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Thread: How to Photograph Miniature planes

  1. #1

    Default How to Photograph Miniature planes

    I am going to give a brief overview on how to take better photos of our miniatures. In this first part, I'll cover using the average point and shoot digital camera that most of you will have.

    With limited equipment, you will most likely want to photograph your mini on a white background. It will stand out better and will give you more light to take the photo with (lighting is the single most important part of photographing).

    All of the images are taken in the camera's Macro mode on a small, inexpensive Canon point and shoot automatic camera (not the one seen in the photos, that was just used as a prop).

    Basic setup

    Below is a shot of the photo box that I made for shooting miniatures on a white background.



    As you can see, it is just a cardboard box with one side cut out of it and all the inside surfaces covered with white paper. Note that the bottom and back wall are covered in a single sheet of large paper and there is a nice curve in the transition. That curve will keep your background nice and clean with out any seems showing in your photos. All of the white paper will help reflect light back on to your mini from all angles.

    You will want to use some kind of support to hold your camera so that it does not shake when you take your photos. A tripod is best as it gives you a lot of freedom in how you angle your camera... giving you more exciting and visually pleasing photos. If your planes are mounted on Gimbal Mounts, you can use those to get the nice angles and keep your camera level. If you do not have a tripod, no worries! You can use just about anything to raise your camera to the correct height.

    DVD cases


    You can also use a 3 Ring Binder to set your camera on. This will allow you to fine tune the angle of your camera by adding or removing DVD cases from inside it.





    Most cameras have a self timer, I suggest that you use that as well.


    Lighting

    As I said before, this is the single most important part of any good photo. The photo will only be as good as the light you take it in. There are two basic properties to light, quantity and quality. The more light you have, the better you can make the quality of it. I'll show some photos of a plane shot in both different quantity and quality of lights.

    This first image was taken using the built in flash of the camera. As you can see, there is plenty of quantity of light, but it is very bright and harsh... so of poor quality.



    This photo was taken with what is called ambient light... no flash. The light is much softer and of better quality, but there is not enough of it so the image is too dark.



    The darkness of the photo can be fixed after the fact in an image editing program. A nice free program is GIMP. There are many YouTube videos on how to use GIMP, so I will not cover that here. I will tell you that the biggest adjustments you will want to make are:

    1. White Balance
    2. Exposure/Levels
    3. Cropping


    Here is the same image as above, but with the Exposure adjusted on the computer (the White Balance should have been adjusted as well as it is now to red/pink).



    As you can see, it is much brighter now and still has the softer quality so that everything is evenly lit and has the same color tones all over.

    This next image was taken outside in direct sun light. You will notice that it is again harsh lighting with deep shadows. The darker mini and the white background also trick the camera into underexposing the image (making it darker). This makes the background bright, but makes the mini dark.



    Finally we have the outside photo in shade. I like to take these photos inside my open garage with the photo box in the shade, but as close to direct sun light as possible. Point the opening of your photo box towards the direction of the sun. Doing this will give you the most amount of soft light as you can get with out specialized flash equipment.



    One thing to note about taking your photos this way... you will have to adjust the White Balance! Some cameras will let you do this during the photo process (usually with a "Shade" setting), or you will have to do it in your photo editing software (my preferred method). If you do not adjust this, your images will be very blue looking. You will also notice that in this photo the seam in the background. This is because I shot it at an angle and the side wall is in the photo. This shows off how important that curve in the paper we talked about earlier is.

    If you can't photograph outside in the shade like this, you can do it inside using table lamps as well. You will want at least two of them, one on either side and above the mini. Keep them the same distance away from the mini if possible. This will keep the lighting even across the entire mini. You will most likely want to soften the light from the lamps as well. You can do this with another sheet of white paper between the lamp and the mini (closer to the lamp is better, but don't let it get to hot and catch on fire!). Using household lamps will most likely make your images too yellow looking, so adjust that White Balance again!

    I will write another post later covering how to photograph with a non-white background (like with the game mats) and better camera/flash equipment for those that have it... or might want to get it.

    Hope this helps some of you out there.
    Last edited by Oberst Hajj; 08-21-2012 at 23:59.

  2. #2

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    Thanks Keith;
    This will help for the next repaint contest, I'm sure
    Karl
    It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus

  3. #3

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    Just read this,wish I would have checked it out sooner.thanks for the great info.

  4. #4

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    If nobody minds, I will chime in here a bit.

    As it happens, I am a professional photographer by trade and think I can offer a simple to do trick that will improve photos for folks who have a basic point and shoot digital camera.

    As Oberst Hajj has correctly pointed out, it's really the harsh shadows that are the enemy. A pro photographer would use a combination of soft boxes and a special white box (very similar to the white back ground that Oberst Hajj illustrated.

