Model photos the easy way

[rtfoe]

Thanks for the article Jakko, it will help many here. Ever since handphones were equipped with a sophisticated camera, I've done away with complicated equipment and just snap from my work table which already has the room light for fill ins, an overhead LED and a side table lamp with white light. For the backdrop I use my trusty old rolled up blue or white card board and pegs to hold it down. Any parts I need highlighting I just use a piece of foam board as a reflector. I snap away loosely for a larger depth of field and let the HP do the rest. Crop it later for any parts I want to feature.
Larger dioramas are shot outside in 9 to 10am sunlight bounced off a wall so I don't need any diffusers. My monkey ambush shots were done like that. Technology has come a long way that even videos are shot with HPs. I never thought it would come to this as I'm used to large format movie cameras on sets...nothing like the sound of a camera rolling.
Your article definitely will open eyes to the art of lighting a perfect photo. I would still edit as I always did for print because that's another whole can of worms.

Cheers,
Wabble

[Guest]

sorry my thanks seem to have made you so defensive

Apologies, that was not my intention

[Ian M]

Thanks for a very illuminating article Jakko. (see what I did there).
I confess that 99% of my photos are taken and edited on my phone's camera and software. Its always handy, can take better photos than the 'propper' camera that cost three times an much as my phone. If I make the effort I use a reflector and or shadow board. And if I have room the infinity background/floor sheet of A0 paper.
I found the setting up of stages, tripods lights and all the other 'bits and bobs' just too much faffing about.

[Guest]

Setting up all this kind of stuff is something I wouldn’t want to be doing every time either, which is why I’ve got it all there on the table permanently It’s to my left rear when I’m working on a model, so when I’ve got something I want to photograph, I just take a step back, switch on the lights, and take some pictures.

[PaulinKendal]

Really interesting post, Jakko, ta.

I just use my modelling lights and a sheet of Styrofoam propped up as background - quick and easy, but not as good results, for sure:


I wasn't aware of the HDR function, so I've just tried it.

Here's a picture with the standard settings:


And here's one using HDR:

Apart from the smartphone shake on the second one (too much coffee), I can't see much difference, tbh.

On my android phone HDR is only available in the auto set-up. I tend to use 'pro' settings, allowing me to adjust metering (but no HDR). And what I do is stop the exposure down about one step, to saturate the colours. I think it looks closer to how the figure looks to the naked eye in 'normal' lighting. Other viewers may think it looks horribly dark:

[Guest]

For model photography, HDR is mainly useful if you have light things in the photo, that disappear in the glare — like in the example with a few bits of plastic card. Another situation in which it makes a good deal of difference is if you go outside and photograph something with the sun in the frame, whether directly or shining through a cloud:

[ATTACH]508162[/ATTACH][ATTACH]508163[/ATTACH]

The first is normal, the second is HDR, taken less than a second apart.

As for your figure, I like the last, darker, picture better than the other two.

[PaulinKendal]

Ah, re. HDR, that makes sense. I must experiment.

[Guest]

Thanks, guys :smiling3:


Those things shouldn’t take very long. After you’ve done it a few times you’ll known what to press and it’ll be very quick, but your photos will be much better for it :smiling3:


Thinking about it, it’s probably better than the little tripod, because with this arm I can get the light down to table level, instead of some distance above it, so I can take pictures horizontally if I want to rather than only diagonally from above. I’d consider it a worthwhile investment if you’ve got a ring lamp.

Of course being retired I've got the time,I've got a fold up booth, lights , just a pain to get it all set up.

[Guest]

Like I said earlier, if you’ve got the space to put it permanently, that’s much more convenient. Sure, the folding booths are intended as being portable, but if I had to set mine up every time I wanted to take some photos I wouldn’t be posting many on here, I know that

[Jim R]

My goose neck holder for my ring light arrived. Good and solid for the price. As I said my set up is like Jakko's, two side lights and a down light, but having the ring light fixed is so much easier.




Seems to work very well. An early attempt at a stand alone figure.


A plane which shouldn't have yellow prop tips but looks pretty!


I also took onboard Jakko's suggestion to photograph from further away and then crop the image. I use a free programme called Paintnet.

Thanks Jakko.

[Guest]

That light on the wall is so much easier than my solution of hanging one of the spotlights from a bit of wire

[Guest]

As I bought a new iPad the other day, let me add a little bit to this thread concerning the differences between devices.

Here are three photos of a Jagdtiger:

[ATTACH]509302[/ATTACH][ATTACH]509303[/ATTACH][ATTACH]509306[/ATTACH]

The first was taken with my old iPad with HDR off, the second with HDR on, and the third with my new iPad. This has automatic HDR, so you can’t turn it on or off by hand, and it looks like the model in the third photo looks pretty similar to the second to me, while the first is slightly less saturated. Not really enough to make a noticeable difference, though. (The background is clearly different between the third photo and the other two, but the model itself not that much.)

But now look at this other Jagdtiger:

[ATTACH]509304[/ATTACH][ATTACH]509305[/ATTACH][ATTACH]509307[/ATTACH]

Again, first the old iPad without HDR, then with HDR, and then the new iPad. Once more, the first picture is a little less saturated than the second, but the third has far more colour saturation than I would like it to have I’m guessing this is because current iPads do a lot more colour processing than older ones (due to the extra horsepower available) and no doubt, this helps you take pictures that look much better of generic subjects like nature, people, street scenes, etc. — but it’s not to my liking for model photography. I haven’t found out how to stop it doing this, though, and I don’t really feel like having to manually adjust every photo after taking it …

[Tworrs]

Jakko, I'm afraid my eyesight is so bad that they all look the same to me :anguished:

[Tim Marlow]

Out of those Jakko, I feel the non HDR shots look best. In your first three the “old” IPad shot with HDR has slightly blown the highlights. In both cases the “new” IPad HDR pictures look horrible, with really over applied colour shifts. They just look like poor JPG shots where every slider has been pushed full up. Certainly not selling that device to me…..I’d have to colour correct them all, and as you know, that’s a slow process on an IPad. Just out of interest, have you tried them on a mid grey background? The dark background may be causing the over exposure that is evident in HDR.

[Guest]

I feel the non HDR shots look best.

I’m leaning to the HDR photos with the old iPad, but there’s not much between with and without in these, IMHO.

In both cases the “new” IPad HDR pictures look horrible, with really over applied colour shifts. They just look like poor JPG shots where every slider has been pushed full up. Certainly not selling that device to me…..

I had expected a lot better, I know that. It’s probably an indicator of what most people photograph with their phones and tablets — that is, not scale models I want to try other camera apps, but all of those I’ve found so far on the app store are subscription-based, and I refuse to pay for software-as-a-service when they’re just delivering me a product. (If they were offering some actual service, like cloud-based storage, a multi-player online game, or something like that, then sure, I’ll pay a regular fee to be able to keep using it, but not for something that’s really just a single product that lives entirely on my iPad.)

I’d have to colour correct them all, and as you know, that’s a slow process on an IPad.

I’ve been playing with the pre-set filters, and it looks like a few of them change the colours enough to appear much more muted. I can live with applying a filter to photos, but I wouldn’t want to colour-correct each and every model photo by hand with all the different sliders available for that.

Just out of interest, have you tried them on a mid grey background? The dark background may be causing the over exposure that is evident in HDR.

I haven’t tried that, but I do intend to see what happens with different colours of background. I would have to find something to use as a neutral grey one, though — my only easy alternatives are white and blue.