Photographing folded paper

This project has been unexpectedly popular in my online camera club recently. It’s the perfect lockdown photography project because all you need is a piece of paper and your camera.

The brief is this: photograph one piece of paper folded however you like.

Lighting

Use soft indirect light for muted shadows. Use strong, direct light such as direct sunlight for strong black shadows.

Exposure

If you rely on the camera’s auto exposure (including aperture/shutter priority modes) then the camera will make your photo too dark. If you’ve done A Year With My Camera (join at the end of this post if you haven’t) this is the principle you learnt in the very first lesson: the camera exposes for 18% grey. If you are shooting a white piece of paper the camera will turn it grey. You either need to use exposure compensation to increase the exposure or use manual mode.

Keep an eye on your histogram to ensure the correct exposure in-camera. It needs to be all the way over to the right if your shot is mostly white:

Resources

EDPS CC member Hilary Dickson found this fantastic resource: Paul Jackson’s Folding Techniques for Designers. Click on the “Downloads and Extras” tab for video instruction.

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