Changing images of patina

[Spartancrest]

I was very interested to see the changes of a recurring auction item over the span of more than twenty years - at first you might think there are four 'copies' or utsushi but one little detail on the birds head shows the same scratch in all images though the focus on some could be better. I can't explain why the third image [taken in 2015] has the darkest patina [a little spotty] unless there has been 'cleaning' done in the meantime. 

 

 

 

 

[kissakai]

Maybe in part it is the image that changes

I've taken hundreds of pictures of my tsuba and it takes ages with my basic set up

I set the camera to what I think is the best settings then take the photos

Add it to my computer to see the colour is way off and I may take the same photo many times before the colour matches

Sometimes I can't get it right so add a note to my record to say it's brighter/darker  - more of a bluey colour etc

Fully enough every tsuba I've purchased from the NMB has been better in hand and the reverse is true when someone has purchased one of my tsuba

Copper can be a nightmare and how to get the raven black old iron

When Ford was near completing his set of books he told be he was getting the tsuba professional colour matched or something along those line

 

[1kinko]

You might include a grey card in you pictures. They were very common with professional photographers in the film camera day.

[rkg]

Darrel,

Old school gray cards were more for setting tone than being neutral gray. Sometimes the greys weren't neutral - fortunately, a lot of the newer ones have a true gray so you can set the colors/exposure accurately - FWIW, here's a card that also incorporates a white surface (a lot of photo editing tools play better with a white card than a gray card)as well as a scale - I normally use a version of these that runs the scale down the side instead of just a short scale at the end:

 

https://www.bhphotov...ration_Card_101.html

 

They are real handy as you can leave them somewhere in the frame without it taking up too much room when shooting tosogu.

 

Best,

rkg

(Richard George)