Leg-O-Matic was a division of Lorraine Ind., Bridgeport Conn. From the 1940s to the 1970s, they produced folding chairs which were sold through Sears and also by Airstream, for their travel trailers.
Information found on http://www.salvagelove.net/, and on the Airstream forum site: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f227/leg-o-matic-chairs-85207.html. My Leg-O-Matic folding chair apparently dates from the mid-1960s and was sold through Airstream
. I picked it up at a garage sale for $2.00 CDN. I thought it would make a good subject for detailed documentation photography.
Because it’s larger than the usual items I photograph on my workbench, I moved up to the billiard room (don’t get impressed – it’s just a room with a pool table in it). It’s next to the kitchen so most of the time my wife uses it to cool baking. Relax! We keep a modified table tennis top on it.
The setup is fairly simple: I used one flash with an umbrella high up on a stand, with a white backdrop clamped to my backdrop stand. The camera was pretty much locked down to target the centre of the chair, although I had to raise it to shoot the unfolded chair so the ceiling wouldn’t show.
The object is to photograph the object from as many positions as possible, closed, half open, and open. The first task (after ironing the backdrop) is to shoot the chair in its closed state.
I first took it the way it looks when stored, sitting on its hinges. Then I shot it lying down, ready to be opened.
Next, I shot the sequence of opening it from the bottom.
Then, I shot the side view of it opening.
Finally, I was ready to shoot the chair standing, unfolded. It was necessary to raise the camera at this point, to keep the angle consistent with the other shots.
To round out the images, I then shot a closeup of the label attached to the underside of the seat. There should be another with instructions on how to use the chair, but that was missing when I purchased it.
The next step would be to measure each dimension, open and closed.
This blog is published every Monday at 9:00 am, Eastern Standard Time. If you have comments, questions, or can think of a better approach, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll try to get back to you with a pithy answer.
Feel free to explore the rest of the Artifact Photography (a division of 1350286 Ontario Inc.) website at www.artifactphoto.ca