A Return to a Fine Dutch Seller

Saturday, February 22, 2013
      (Sunny, milder, and very very windy)

A Return to a Fine Dutch Seller

   If you read my earlier post today, I wrote about improving my blog. In it, I wrote that to keep writing you have to have a very positive outlook, and always try to improve your blog. A positive mindset is important because you aren't always going to have 500 page-view days and for improving my blog, you definitely have to be motivated. If you search out most toy blogs, there is minimal writing or too much, and the level of photography can vary from poor to excellent. Also, many bloggers will stop writing altogether, or simply reduce the number of posts that they add in a year.

   I've been trying to keep a high level of photography, and I always the ask guest on my blog if I may have their permission to photo-edit their photos. I never change the toy, but I will change the surrounding area around the toy, the colour balance, the contrast and so forth.

    I've written about today's guest, Mr. Frederick Pals before. In fact, his first post that I did was in fact adjusting his photos. Frederick's "trademark" on ebay is to always include a book about antiques, with photos in the background of his toy photographs. When I first presented Frederick's fine toys, I decided to change how I presented the toys. I'd remove the colour from the book page, as well as that of the foundation. For those who don't know, a foundation is a photographic term for what an item (usually a product) is resting on. 

Frederick's original post were added on December 17th and 19th in 2013.

Please click here for the December 17th, 2013 post

Please click here for the December 19th, 2013 post

The above photo is from the current ebay listing.

I didn't do anything to it, but add the description, the watermark, and the copyright notice.

The photo above is another nice photo, 

and again a straightforward screen-capture without any modifications.

Here, I've adjusted the exposure and improved the details 

in the highlights (bright areas) and shadows (dark areas)

Here, I adjusted the details (highlight and shadows even more,

and removed  Frederick's "trademark" book in the background.

And finally, for this photo I darkened the overall image (underexposed),

and then dodged (lightened up specific areas) of the car, 

to simulate light streaking through tree leaves. 

Notice how (unfortunately), the colour in the yellow areas has become more intense.

I purposely left it like that to illustrate that the photo-editing software is not always 100% perfect.

I like this effect, and so I've added the remainder of the photos in this style. I first presented this style recently for an excellent scene builder for model railroads in the O gauge. I felt that his exceptional work would look better under a simulated night mood, as well as enhance certain of his most interesting features of his work.

The photos were adjusted in the photo-editing software, but the same effect could be done when you take the original photos. All you have to use are small little mirrors or reflective silver cardboard that can be purchased at art supply stores. I personally get mine when I buy slabs of smoked salmon up here in Montreal. The silver cardboard is used to keep the side of salmon firm and flat on the board when you remove slices from the board.

Lighting is one of the most important factors in quality photography and you can see how simply adding some brighter highlights, called specular highlights, makes the photo more appealing

 (at least from my point-of-view).

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

You can write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

More Exceptional Photos From a Fine Dutch Toy Seller

Saturday, December 20, 2013

More Exceptional Photos

from a Fine Dutch Toy Seller

  If you're reading this earlier than the date that I meant the post to be read, do not worry. Google Blogger has no way to delay posts. I have to wait until Saturday to post. However, if I'm busy on that day, I can't do anything else- so I post earlier in the week,when I have to. This past wednesday, I introduced Mr. Frederick Pals and his Dutch ebay store historical_cars_and_toys-byfreek2012. On that post, I decided to have some fun with Photoshop and adjust the background of the toy photos. 

  Frederick uses books about antique toys for his backgrounds, which is sort of a "trademark": way of identifying his ebay listings. If you're a regular visitor to my blog, you'll already know that I like to remove backgrounds and foundations (what an item is resting on),and present the item solely against white. However,with Frederick's toys, I decided to keep the background and foundation, but remove the colour. It's not difficult to do and I do that with Photoshop.

Please click here to visit Frederick's fine store

The front view of the car illustrates how the background and foundation appear 

when the colour is removed.

With the above photo, I removed everything but the shadow.

If's amazing what you can do in Photoshop, but I don't want to overdo the effect,

otherwise the effects will overshadow the outstanding toys.

I like how the colour of the Wells truck and wagon contrast

 with the black and white of the rest of the photo. 

The SFC bus wokred well with the Photoshop photo adjustment. I think this toy is smaller than the Wells, so when Frederick framed the photo tightly to enlarge the size of the truck, the book in the back became smaller. Wide-angle lens have this effect. As such, there is a better sense of depth in this photo.

It takes a lot more work to create this effect in Photoshop. However, I'm sure some of you are wondering why I would do this. 

Here's the answer. 

If you search out other toy blogs, there aren't that many very good ones. Also, if you check many blogs, you'll see that many writers stop after a while, or simple post once a week.  I'm trying to create an excellent blog, but I'm having a problem promoting the blog to attract more viewers. So what I do to "plod on", is to try and motivate myself by continuing to search out great sellers, and try to improve the presentation. 

I have increased readership to about 1000 page views every 3- 3 1/2 days. However, Google Blogger let's in referrer spam and sometimes they spam my blog 75 times a day,  and Google does absolutely nothing to stop this. It can be very discouraging sometimes.It's not that easy, and I've stopped a few times in the 2 years or more since I started.   I'll keep writing and see what happens in the  near future. 

So to everyone who has ever visited my blog, I would like to thank you, and if you have friends who might be interested,by all means, please send them here. And, as I have mentioned in the past, if you have ideas as as to what you'd like me to write, or if you'd like to be on my blog, please write.

So to all of my viewers- old and new,

thanks for dropping by.

And wherever you are,

have a great part of the day or night.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com