In article
,
"Leo Lichtman" wrote:

"Bob Engelhardt" wrote: (clip)
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawvise.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/bandsawwheel.jpg (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Bob, it took me just a bit to realize what makes your pictures look so
"clean." So many of us send pictures in which the background clutters up
the view, sometimes making it hard to figure out exactly what we are looking
at. I realize that your technique is so simple that it might be
overlooked--so I will point it out. You use flash at fairly close range.
Since the light falls by the inverse square law, the background comes out
dark, and the pictures look NEAT.

What also works is a piece of colored paper behind the item being
photographed. Or a painter's cloth dropcloth behind a big machine. (The
plastic dropcloths and tarps are too shiny and crinkley to work well.)
These are standard photographer's tricks. The reflected light from the
background will also help fill in some shadows.

Google for "seamless background photography" for more information.

Joe Gwinn