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Taking pictures of your models


Jairus

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Fantastic review, Matt, thanks for simplifying it for us who are camera newbies. It is amazing how adding light and taking away some depth can really make a picture "pop" with detail. Seeing the pictures taken with these setups is like the difference from regular TV to hi-def. Well done!!

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  • 6 months later...

I've often wondered about why the models I take pictures of don't look quite how I expect when I've seen the real thing. In particular, supercars never look as flat and wide in a photo as they do in real life. The following aren't my best models (don't get bent out of shape by the SLS's surface finish, a really hard to photograph attempt at "Alubeam", or the 458's shut line enhancement, which needs re-doing). But they are two cars that I've seen often enough to recognise, and I've measured up both kits so I know that the models are precisely and accurately scaled in all dimensions. Anyway, after a bit of internet research, and some tests, I reckon that for most DSLRs, a 35-40mm focal length lens and a camera height 2.5" - 3" above the "ground" gives a pretty good representation of what you'd see looking at the real thing...

sls-amg-1.jpg

sls-amg-profile.jpg

bestest,

M.

Edited by Matt Bacon
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I've often wondered about why the models I take pictures of don't look quite how I expect when I've seen the real thing. In particular, supercars never look as flat and wide in a photo as they do in real life. The following aren't my best models (don't get bent out of shape by the SLS's surface finish, a really hard to photograph attempt at "Alubeam", or the 458's shut line enhancement, which needs re-doing). But they are two cars that I've seen often enough to recognise, and I've measured up both kits so I know that the models are precisely and accurately scaled in all dimensions. Anyway, after a bit of internet research, and some tests, I reckon that for most DSLRs, a 35-40mm focal length lens and a camera height 2.5" - 3" above the "ground" gives a pretty good representation of what you'd see looking at the real thing...

sls-amg-1.jpg

sls-amg-profile.jpg

sls-amg-4.jpg

sls-amg-6.jpg

458-4.jpg

458-5.jpg

458-2.jpg

bestest,

M.

What paint did you use to approximate Alu-Beam? I'd think Alclad would do the job. 

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Yes, the angle and elevation of the camera makes a big difference in realism of the photo. Also using wide angle lens will exaggerate the perspective (and increase the depth of field). It all adds up to having a model looking more like a real car.

Here is a photo I took of a friend's model. It was taken outside under natural overcast lighting.

OMx-front.jpg

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Thanks Curt. So that should offset the orange hue given out by my Halogen spotlights?

Yep. Depending how sophisticated your camera is, how you set it will vary. Most have settings for "daylight", "tungsten", "fluorescent" etc. On higher-end cameras you can set the "white" point according to the "colour temperature" of your light (redder light is "colder", bluer light is "hotter" -- my "daylight" fluorescent bulbs have a colour temperature of 5500K.) Dedicated photographic lights will usually tell you this temperature, and you can Google around for approximate temperatures for most kinds of lighting. Finally, you may get an option to take a picture of a piece of white or neutral grey card, and use that to set a "custom" white point for your specific set-up. That's the most accurate, obviously.

If you can avoid it, you don't want to use the "automatic white balance" setting for car model photos. It makes decisions based on assumptions about the range and type of colours found in a real life scene, which usually don't apply when you're taking pictures of a large single coloured lump in the middle of a single-colour background under artificial light. If you're not careful it'll try to turn your blue background into grey...

bestest,

M.

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  • 8 months later...

Here is my photo booth which is also my paint booth. I got that nice 1200 lumen LED worklight for it a few months ago. I get better pictures with it too. Only when I take pictures I put in white plotter papaer for a background:

P1030120%20Large_zpsjk5pyqbe.jpg

And for painting:

P1030117%20Large_zpsntisovoa.jpg

Edited by Mike C
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  • 1 month later...

Following up on Doug Long's (Kodiak Island Modeler) of using a calendar image as background, I played with a 11x17 enlargement of my own garage. As you can see, I have a lot of experimenting to do yet.

 

 

PhoExp%201.jpg

 

 

This is not bad. If you can get your driveway material a closer gray to the photo. And the photo needs to be darker and with more contrast to match the model. Shadows look right. Keep working it for sure! :D

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This is not bad. If you can get your driveway material a closer gray to the photo. And the photo needs to be darker and with more contrast to match the model. Shadows look right. Keep working it for sure! :D

Never thought of the shadows. Wouldn't it be strange if the car's shadow's was opposite the bicycles?

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Here is my photo booth which is also my paint booth. I got that nice 1200 lumen LED worklight for it a few months ago. I get better pictures with it too. Only when I take pictures I put in white plotter papaer for a background:

 

And for painting:

 

I'd put some saran wrap over:D the light that can be easily replaced when light can't get thru the paint on it ..

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This is not bad. If you can get your driveway material a closer gray to the photo. And the photo needs to be darker and with more contrast to match the model. Shadows look right. Keep working it for sure! :D

Mike, I'm going to take a morning shot of the garage with the light shining directly into it. It should bring out the detail. And when we get a bright overcast day, I'll get one of those. I need to crop the image before printing as it is about 3/4" too narrow for scale. As for the driveway, once I know how deep the setup has to be, I'll "pave" it accordingly.

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  • 1 month later...

