The Foundation or What Your Subject is Resting On

July 18, 2011


In photographic terms, a foundation is a term that simply means what your subject is resting on. I invented the term ABS as an acronym for "anything but seamless". Seamless paper is those rolls of photographic paper that come in 48" or 96" wide x 120 feet. These have their uses, but for tabletop photography there are many more options.


For this instalment, I'm going to introduce simple options, and when I have the time will search for many ABS foundations to show you. However, since I am blogging mostly for toy collectors and E-Bay or other site sellers, ABS foundations are probably not suitable. My reasoning is that most sellers want to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), another photographic acronym meaning to avoid distractions and present the item in a simple context. Also, when you have 100 toys to sell, if you use ABS foundations, then you will be spending a lot of extra time. And E-Bay buyers just want to see the item itself!

My usual grey coloured fabric

A back textured fabric (My diffusion box case)

White Foamcore (the material that I use for reflectors)

The photo of the 1938 Tootsietoy woodie illustrate 3 simple options:

1. White

2. Gray

3. Black

Most of the time I use a neutral grey foundation, but I've presented the 3 for you to look at.

All 3 offer you a very good choice, and personally, I actually like the white for this item as it presents the item clearly and separates it from the foundation.

I usually set my camera on manual because I can then adjust the exposure whenever the meter reading is under or over. In the above examples, your camera would end up:

1. Underexposing for an object on a white foundation thinking that the scene was too bright

2. Properly exposing for grey, as that is the universal standard for exposure(*please see note below)

3. Overexpose for the object on the black foundation as the camera would think the scene needed more exposure because it was dark 

*BDE (before the digital era), all automatic exposure cameras were set for a tone of 18% grey. What this meant is that this particular shade or tone of grey reflected 18% of light that fell on it, or correspondingly absorbed 82% of the light. This universal standard was created when photography entered the 20th century With the invention of electricity, all kinds of inventions occurred and 1 of these was the light meter.

The light meter allowed photographers to adjust their cameras (f-stop and shutter speed) to accurately expose a scene.

My usual grey fabric

My black textured lightbox case

Matte silver reflector

White reflector

I added a 4th ABS above for the 2 Tootsietoy Grahams. The matte silver adds another option to your choices, and if you set up your lights at a different angle, the silver can be more "shiny".

So that's it for today's instalment. As usual feel free to add any comments, or send me an e-mail if you have any questions, or would like me to write an instalment on a particular topic.

Also, if you are a toy seller, I'd be happy to have you write an article and have you send photos.

Of course, you would get all the credits!

Have a good day everyone, and thanks for dropping by.