# Board



## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Made two for Xmas prezzies.
1)...end grain Narra with Purpleheart 'crenellations '
2)... end grain Walnut with Purpleheart bands

No idea why the camera doesn't see the Purplheart colour the way it appears to the human eye but it doesn't look anything like it does in the pics. It actually looks much darker and way more subtle. (?)


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

All I can say Dan it's beautiful.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

*Sweet!!!*​


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Thanks! 
I love the look of Narra end grain; beautiful stuff. When you do the mineral oil thing, man, does it ever darken and 'pop'.

For anyone who's curious about 'Narra'...
Narra | The Wood Database - Lumber Identification (Hardwood)


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

Great looking boards


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Those are just beautiful Dan , great work


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

DaninVan said:


> No idea why the camera doesn't see the Purplheart colour the way it appears to the human eye but it doesn't look anything like it does in the pics. It actually looks much darker and way more subtle. (?)



Choosing a Camera Lens Filter

there's this...
https://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/enhance-color/
you can do the same w/ Irfanview...


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Could be the type of light in the room also . Led lights have a surplus of blue effecting the outcome . I prefer halogen


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

No LEDs, just incandescents. I'm going to have to try Irfanview; I keep hearing good things about it


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

Very nice work, Dan! Those seem to shine a fair amount; is that mineral oil or some other finish?

David


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

But why would anyone want to cut on it?? Those are wallhangers!


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## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

I'd be hard pressed to put a knife on that...Beeeeuutiful...


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

Gorgeous boards. Thanks for sharing. Will be back to see more replies regarding the lighting and photos.
Edit: Looked at stick's link on photo shop. Interesting.


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## Tagwatts (Apr 11, 2012)

Dan, my hat, my clothes and or anything else are to you, you do have a talent for beauty. As mentioned before, I think the lighting is stealing a bit of color from you. But none the less, what you have created is most impressive. On a scale of 1 to 10, the rating is off the top at 12


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## ggom (Apr 5, 2017)

Hello!

Irfanview is great!

Getting good picture at first is far better.

The best way to get good colours with digital camera is:

1) to switch off automatic colour balance,set it to natural light or artificial light(tungsten or incandescent) , whatever you will use.
Avoid fluo lights they give unpredictable rendering.

Now the program stops crazy interfering with the colours the camera catches.

Half press on picture button to set exposure while shooting at medium gray kodak chart,illuminated by same light than your subject.
If no Kodak card, just paint a medium tone neutral grey on cardboard.
(you then get the right exposure for the light you are using).

keep finger half pressed , then shoot the picture , most cameras would keep same exposure.

If not , manual mode is a good option, but longer to explain.

Regards
gg


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Gerard; that's very helpful...I've printed it out. I do have a grey card, a reminder of my sorely missed 35mm film days.
David; yes, soaked in mineral oil, let dry, then mineral oil+beeswax and buffed. Easiest finish in the World, and food-safe.
I tell my giftees, "Use it or I'm coming over to your house and taking it back!" . I also give them a small jar of the Board Butter to maintain them (the boards, not the giftees; what they do in private is their business...  )

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. To be honest, the trees should get the credit, eh?

Here's a link to Narra wood furniture pictures, mostly in the Philippines.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=narra+fur...ywood.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/photo_5.jpg


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

Very well done Dan. Hopefully they will indeed be put to use as that completes the gift.

I would appreciate knowing the dimensions, particularly relative to the juice groove.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Jon; I'm just heading out...I'll measure them and get back to you (later).


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Those are beauties. I wonder if the purpleheart could be fluorescing a bit? It does seem to light up in the photo.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Beautiful boards! Re Irfanview: Excellent program. Use it all the time. To keep pictures from going in sideways, I open it in Irfan view, crop or correct colors or contrast, and save it with a name. If it's turned, I turn it up correctly first, save under a descriptive name, then make any corrections. The double saving seems to straighten up the whole thing.

Regarding lighting: I used to have a multiple strobe setup, one of which lit the background to a level about equal to the foreground. Digital pictures usually work better without too much contrast (blacks are not as deep as with film. I found some battery operated 40 led, rechargeable video lights cheap on Amazon. A small adapter lets me mount them on a stand via a 1/4 x 20 bolt. They come with a diffuser and provide easily controlled, daylight balanced light. I don't think I paid more than $20 each. My 40 year old strobe setup (using a strobe meter) just doesn't work with my Nikon digital cameras. 

