Is Daylight bulb the best choice for Wood items pictures??What lighting should i use?

[African Art]

Hi Greetings!

I will like some advice on what lighting is better for taking pictures of African Art pieces such as mask,statues,etc.
I use a white blackground is this good? the color white?
I change my lights today to daylight ,but not sure if i'm doing the correct thing....
Please any advise in this will be very helpfull for me!!

I'm using a Nikon Coolpix P90

Thank you very much in advance!

Luciana

[zona5101]

howdy and welcome.
Your font is really much bigger than it needs to be - it makes it cumbersome to read.

Using a white background is fine. Looking at your webstore, white background is probably best because the majority of the items are dark and the contrast helps the item to stand out better. Without a lot of color in the objects it's hard to say if your color balance is on or off but your color balance should be set so the items are depicted as close to their actual color as possible. Match the light source with your camera setting. But more than color balance, I think you need to even out your lighting. Lots of shadows. In many of the artifacts there is little to no detail because of poor, uneven lighting.

[LeeR]

I am not sure I like the double shadows you are getting now. Plus the background in your images isn't as white as I might like. I would strongly encourage you to invest in a light tent. You can get one cheap on ebay and they will make a huge difference in your images.

Below is an image I did recently of one of my dad's African artifacts. I have used PS to clean up the whites and reduce the shadows to just few. I also added a gradient to the background to make it look like what we used to call a "psyched" background.