Terry Sumner

I used a Mamiya RB67 Pro-S for all my work. (as opposed to the ubiquitos Hasselblad) I preferred the 2 1/4 X 2 3/4 format vs the square 2 1/4 because I could crop right in the camera. The rotating back made things a lot easier too. But what I wanted to say was that I had a Polaroid back for the Mamiya so I could see how my lighting was working out imediately. That's how we had to do it in the "olden days".... LOL Also...using the black paper was a technique known as "subtractive lighting." This was invented by a portrait photographer by the name of Leon Kennamer. He discovered the technique quite by accident and then he practised with it till he understood it and made it a standard lighting technique used mostly for portraits. It also works on inanimate objects too especially in a studio situation where it can be controlled easeir than outside. I took a seminar with Kennamer on that technique.

Wow Mike...if that isn't the perfect example of what I was trying not so eloquently to say!!! Thanks!

Cool...an F-14 color on a car model!

Looks good. My only question is why would you put a class designation decal on it for A/Stock?

Getting the background like that is the easy part. The tougher parts are 2 things...your light source and getting the exposure right. When pro's photograph large objects like that they need to make the source of the light really big in relation to it's distance from the object being photographed to avoid specular highlights as much as possible (explanation of "specular" highlight below). The final entity that the light passes through determines the size of the light source. The initial size of your light source is very small...the flash. And a tiny light source creates a lot of specular highlights. Passing the light through something like a light box effectively increases the size of the light source resulting in big highlights that appear much smoother, or...softer. Think of it this way...the largest source of light we can possibly have is the sun. But it's so far away from anything on earth it becomes a pinpoint source of light when related to the distance from the object to be shot. If however, you add a large diffuser like a big piece of white parachute fabric, in between the sun and say..a 1:1 car being shot outside...well now the fabric is the source of light, not the sun. This results in the specular highlights transforming into a huge block of "soft" light. Same goes for shooting models. The flash is pinpoint but add a diffuser in between the flash and the model and now you have a much softer light! All I've said so far is just to try to show that a light box or an umbrella of a simple piece of translucent white cloth should be used to enlarge the source of light to soften the light. Then there is the problem of exposure. Having a big dark area like that all around your model is going to cause the camera to want to open up the exposure. If you can set your exposure via a gray card or a white balance you can get a good exposure. I have no white balance capability with my cheapo digital camera so sometimes I do this.... I put my gray card right in front of my model, depress the shutter button slightly so that it registers the exposure and focus initially...then pull the card out of the way and depress the shutter button all the way and snap the picture. Most cheap digital cameras can do this. That's how I took the photo in my avatar. And just to explain what specular hights are: they are pinpoint reflections of the light source. They are a mirror image of the light source. In other words...when you see a photo of a car at a show and you see all those tiny little relections all over the car of the ceiling lights...those are specular highlights. When you see a modern photo of a car in something like the Rodder's Journal and you see these large sweeping blocks of shiny relections...those are also specular highlights. But they look so smooth because the reflection is that of a super large diffuser, not just the flash unit. I hope this helps as I'm not entirely sure I explained it any clearer than mud!

Have you got some idea that guys have been holding out or something????

There just wasn't any such thing as stand alone white balance. Everything was based off the 18% greay card. Another color balancing tool was a Macbeth color checker chart. This was/is a chart with a set of known colors that could be used to check colors in film and video. They may still use it today...I don't know. But you could take a photo of it in your first exposure of a run of film and then use that to set your colors in printing pictures by comparing the chart to a printed image and then adjusting acordingly when printing. I don't suppose it would be of any help in exposing digital images but I can see where it would be of help when printing images on paper.

Thanks John... I do know a little about photography. I owned 2 pro photography studios for years. Shot a lot of commercial work in addition to weddings, portraits, teams, models' portofolios, etc etc. Also took a lot of week long courses under some pretty famous photogs, like Dean Collins. Even had about half of my PPA credits towards the vaunted "Master of Photography" degree. But my caveat is that all my experience is with conventional film cameras so I now have to try to relate that experience to the digital world. Most of the lighting techniques still apply but some stuff is all new...like white balance. Never had to deal with that in the film world. And there are a lot of other nuances too. And since I retired from active commercial photography just prior to the big switchover, I find myself sometimes lacking for the new world. But basic light is still basic light!

