Photographing
Jasperware
As
we have said, it's easy to zoom in on a high quality image. And
this is fine for a picture on a website.
If
you try to zoom in on the image much further though, the picture
becomes less acceptable. The fine detail is just not there.
Here
is another example of the same kind of thing.
The
answer, to an extent, is to take the camera as close to the subject
as possible - that gives a much cleaner looking result. There
is another thing, though. In the examples above and below, we
have tried to enhance the picture to get more "modelling".
The good news is that the detail is there, but the bad news is
that the background colour has changed.
At
this stage a big decision has to be made. In the simpest of terms,
Wedgwood Jasperware needs to be seen in two ways. Firstly the
beauty of the object itself - the pot, if you like - but secondly,
the beauty of the subject. In the present case we are dealing
with the subject - for we have to admit that trinket dishes scarcely
need to be photographed as objects.
The
photographic techniques involved are quite different, and we have
set up a separate page to deal with photography
of the object. The next example is a reasonably accurate representation
of the "Three Graces" taken from a simple trinket dish.
We
decided that a little image enhancement might be interesting.
It certainly makes a difference, but the colour looks terrible!
After
a little playing around we found that desaturating the blue part
of the image gave a satisfying result.
Having
figured that out, however, another problem arose. On the very
next piece we photographed...
...we
saw a "grubbiness" which really was not obvious to the
naked eye. The answer is clear - keep the stuff clean.
With
a little more cleaning up we can make a bigger image...
...so
that finally we may digress, again.
As
we have said, we are fine art printers by trade - we put pigments
on to paper. That's why we tend to see Jasperware as a print (as,
of course, did Josiah Wedgwood himself). The only difference is
that in this case clay of one colour is put onto clay of another
colour.
Well,
there's another difference. Where else could you buy a print of
this quality for a few pence? Not from us, I'm afraid!
All
that having been said, though, it seems to be the case that close
to the original size works best. That shouldn't be a surprise.