Did photography (journalism/PR/illustration) for a living for a number of years.


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

Excellent boards and choice of woods, Dan.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

You know, I was thinking about what you guys were saying re the lighting, and now I'm wondering if the intense blue of the tablecloth was confusing the sensor in the camera(?).
Just out of curiosity, I'll try it again tonight with a different background colour but everything else the same. I think there's a deep burgundy tablecloth around here somewhere... 
(What Wifey doesn't know won't kill me!)


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## ggom (Apr 5, 2017)

That's true!

The automatic colour balance is fooled by the background.

Regards
gg


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## MT Stringer (Aug 15, 2012)

Dan, did you use a flash? It looks to me the way to get a picture similar to the actual, may be to bounce your flash off a white ceiling. ..or create a tent with a white sheet.

You can see quickly that the camera stuff can get involved fast.
Maybe our good buddy, @difalkner will show up and show off his little studio. I have seen it twice. Wish I had a spare bedroom to use as a studio. :surprise::grin:

Bouncing the light will create a soft look and make your board look more realistic.

And then there is Photoshop or PS Elements, or Lightroom.

Check out some of these links...
https://www.google.com/search?clien...jXAhVDWSYKHd3HDZwQ1QII2gEoAA&biw=1525&bih=753


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

woulda loved to see the smile these generated!!

I likey


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## difalkner (Jan 3, 2012)

MT Stringer said:


> Dan, did you use a flash? It looks to me the way to get a picture similar to the actual, may be to bounce your flash off a white ceiling. ..or create a tent with a white sheet.
> 
> You can see quickly that the camera stuff can get involved fast.
> Maybe our good buddy, @difalkner will show up and show off his little studio. I have seen it twice. Wish I had a spare bedroom to use as a studio. :surprise::grin:
> ...


Well, since I've been summoned; I was in the middle of a new trivet design and cooking supper for my Angel, but if I must... :wink:

The first thing we did when my son moved out was to set the room up as a photography studio, and I use the term loosely. When we moved my daughter down to NO last year she didn't want the little portable studio she was using and told me to make the best of it. I am pretty sure she gave less than $100 for the backdrop, supports, lights, and all of it fits nicely in a carrying bag if it needs to be transported. They aren't the brightest lights and the backdrop is a bit loose on the weave but I make it work. Sometimes I move the lights to the dining table or kitchen if I'm shooting in there.

When I take the photos, which amounts to composing and determining what lighting to use - umbrellas direct or reflected, incandescent room lights, natural light from the window, or all three - snap a few photos with either my iPhone 6S or my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200 (or both), then on to the 'darkroom'. I don't recall the last time I used the flash. The photo software I use is ACDSee but any that Mike mentioned will work just fine. 

So I spend a few minutes doing my standard tweaks and most of the time that's sufficient. I do a 20% dehaze, adjust light levels if necessary - some darker woods simply need to be lightened in post editing to look right - and resize to 1080 x 810 pixels for posting to forums, Etsy, etc. I have two settings for exposure if needed - one is for shop lighting which is very bright and sometimes needs to be toned down, and one is for Etsy shots which need to be bright and 'happy' looking. This keeps me from having to constantly adjust the camera - I just take care of it in the post. All of these setting are saved as presets in ACDSee so all I have to do is choose them and apply, no need to reinvent the wheel each time. It literally took all of 5 minutes to take the photos below and have them ready for posting.

So here's the setup, I use the little blocks of Walnut to prop items for a better angle and I have a stepstool in the room if I need to get up high and zoom in (no post editing in this shot) -








And here's the cutting board with no post - 








And here's the cutting board, same shot as above, as it would appear on Etsy or in a forum post - 








Questions? Hope this helps!
David


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Wow...what a difference! It's almost like the 'before' shot was a soft focus picture by comparison


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

*Measured*



JFPNCM said:


> Very well done Dan. Hopefully they will indeed be put to use as that completes the gift.
> 
> I would appreciate knowing the dimensions, particularly relative to the juice groove.


