One necessary item when shooting photographs in a lightbox is a good background. In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had purchased a pad of colored paper to use for that purpose. Here are some examples of shots I took using the paper. I used three different colors for these shots.

I chose green paper for the first, because I noticed that the small statues were all earth tones. I decided to see how they looked with a background from the same group of colors.

The cherub was photographed against a blue background, because that was the first color I tried. Blue is my favorite color. I didn’t really give much thought to what color would work best for this figurine until after I took this shot. When I did think about it, I decided that blue was probably the best choice for ivory. Black would probably work well also. I’ll give that a try some time soon.

Choosing black for the last example was a simple choice. Everything about this figurine goes well with black – the gold in the halo, the clear glass on the arms and other areas, and the frosted glass of the wings and gown. As far as I’m concerned, the decision was justified when I saw the results on my computer screen.

I’m anxious to try different colors and materials with different reflective properties. One material I am particularly anxious to try is shiny black plastic. Another material I intend to try is aluminum foil, both smooth and crumpled. I’m also going to do more shots with a pure white background using darker subjects so they stand out from the background more.