I used to write for Toy Cars and Models and the poorly managed The Car Room Magazine where I reviewed higher end 1/24th scale diecast cars and trucks.  Some were shot with a photo booth some on a photography table.  I kept trying new things to get a feel for what I wanted.  Everyone used 3 diffused "Continuous" lighting sources...1 overhead and 2 from the sides where I could move them around.  I shot with an Olympus E500 Digital SLR in full Manual mode setup in .tif format for ultimate in detail shots.  White balance was normally set with a light gray as opposed to white...softened the pictures just a tad but still allowed for a lot of detail.  The biggest deal is the fstop...I set it to f22 for maximum depth of field and almost always used a macro lens.

Focus was accomplished manually and I used an electronic battery operated remote wireless shutter release to minimize ANY movement in the camera.  When you have the lens less than 1 inch from the part you are trying to highlight...anything that can cause the camera to move...and I do mean ANYTHING down to a mouse fart will result in a blurry shot.

Take a look at this shot of the headlight lens of a 1/24th scale Danbury Mint '58 Pontiac Bonneville...this lens detail is on the INSIDE of the lens.  This lens is less than a 1/4".  The camera lens was seriously less than 1/2" from the nose of the Bonnie.

Bonnie_headlamp.thumb.jpg.9fedb2f0deffe7

Interior shot

Bonnie_Int.thumb.jpg.1eb3539f5ee25dda54d

I'll add more in a second post

 

 

Edited by BDSchindler
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here's a couple of the Danbury Little Deuce Coupe...

left_frnt.thumb.jpg.bab323eaa30ad6a6e761left_eng.thumb.jpg.f00c8c0a5aba9cec1895f

This one is lit from underneath using a photo table

lighted.thumb.jpg.a366b3f702e1a9d72b846b

One of the cool things you can do with a digital SLR in full manual mode is taking a shot where everything is in focus.  In this shot, the lens is 4" from the engine bay and using a macro lens, individual pictures were taken of of the engine bay and then blended together using Paint Shop Pro.  9 pictures make up this shot

DM_70_Mustang_Twister.thumb.jpg.0f2b57ac

If there is any interest...I can post more

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here's a few more examples of using a Macro lens, f22 f-stop, lt. grey white balance, manual focus and remote (battery operated for total hands off the camera) shutter release for no movement in the camera.

This wheel-tire from Danbury's 33 Ford Cabriolet was composed using 3 separate pictures then blended together and cropped...no adjustments for light or exposure...

DM_33_FORD__8.thumb.JPG.8fb7c60cf4ccb757

Another example of blending photos

DM_54_Eldorado_(13).thumb.jpg.22cea7571a

depending on the features in your camera, some will take a side-by-side shot...kind of a before/after type that is useful for demonstrating a feature of the car like this opening gas cap on the DM Owens/Corning race Corvette...

PA310527.thumb.JPG.5f5be85fb6954dbe52b71

I agree that reflective backgrounds add a bit of drama to a shot...

Dream_Truck_(4).thumb.JPG.c9bb399e9b9d85

or even a bit more subtle approach that still packs a ton of drama like the DM 38 Custom Hauler...

DM_38_GMC_CUSTOM_CAR_HAULER_(14).thumb.JDM_38_GMC_CUSTOM_CAR_HAULER_(12).thumb.JDM_38_GMC_CUSTOM_CAR_HAULER_(13).thumb.J

Work with it and play til you find something that fits what you are trying to do.  Fortunately, digital cameras make the whole photography thing much cheaper that the old film cameras once you bought the film and had the slides developed.  It was a super expensive hobby back then but now, there's no guilt involved when you take a bad shot...just delete it and reshoot!

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I use a Nikon Cool Pix 8700 camera I bought back in 2005.  This shot was done using 2 halogen shop lights. Since the camera's lens only stops down to f8, I took several frames ad gradually changing focused areas and combined them into a large-depth-of-field composite using Helicon Focus software.  Original photo is 5Mp is size - this is a low-res copy for the Web.

2019Wisniewski.JPG

Edited by peteski
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Mike, I'm going to take a morning shot of the garage with the light shining directly into it. It should bring out the detail. And when we get a bright overcast day, I'll get one of those. I need to crop the image before printing as it is about 3/4" too narrow for scale. As for the driveway, once I know how deep the setup has to be, I'll "pave" it accordingly.

Here's a couple more with brighter, better resolution pictures of the garage. I think I have the positioning OK. Now I have to make a floorboard which matches the color and texture of my driveway.

 

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Not bad.  Just make sure that the lighting and the angle of the shadows on your model matches the shadows in the backdrop photo.  Otherwise human eye will subconsciously pick that up and the photo won't look "right".  Of course the scale height of the camera needs to be similar to the camera's height in the 1:1 photo so the perspective is similar.

As far as the base/driveway, you could simply cut off all the visible pavement in the photo then you won't have to worry about matching the base to the pavement in the photo.

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I know one thing, I am about ready to pull my hair out( ok, not really, that would hurt a lot) ,  I knew going from a POS to a DSLR there was going to be a little bit of a learning curve, but its been a real struggle to get decent photos.   I know lighting is the key, and I think that is my main issue. 

 

 

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  • 3 years later...

Smartphones are great for when you need a quick progress shot at the work bench.

Flash isn't all that good for close up pics. You will get better lighted photos if you add more sources of light  instead.

My "no flash" photo is lit with a LED gooseneck lamp, and another lamp off to one side. I'm using an old Samsung S7. These have great low light capabilities. Don't assume that you need to use a flash every time.  And if the focus is off, back up a bit, and either zoom in, or crop away excess after you tap the shutter. 

 

20200410_194613.jpg

20200410_194716.jpg

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