Hey, Jon; I just went and measured them. The Walnut one is 12.25" x 16.25"
The Narra is 12.5" x 14.75"
The juice groove was done with a Freud 3/4" Bullnose. _Of which I now own TWO as I forgot I already had one._
I set the outer edge of the groove back from the physical edge of the boards by 1.25"...I looked at a 1" setback but wasn't happy about the way it appeared as a mock groove with 3/4" masking tape.
My Bosch 1619 has a much larger baseplate than the 1617, for which my plunge base hasn't arrived yet, so the perimeter frame is dedicated to the 1619. You park that beast on your work and it's like a sumo wrestler has taken up residence!


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

@DaninVan

Greetings Dan: appreciate the update on the dimensions and can easily understand the sumo reference. To date I ahven't had any requests for a juice groove but the bull nose bit would certianly be the choice.

To date my boards have been more in the 12"x14"x2" ball park with the last one being more of a cheese board size which the recipient describes as a "trivet" . Unfortunately for some reason I can't seem to tag the photo to this reply.


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

@DaninVan

Trying again to post the cheese board aka the trivet.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

OK; guessing game, Jon? Cherry, Maple, Birch, ?, and....I have no idea what the black one is. Not Walnut? Ebony? 
Man, that is BLACK! Fantastic contrast; perfect for game boards? (Chess pieces?)
It's strange, eh? We see these various woods in face grain and we are pretty good at identifying the species, but end grain? Not so much.
You got great tight joints; nicely done, Sir!


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

@DaninVan

Very good Dan, it's a combination of walnut, maple and cherry and yes on the end grain things change markedly.

Appreciate the compliment.

Cheers


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

JFPNCM said:


> @DaninVan
> 
> Very good Dan, it's a combination of walnut, maple and cherry and yes on the end grain things change markedly.
> 
> ...



Didn't you miss one? There's two different buff coloured woods, one med. brown and that black-as-coal one which you now try and convince us is Walnut?!


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

DaninVan said:


> Didn't you miss one? There's two different buff coloured woods, one med. brown and that black-as-coal one which you now try and convince us is Walnut?!


Might be a spot of Ash in there but the "black-as-coal" is walnut for certain. Might be a lighting related issue in the photo as described in earlier portions of this thread.


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## LDBecker (Jun 16, 2015)

Coming in VERY late in the discussion - sorry. Have been busy (a minister's life right before Christmas - Ufta!) What software are you using to process the photos? I have been using Adobe Photoshop since literally the late 1980's (when Windows 1.0 came out!)... I do a lot of photography and now videography - the most critical thing is to get the white balance nailed correctly. I currently use a set of white balance cards called "Warm Cards" that lets me change the look in-camera. I also have some full-color cards from Macbeth and X-Rite that let me balance the individual colors that help a lot as well. The BEST thing for difficult color matching is to shoot in RAW - you have a slider that lets you vary the white balance and tone of the overall image/video. Memory is so cheap now that I always shoot RAW + Large jpg in my Canon 5DIII and Panasonic GH4 cameras. In my video camera, a Canon C100mk II, I shoot in "Wide DR," which gives some latitude for grading. 

For images shot in just jpg, the Photoshop RAW converter gives the option of opening a jpg image almost as if it were a RAW file - there is not quite as much latitude for editing, but some. 

Most cameras now have an option for shooting in a RAW format (basically a digital negative). In a jpg file, the development parameters are already baked into the file - the camera has already "developed" the file based on its best guess of what it's supposed to be. To get past the auto processing, the only real way is to shoot in RAW and do the work yourself. It sounds like a lot of work - i can now process a RAW file in normally about 1 minute, and can often paste the file settings to other shots taken at the same time. Then there are some shots that I can work for quite some time on. 

Sorry for the brain dump - now, back to your regularly scheduled programming! Merry Christmas!

Larry


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## Roy Drake (Feb 10, 2014)

First rate!


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## LouisianaJoe (Apr 15, 2011)

I take photos with the area under daylight bulbs (5000K). Most indoor lighting is 2700k. I also sometimes use a daylight desk lamp as a side light. Here is an example of a photo of a knife that I made. I put the knife on a piece of white poster board to take the photo.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Hey, Larry; no fancy shmancy processing...just some minor correction in Picasa. 
(I posted them out of guilt; not contributing enough from my end. )


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