SILVERWARE The photographing Of silverware has the reputation of being somewhatdifficult of accomplishment but, like cut glass, when one is properly equipped, it is really not so hard, and commercial shops in the East especially have a great deal of it to do.
Also one may pursue a different course in photographing the single piece to be used for a newspaper cut than when photographing for traveling men's sample books or the manufacturers' catalogues.
Illustration No. 54 is a photograph of a cup used for newspaper and magazine stuff. This was prepared first by rubbing common oily shoe polish into the lettering. After this .was set, which was in a few minutes, it was puttied and then smoothed out with a camel's hair brush. The cup was then tented in with white muslin, two electric lights used on the outside of the tenting supplying the illumination.
This method is all right for that kind of work and satisfactory for general purposes, but for real high-grade silverware, much preparation is hardly ever permissible, especially if the customer knows about it, and it should never be attempted without permission.
For this reason, the lighting will have to be handled much the same as in highly polished furniture, using screens locally, both to cut down the light and kill reflections, and as much of this work is done on the vertical camera, a rather low side light, somewhat broken up by diffusers to bring the designs into relief, will be found the most satisfactory.
In photographs for the better class of trade, considerable importance is attached to the background, the silver being set up on velvets, tapestries and fine lace pieces, while, for catalogue work, the photograph is turned over to the artist for retouching and he works in a suitable background to correspond with the rest of the catalogue before passing it on to the engraver who makes the cut. Such a layout is shown in Illustration No. 55. As mentioned before, no dope is used on a set-up of this kind, as the artist wants natural reflections to guide him in his retouching, but there does not want to be more than one source of light showing in the photograph and that should come from the same direction as the artist's lettering shadows.
Illustration No. 56 is an example of high-grade silverware photography to be used for traveling men's samples and also for dealers who are unable to carry a complete line to show to customers. This shows the possibilities of the line when handled in the right way and is really all in all a nice piece of work.
Silverware manufacturers are beginning to realize that real high-grade photographs will sell more goods and attract more attention and yet cost half the price of high-grade wash drawings, and is another instance of where commercial photography in its best form is coming to the front.