Introduction
If you've made a stunning Elizabethan costume you'll want to show it. This
kind of clothing isn't for warmth or utility -- it's about being seen, and the
more people see it, the better. Of course, you can wear it to a Renaissance
Faire, an SCA event, or use it in the local theatre company's production of
Romeo and Juliet. But before you do any of these things, subjecting your masterpiece
to wear and tear, spilled drinks, dirt, sunlight or stage lights, or the thousand
other evils that cloth is heir to -- let's get some good pictures of it. Capture
it at its best, save it for posterity, and -- best of all -- share it with your
peers, here, in our Gallery.
This essay isn't intended to turn anyone into an expert photographer overnight. No essay can do that -- only practice and understanding of the principles involved. The practice can't be condensed and conveyed in writing, but fortunately the principles can.
My goal in this essay is therefore to give a basic understanding of some of the principles of photography, and hopefully to make it easier for the readers to get good photographs of their costuming work. I'm going to cover some really basic information briefly -- if you already know it, feel free to skip ahead.
Since the stated goal of this essay is to get good photographs sent here -- that is, digital or scanned pictures ready for Web publication -- there are really two reasonable ways to go. One is to take the pictures with a traditional film camera, and then either get a PhotoCD done (available when Kodak or certain labs process your film), or scan the prints or negatives with a scanner. The other is to take digital pictures in the first place. Let's take a close look at those options -- how they're similar, how they differ, and what it means to you.