New Photo Setup

[jaymcminn]

I finally broke down and bought a photo booth from Amazon. The Emart setup I decided on includes a 24X24" light tent, 4 LED tripod lights, a highly-suspect camera stand, and 4 flocked backdrop cloths... all for $59.99! I set it up as soon as I got it and started playing using my Canon Rebel DSLR with macro lens. Here's what I've come up with after a few hours... all pics were shot with the black backdrop with a piece of black granite under the model for that reflection. I have NEVER been able to get shots like this before!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2017 by jaymcminn
updated pics

[Ace-Garageguy]

Most attractive photographs.

[Jon Haigwood]

Well I am very impressed .Very professional looking. 

[jaymcminn]

Here are a few against the white backdrop...

[jaymcminn]

[Lovefordgalaxie]

For sure the pictures look awesome. I like the non reflective backgrounds those boots have. 

I can't use one tough. Having 9 cats, cats hair gets to everywhere, and I mean everywhere. The black background would be full of stray hairs in a couple days, and cleaning it would end destroying the stuff they are made of. The ones I saw are hard cardboard and the flocking can be pulled out. 

That's why i still use my parking lot dio and the dealer dio. Both can be vacuum cleaned. And, some grime and dust only makes the parking lot more realistic, LOL!!!

[jaymcminn]

For sure the pictures look awesome. I like the non reflective backgrounds those boots have. 

I can't use one tough. Having 9 cats, cats hair gets to everywhere, and I mean everywhere. The black background would be full of stray hairs in a couple days, and cleaning it would end destroying the stuff they are made of. The ones I saw are hard cardboard and the flocking can be pulled out. 

That's why i still use my parking lot dio and the dealer dio. Both can be vacuum cleaned. And, some grime and dust only makes the parking lot more realistic, LOL!!!

 Thanks man. I have a cat (just the one, though) and the black background has already picked up some hairs. I just ran a lint roller over it. I'm keeping the setup in a guest bedroom where the cat generally doesn't go, so hopefully that'll keep the hair level down. This setup uses a fabric backdrop rather than the cardboard.

Edited November 25, 2017 by jaymcminn
Added sentence

[bbowser]

Great photos, and some really nice models too!  Do the LED lights alter the colors at all?

[jaymcminn]

The lights are daylight-balanced, so the colors come through really well. None of these pictures needed any color correction whatsoever. The lights also have yellow and blue filters you can snap on. Thanks!

[#1 model citizen]

Says it all!

Well I am very impressed .Very professional looking. 

[BigTallDad]

Very impressive shots!

As a matter of personal preference, I find the vein in the black granite is distracting...maybe some black mirrored Plexiglas instead?

[peteski]

Excellent photos!

[Gramps46]

Thank you for sharing your photo set up and the tip on where to find it.

Great models too.

[Gramps46]

Based upon your photos Santa brought me the Emart photo set up.  Would you please post how you positioned your lights and any tips that would be helpful.

Thanks,

Gary

[crazyjim]

Very nice pics. I use one of those Emart booths although I changed out the lights and holders with those round portable clamp on lights with daylight bulbs.  I was told to get those by the MCM photographer.

Edited December 26, 2017 by crazyjim

[Howard Cohen]

That looks great! Do you have a link to the booth you bought? I can't find it listed and I would like to get one. Thanks.

 

[jaymcminn]

22 minutes ago, Howard Cohen said:

That looks great! Do you have a link to the booth you bought? I can't find it listed and I would like to get one. Thanks.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5O9D0Z/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Unfortunately, it looks to be out of stock right now. Hopefully they get more in... the smaller ones look nice, but the extra size comes in handy!

[Howard Cohen]

Thank you  

[jaymcminn]

3 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

Based upon your photos Santa brought me the Emart photo set up.  Would you please post how you positioned your lights and any tips that would be helpful.

Thanks,

Gary

You have to play with the light positioning a lot depending on exactly how you want your subject lit. The distance of the lights from the sides affects both the intensity and harshness of the lighting. Digital photography is your friend... keep playing until you get some shots that work!

Here are some shots from the "under glass" shoot of my 1/12 scale Datsun 240ZG.

 

 

[jaymcminn]

3 hours ago, crazyjim said:

Very nice pics. I use one of those Emart booths although I changed out the lights and holders with those round portable clamp on lights with daylight bulbs.  I was told to get those by the MCM photographer.

Thanks Jim! I'm actually going to rig up a clamp light holder for overhead lighting. The lighting could definitely be brighter... I have to shoot with a fairly slow shutter which leads to more "graininess" than I'd like.

[Gramps46]

Thank you Jason for the photos, a big help to get started.  Emart provides absolutely no shooting instructions which would have been helpful.

Gary

[Bernard Kron]

Great photography of some mighty nice models. Leading off with the black background shots got my attention right off because they are so hard to get right. I have been doing that style for several years and they are always difficult to pull off and, surprisingly, often controversial. While I think they are quite attractive (why on earth would I do them, otherwise, especially considering the difficulties they involve), many people think they are too stylized and lack detail and information about the model itself. If I do plain white backgrounds I get far fewer complaints.

The question I had involves the backgrounds the kit came with. You said they are flocked. Does that mean they are totally dead and devoid of reflectivity? As a result does that allow you to compose the picture entirely "in the camera" without having to retouch the background? In my model car photography I usually have to do various combinations of cropping and blurring to get a continuous neutral background such as you have achieved. I use Photoshop to do it. It doesn't look like you have to, since in the case of the Datsun, which is very large and fills the frame, you left the corners where the background curves up unretouched.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Bernard Kron

[jaymcminn]

4 hours ago, Bernard Kron said:

Great photography of some mighty nice models. Leading off with the black background shots got my attention right off because they are so hard to get right. I have been doing that style for several years and they are always difficult to pull off and, surprisingly, often controversial. While I think they are quite attractive (why on earth would I do them, otherwise, especially considering the difficulties they involve), many people think they are too stylized and lack detail and information about the model itself. If I do plain white backgrounds I get far fewer complaints.

The question I had involves the backgrounds the kit came with. You said they are flocked. Does that mean they are totally dead and devoid of reflectivity? As a result does that allow you to compose the picture entirely "in the camera" without having to retouch the background? In my model car photography I usually have to do various combinations of cropping and blurring to get a continuous neutral background such as you have achieved. I use Photoshop to do it. It doesn't look like you have to, since in the case of the Datsun, which is very large and fills the frame, you left the corners where the background curves up unretouched.

Thanks Bernard! I like a good black background shot... they're a lot more dramatic than plain white. I like to include both when I post up pics to break up the monotony. The kit's fabric background sweeps are indeed flocked and are very low reflectivity... I didn't have to mess with the backgrounds in these shots at all other than cropping. One of the things I like about the 24" setup is that you'll rarely see the sides of the enclosure when shooting a 1/24 model.  Even 1/12 scale models like the Z fit well enough.

[KWT]

I got this setup for Christmas. I am stoked to say the least.

[DrKerry]

Photos are great!!!!!!!!!