The Card Photography Thread

[OhioLawyerF5]

Here's something new I'm experimenting with:

[kaisersoze]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Here's something new I'm experimenting with:

[OhioLawyerF5]

In the VIP bag at the national there was a sample of these magnetic holders that have a place for a custom label. We had 3 passes, so I got 3 of these free. I'm no TanManBaseballFan, but I made some labels for my set of prototypes. I actually really like these mags. They are crystal clear, very sleek, and present nicely.

[PFF100]

This is a dope thread


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[OhioLawyerF5]

Today's mailday was the first of two 1999 Stars N Steel Gold Domed Holographic that I have coming. The other one should be here tomorrow.

I love cards with a refractor finish on the back. And since Larkin doesn't have an Established, I think this is one of my favorites (the 1997 Gold Embossed Refractor being the other).

This card photographs beautifully!

[PuddleMonkey]

Stars 'N Steel? I never heard of these before. Are they hard to find? In my defense I think the last cards I was buying were released in '98 so most of what came after that is going to be foreign to me. Speaking of which are those /98 Sports Illustrated Extra Editions worth digging out? I should have 20-30 of them, best one I remember being Jeter (yuck). Never could score a Griffey before I quit collecting for 20 years.

[PuddleMonkey]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

In the VIP bag at the national there was a sample of these magnetic holders that have a place for a custom label. We had 3 passes, so I got 3 of these free. I'm no TanManBaseballFan, but I made some labels for my set of prototypes. I actually really like these mags. They are crystal clear, very sleek, and present nicely.

Get some PWCC Eye Appeal stickers on those stat! Are they still pushing that nonsense? I haven't seen one of those stickers in awhile.

Those cases are kinda cool, what's the brand? Looks like it says ION Cases.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey

Stars 'N Steel? I never heard of these before. Are they hard to find? In my defense I think the last cards I was buying were released in '98 so most of what came after that is going to be foreign to me. Speaking of which are those /98 Sports Illustrated Extra Editions worth digging out? I should have 20-30 of them, best one I remember being Jeter (yuck). Never could score a Griffey before I quit collecting for 20 years.

Stars N Steel was an innovative high end product Topps put out in both 1998 and 1999.They were sold in a trifold cardboard display box with 3 total cards, one in each panel. There were 12 of these "packs" in a box. They were hobby only. And at $9.99 per 3 card pack, they were very expensive back then. The cards were all printed on metal stock. There were no inserts, only 2 parallels. There were golds and hologrpahics. The 1999 set had the gold dome holographics pictured above, whereas the 1998 set just had a holographic finish to the metal surface, instead of having the "glass like" dome over top. While the odds don't make it sound like they would be rare or hard to find, they didn't print very much of it at all. So at 1:24, the gold domed holographics are actually very hard to find.

As for the Sports Illustrated Extra Editions, SI had 3 sets in 1998. I'm assuming since you said they were /98 that you are referring to the 1998 Sports Illustrated World Series Fever set, as the Extra Editions in the regular Sports Illustrated set were /250. I would definitely say there is some desireability to those cards. They aren't high end or anything, but rare cards from low end sets can often be hard to track down as many were missed by kids and discarded as they didn't know what they had. I would definitely be interested if you have a Larkin. I would value them less than Legacy Collections and Platinum Medallions of the same print run, but they definitely have some value.

Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey

Those cases are kinda cool, what's the brand? Looks like it says ION Cases.

I believe they are sold by Zion Cases. These ones were the free samples that came in the VIP bag at the national, but I think I saw them at the Zion Case booth for sale as well.

[PuddleMonkey]

I'll check for a Larkin when I dig those boxes out.

[magicpapa]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Stars N Steel was an innovative high end product Topps put out in both 1998 and 1999.They were sold in a trifold cardboard display box with 3 total cards, one in each panel. There were 12 of these "packs" in a box. They were hobby only. And at $9.99 per 3 card pack, they were very expensive back then. The cards were all printed on metal stock. There were no inserts, only 2 parallels. There were golds and hologrpahics. The 1999 set had the gold dome holographics pictured above, whereas the 1998 set just had a holographic finish to the metal surface, instead of having the "glass like" dome over top. While the odds don't make it sound like they would be rare or hard to find, they didn't print very much of it at all. So at 1:24, the gold domed holographics are actually very hard to find.

