I was sorting thorough some of my old nostalgia items when this Christmas card from 1907 caught my eye.
The problem: I can not seem to get the proper colour when I shot it. The writing is a brilliant gold and the greens and red still have a bright colour.
The lighting is ruining this shot, you need more diffused lighting. What type of flash unit are you using? If it was built into the camera then you should not use that... Get yourself some cheap flood lights (two would work), get good daylight balanced bulbs (you may need to search a bit to find those), get a piece of drop ceiling light cover (the frosted kind). Take the ceiling tile light cover and bend it into an arch shape, use something to hold it in that shape, put one of the lights one either side of the tile. Now you will have good defused lighting to light the inside of the arch. Place the card at a slight angle facing the camera and then setup you composition. Use a white sheet as a backdrop and have the sheet go out of the arch and up at a slight angle. This will give you a nice flowing background to work with. You might need to balance the white point a little but the colors should pop better and there should be no shadows to worry about.
Brian, I'd suggest trying to use some light to make the gold more reflective so that when you look through the viewfinder you can actually see it how you want it. You can probably get away with using a window and then move the card until it catches the reflection you want.
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