I agree...so I just made up a fake Yahoo email addy! LOL

Well I got a 95...however, they have one question that they have an incorrect answer to. This is the question and their choices: You may pass on the right of another vehicle when: When traveling on a multi-lane highway carrying two or more lanes of traffic in the same direction The other vehicle is making or about to make a left turn, when a lane is provided to pass on the right Both answers are correct The quiz says that both answers are correct. However, they are in error because this is not legal in all states. In Connecticut when on a limited access highway, i. e. an interstate, with 2 lanes in each direction it is illegal to pass a car on the right. It is only legal in Connecticut if there are 3 lanes or more in the same direction. And I should know...I gave out a lot of tickets for that over the years!

Except for the original problem, this thread gets an "A" for humor!

I put a message up on the SLM group with a link to this thread. Either he'll contact you or maybe me. I'll try to get you two together.

I'd like to see an ecternal video of that ride!

Dan Himmel from the straight line modelers makes a perfect little tool to flare tubing. I made a short video on using it on my Youtube account here... You can contact Dan through the Yahoo group straightlinemodelers or through the group's website... www.straightlinemodelers.org

I always prefer Kodak 18% gray! That is a light gray color that Kodak came up with many years ago and is the standard of light reflectance by which light meters are calibrated to. The best thing about this is that the background now does not radically alter the reading your camera's meter reads. In other words, if you use a background that is black, the meter sees very little light and wants to open the exposure. If you use a white background, the camera sees a lot of light and wants to close down the exposure. If you use 18% gray, the meter sees it just right and it's much easier to get the correct exposure. There are different views on this subject...12% vs liminescence vs refletance etc etc. But for the average shots, this 18% gray color will work just fine. Nowadays though, in digital cameras, if you have a white balance ability on your camera, you can just use that with whatever color you choose.

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I'll relay them to Rachel...I'm sure she'll appreciate them!

Her mom and I tried to get her to try out for AI but she didn't want to. She sings in a 3 piece acoustic act that plays locally a lot. She has a good job...she was recently promoted and now is the Sales and Marketing Director of the Hard Rock at Foxwoods Casino here in Eastern Ct. And she got that position at age 24! She just turned 25 this past Friday! And the young lady in my former avatar wasn't my daughter...that was my cute 'lil grand daughter! Here's my daughter the singer...on the left. The beautiful babe on the right is my lovely wife! Be jealous boys...be jealous! Hosted on Fotki

Yes she does...and she sure as heck did not inherit it from me! LOL

When it comes to music, I certainly favor the oldies. Probably because I'm gettin' to be an oldie myself! Anyway...one of my favorite female singers from the 60's is Connie Francis. Well my darling daughter Rachel knows this and she does a lot of singing. Well one night we all went out to a Karaoke bar and she sang Connie Francis' "Where the Boys Are", which is one of my fave songs from Connie Francis. And the KJ recorded it on a CD. I tell ya, I get goose bumps sometimes when my daughter sings and this time she dedicated the song to me. So take less than 3 minutes and click on the link...it brings you to the Youtube site where I posted the recording. I hope you guys like it.

Don't know about anyone else but I would much rather see you post some photos right here. I know for myself I probably wouldn't click on a link to go to an external page to see it...after all...that's what this part of this forum is all about.

A Celebrity for a Patrol car? Wow! Never had one of those...LOL Course..never had a partner either..was always alone with backup sometimes 20 minutes away. (My patrol area was always about 25 miles wide by 10 miles high) My wife had I bought a brand new 86 Celebrity though...it was the first car we purchased new after we got married in 1981! I actually liked that car. It was fairly peppy and was top of the line with the nice interior. But as a cop car??? I dunno....

No but have seen clear over polished aluminum!

Bernie...saw your Dad a couple of days ago in Lisbon...hasn't changed much. Except he scolded me for not stopping by when I told him I go by his house now and then on my harley!

Agree....foil over the top of the clear....

Thanks Ken...that broken body line was always a sticking point for me in that body design...never liked it. And what with all the 49 Merc's being built lately with the new Revell kit, I decided to build one but eliminate that broken body line. IMO it makes the body look less blocky and more sleek.