As for the Sports Illustrated Extra Editions, SI had 3 sets in 1998. I'm assuming since you said they were /98 that you are referring to the 1998 Sports Illustrated World Series Fever set, as the Extra Editions in the regular Sports Illustrated set were /250. I would definitely say there is some desireability to those cards. They aren't high end or anything, but rare cards from low end sets can often be hard to track down as many were missed by kids and discarded as they didn't know what they had. I would definitely be interested if you have a Larkin. I would value them less than Legacy Collections and Platinum Medallions of the same print run, but they definitely have some value.



I believe they are sold by Zion Cases. These ones were the free samples that came in the VIP bag at the national, but I think I saw them at the Zion Case booth for sale as well.

in 1998 the set was to be called Topps Mint , but seeing pinnacle had Dibs on the name it was scrapped and changed to Stars N Steel

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by magicpapa

in 1998 the set was to be called Topps Mint , but seeing pinnacle had Dibs on the name it was scrapped and changed to Stars N Steel

Are there "Topps Mint" versions out there for all the cards in the set? I was not aware of that and now really want a Larkin. Thanks for sharing.

[sluggerwx]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

In honor of Tovar getting a long-term deal, I thought I'd raid my wife's Rockies PC and bring you something other than Larkin.

I think I'm using the same lightbox as you. Wish I could get it a little brighter.

[sluggerwx]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Ok, here's the first attempt with the rotating platform.

Are you tripod mounting your camera? I would tripod mount it then rotate the platform by hand with a long lever.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by sluggerwx

I think I'm using the same lightbox as you. Wish I could get it a little brighter.

Are you using both sets of lights? Mine has 3 settings, one for cool, one for warm, and one with both the cool and warm rings on. I use both for maximum brightness. I also have a light just outside the lightbox off to the side of the camera for most of my shots. With that said, a lot of enhancing the brightness can be done in editing as well.

Originally Posted by sluggerwx

Are you tripod mounting your camera? I would tripod mount it then rotate the platform by hand with a long lever.

With this particular photo, I used a tripod for the camera and the platform is motorized and rotates itself.

[ninjabum87]

I've found different light sources work better for different finishes myself. On the basketball side if things galactics for example look pretty bad inside my light box, but under multiple overhead fluorescents and/or an inderect outdoor sunlight from some strategically cracked blinds seems to capture that finish better. Meanwhile things like discos/pulsars, or regular refractors seem to do well in the light box.

Also it's insane how much worse cards look inside slabs or one touches compared to raw without anything covering them.

Slab in light box-


Slab under kitchen fluorescents-


Raw in overhead/bright indirect outdoor light combo-


I kind of wonder if there are any of those mini photgraphy umbrellas for phones. Or perhaps a custom light box could be designed with built in umbrella reflectors on top and left/right sides. I'm gonna start experimenting with felt soon too.

[volblorx8634]

Great photos all! That Larkin Stars N' Steel does indeed photograph well and there's no question that the galactic looks vastly superior without a surface on top of it. The BGS slab seems to look much better outside the light box than in it.

[volblorx8634]

I was pretty pleased with the results of these photos from earlier today. In an area of my house with a lot of windows, and it was pretty overcast so the lighting wasn't too bright, which I normally find is tough to fight on a sunny day. I had a makeup light/mirror on the right of the card (windows were on its left) to try to provide even lighting. I'm satisfied because this came with no editing, which I'm kind of sick of doing for my card photos. Cropping is plenty enough post photo processing work for me. This particular one is my favorite because the colors are vibrant, but displays much better on PC. It feels oversaturated with color when viewed from my phone for some reason.


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[Danielofl]

Which magnetic cases are those? They look glossier and cleaner than the other others I seen.

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Today's mailday was the first of two 1999 Stars N Steel Gold Domed Holographic that I have coming. The other one should be here tomorrow.

I love cards with a refractor finish on the back. And since Larkin doesn't have an Established, I think this is one of my favorites (the 1997 Gold Embossed Refractor being the other).

This card photographs beautifully!

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by Danielofl

Which magnetic cases are those? They look glossier and cleaner than the other others I seen.

I honestly don't remember. I think they are BCW or ProMold. But the Stars n Steel are super thick. So those are 180 pts, which might explain why they reflect light like that.

[OhioLawyerF5]

I haven't posted in this thread for a while. But this PMG has prompted me to play around with backdrops and lighting again. I kind of like the result of a white background with lots of light behind the camera and a flashlight directly on the card from just off camera.