be dazzled by just the ambient light around it, regardless of whether you’re trying to use the flash (more on why you shouldn’t later).
In particular, if you are trying to sell your book or value it, the image must accurately represent the book, which means it must show all of its imperfections as well as its perfections, and the glare will cover even the detail on the cover from the book. When a buyer looks at a photograph of a book that has a lot of glare, they won’t be able to tell if the cover is in mint condition or if it has a few nicks and scratches. And don’t think that’s a good thing if the book has nicks and scratches – you want to accurately represent what that book looks like in the photograph, or you may find someone buying under false pretenses and then ending up returning it. reserve at your expense. Even if you’re not photographing the book to sell, if it’s a valuable book and you want to protect it in case of loss, your photographs should show the insurer exactly the quality and condition of the item. so no glare. that means you should shoot the book from an angle that eliminates glare, or use a diffusion system like a light cube to soften ambient light.
distortion
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Another problem often seen in photographed books is distortion. a book is an object with a geometric shape. With very few exceptions, the cover of a book is rectangular or square. that means the slanted lines don’t give the viewer an accurate impression of the book. now we instinctively know that book must be rectangular, and yet the distortion remains unsettling. so when photographing books, remember that your camera lens should be parallel to the cover; otherwise, you’ll end up with an unappealing photograph, even if you know that most people intellectually understand that the book isn’t really that way.
The Horrors : Terrifying Tales Book One by Flickr user Vernon Barford School Library
focus
some booksellers try to get closer to their subject at the expense of losing focus. this can happen if you are shooting with a camera that does not have a macro setting or a dslr without a macro lens. even if you have to back up a bit and crop, it’s much better to take a sharp, focused picture from a distance than to zoom in on the book and end up with a blurry image. If you don’t have a macro lens or macro setting on your camera, shoot raw, which maximizes the potential of your image sensor. remember that if you’re shooting with a higher megapixel camera (which most modern cameras are), you really don’t need to get that close to the book to capture a lot of detail.
You may also have focus problems if you shoot handheld. Especially with smaller books, the closer you get to your subject, the more difficult it is to keep the camera steady enough for the cover to stay in the plane of focus. A tripod is a great tool for book photography because it not only helps you stabilize your camera, but it can also make it easy to fine-tune the angle so you don’t end up with any distortion in your photo. Another advantage of the tripod is that it can take photos in low light, which might be necessary if you use a window light or a dimmer light source.
settings
When you’re just shooting the cover without the spine, you don’t need to use a very narrow aperture because the entire book cover will be in the same plane of focus. but when you tilt the book to include the spine, you’ll need to narrow the opening to make sure everything is neat. if you’re not sure, use the depth-of-field preview. If your camera doesn’t have depth-of-field preview, take a test photo and then zoom in on your camera screen. Be sure to check the sharpness of the spine as well as the sharpness of the cover. your shutter speed matters less, especially if you’re using a tripod, but try to keep the iso low; remember that higher isos can create noise and cause other minor quality issues that really start to show when you’re shooting images meant to convey detail. if you have to use a slower shutter speed to compensate for the lower iso, go for it. As long as your subject isn’t moving, you can shoot it at fairly long shutter speeds, but remember that shutter speeds that are too long can also produce noise, so try to keep your shutter speed to no more than a few seconds. /p>
blink
Your flash is daylight balanced, so it can be tempting to use it as a way to ensure accurate colors. but direct flash always produces glare, so unless you’re using an off-camera flash placed on the outside of a piece of diffuse material, the flash won’t really improve your image, because you’ll be trading the right color for glare .
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Instead, use a natural light source, such as an open blind or light from a window. for the most accurate colors, set a custom white balance. All cameras do this a little differently, but for the most part, setting a custom white balance involves taking a picture of something that is true white, like a photographer’s white card, and then using that image as a point of focus. reference to tell your camera where the true target is. you only have to do this once per photo shoot, and then those adjustments will be accurate as long as the light doesn’t change.
Remember that the closer you are to your subject, the more distortion you’ll get, especially if you’re shooting your book at an angle, which you may want to do if you’re trying to capture detail on the spine as well as detail on the cover. that’s another reason to move away from your subject and use a zoom lens instead of getting really close and filling the frame. remember that you can also crop the image if you are using the raw format and shooting at the full megapixel potential of your camera.
background
Backgrounds matter. remember that unless you crop very close to the edges of your book, which is something you don’t want to do because buyers will be looking at the state of those edges, you will have a visible background in your photo. and the background you choose really makes a difference. a textured or patterned background will distract from the details of the book, whether you want it to or not, and whether the buyer is serious or not. so choose a neutral background. a piece of black construction paper works great for this. lay the book flat and take a picture from the front, being careful to keep the lens parallel to the book cover so there is no distortion or diagonal lines in the image. now tilt the camera so that the spine of the book is visible. In this shot, it’s okay for the top and bottom edges of the book to be slightly diagonal because this is the perspective we usually view books from.
Nouveau voyage autour du monde [Exterior] / Nouveau voyage autour du monde [Extérieur] by Flickr user BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives
Now take these two images to post-processing. you’ll want to use the levels tool or possibly the light and shadow tool to make the background fall into pure black and bring the colors to life. try to do this with a well calibrated monitor and have the book handy so you can get the colors as close as possible to how they appear to the human eye. you might be tempted to make them look even flashier than they do in real life, but don’t: remember that your goal here is precision, not artistry.
conclusion
I think you’ll find there are no subjects more patient than books; if you’re not completely satisfied with the results, it’s easy enough to set it up and start over. all you need is good light, poster board, and a free afternoon. and the beauty of this technique is that the books are, for the most part, the same basic shape and size, which means that once you master the technique for one book, it’s a simple matter of dropping a new book into same lighting situation and setup, and you have a pretty efficient photo production line. if you have a small collection, you can probably cover it all in one afternoon; if it’s a bit larger, you may need to spend a few hours here and there until it’s done. Whatever the case, I think you’ll find capturing and photographing your book collection rewarding, even if you think you’ll never want to part with a single volume.