slides without background...

[brushmarx]

Hi! Hope this is theright place to post. I am an oil painter who has been taking my own photos with slide film of my work. I recently realized that I don't want to send galleries slides where the background and easel are present. One firend said to use black velvet. I read in one website of "silver taping"? anyone know what this is?
Second, I need copies of slides. Should I just take multiply shots or have the developing store make copies? Thank you very much! Maria

[tomreese]

Hi Maria,

I can't help with your silver taping question but I'm pretty sure it will be cheaper to shoot the extra slides yourself rather than get copies made.

My only guess about the silver taping would be that you might want a neutral gray background instead of one that is either tinted, too light or too dark. Maybe the tape is one way to achieve that? I would think that a can of paint would be a better solution. I bought a quart of 18% gray paint at a local home improvement store for a few dollars.

I hope this helps.

Tom Reese

[tomreese]

Originally Posted by brushmarx

Hi! Hope this is theright place to post. I am an oil painter who has been taking my own photos with slide film of my work. I recently realized that I don't want to send galleries slides where the background and easel are present. One firend said to use black velvet. I read in one website of "silver taping"? anyone know what this is?

Maria,

I went looking for this silver taping and found this website:

http://www.rmm3d.com/supplies/silver-poly-tape.html

the silver tape is used to crop the slide by creating a mask.

I hope this helps.

Tom

[Windy]

Originally Posted by brushmarx

Hi! Hope this is theright place to post. I am an oil painter who has been taking my own photos with slide film of my work. I recently realized that I don't want to send galleries slides where the background and easel are present. One firend said to use black velvet. I read in one website of "silver taping"? anyone know what this is?
Second, I need copies of slides. Should I just take multiply shots or have the developing store make copies? Thank you very much! Maria

I can't help you with the disguising, you may need to run some experiments to see what works best.
As far as the slides go, an original will always have better quality than copies. Slide duplicating is usually done at specialty labs and your developing lab may not have the ability to do it. I would try taking several shots of the same thing (make sure you always keep one of your slides at home as an original in case you do need to get a duplicate done)

[brushmarx]

Thanks everyone! I think your guys are right to just take multiple shots of the piece ! Maria

[chubbers]

hey brushmarx

I used to use silver taping and found it worked very well. It's very thin, just have to have a good eye for placing it square. It seems to me it was expensive, but went a long way. In fact I still have some somewhere, probably stashed away with my old Minolta

Cheers,
chubbers
(who'll now maybe I'll get rid of that nag screen that keeps reminding me I haven't posted for several weeks )