    Problem is, most folks don't have the specialized lighting equipment. So, what do you do if you just have a basic camera? Fold paper. Simple as that!

    Take a regular sheet of copy paper. Fold it in half once, then fold it into a fan shape. Looks like this...

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    Assemble your white box, as Oberst Hajj illustrated. Now, when you take your photo, hold the fan folded paper between your camera's flash and the model. Angle it so that it sort of goes over the top of the model.

    Like this:

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    It might take a couple tries to get the angle of the paper right, but it really isn't too hard.

    But here is the difference between no paper and paper (basic foam core board used for the white box, a curved floor that blends from floor to back would be better (reference Oberst Hajj's white box example).

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Both of the above photos were shot with this camera and no post processing was done to change the images...

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    Here's the image with a basic white balance adjustment done in PhotoShop:

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    The paper diffuses the flash enough that the shadow becomes very soft and not as harsh. Much less detracting from the model. Very quick and easy. It's basically a poor man's soft box. It allows you to use your flash, and hand hold the camera. No need for long exposures and little to no post processing in PhotoShop or Gimp, if you don't want to fiddle with that.
    Last edited by PFactorDave; 08-16-2013 at 10:37.

  5. #5

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    Thanks for the tip with the 'fan'!

  6. #6

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    That's a nice tip David, thanks for sharing it.

  7. #7

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    Thanks guys. Try it when you take pictures of your family too. It'll give your portraits a softer, more appealing look.

    Or, you can use one of these, and bounce the flash off of the ceiling...

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  8. #8

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    Great tip, David. I will try this on my next AAR.

    Quote Originally Posted by PFactorDave View Post
    Try it when you take pictures of your family too. It'll give your portraits a softer, more appealing look.
    You've not met my family.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by PFactorDave View Post
    Thanks guys. Try it when you take pictures of your family too. It'll give your portraits a softer, more appealing look.

    Or, you can use one of these, and bounce the flash off of the ceiling...

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Is that a 24-70mm L glass I spy?

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oberst Hajj View Post
    Is that a 24-70mm L glass I spy?
    Yes it is. I should own stock in Canon for all of the money I have invested in L glass. This is what I carry when I freelance local prep football for the papers.

    Click image for larger version. 

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  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by 7eat51 View Post
    You've not met my family.
    Maybe put the paper in front of the lens then? lol!

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by PFactorDave View Post
    Yes it is. I should own stock in Canon for all of the money I have invested in L glass. This is what I carry when I freelance local prep football for the papers.
    Nice. Canon took lots of my money back in the day as well. I did motorsports and wildlife mostly, so I was usually seen with a 1D MkII and 500 F4 L on a Gitzo CF monopod or tripod. I shoot all my miniatures with a Sigma 105mm Macro though. I came to love certain Sigma lenses over the years.

  13. #13

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    I use a 5DMkII for most portrait work, weddings and such and a 1DMkIII for sports action. Love the frame rate of the 1D, but it doesn't have the image resolution of the 5D.

    I've used a lot of Tokina, Tamron, and a couple Sigma lenses over the years... I always end up back with a Canon lens. I've always felt that the auto focus was snappier in the Canon lenses.

  14. #14

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    Yeah, I've been toying around with the idea of off loading my 1D MkII and picking up a 5D in it's place. I don't shoot sports any more and wildlife is few and far between. Mostly just product shots and the occasional photo of the kids.

  15. #15

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    So what would guys recommend in terms of camera and basic equipment for the following:

    1. AARs for me.
    2. Pictures of jewelry that Sue makes and would upload to her website.
    3. Pictures of flowers, other natural items - foodstuffs, etc. - and sculptures that Sue uses to make cards - a lot of closeup work.
    4. Pictures of minis - which I imagine would have similar requirements as the pictures of jewelry - stuff to upload to posts, albums, etc.

    We seldom take pictures of people, but after our poor picture quality at Origins, it would be nice to have the option. This simply would not be a primary focus.

    We are recognizing the limitation of our current camera, and have been discussing the need for a new one. We are somewhat lost as to where to begin.

    For what it is worth, Sue works with Photoshop.

    Thanks.

  16. #16

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    That's really going to depend on the budget. You are going to want a light and some kind of diffuser plus the camera and a lens.

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oberst Hajj View Post
    Yeah, I've been toying around with the idea of off loading my 1D MkII and picking up a 5D in it's place. I don't shoot sports any more and wildlife is few and far between. Mostly just product shots and the occasional photo of the kids.
    The 5D is a fantastic camera. It uses a full size imaging sensor instead of the smaller sensor that the 1D uses. That means, your 70mm lens acts like a 70mm instead of having the 60% increase that makes it act like a (roughly) 110mm. You'll be able to actually do wide angle again.

    I love my 5D.

    It does pretty good HD video too. I bought a Rode mic that mounts on the hot shoe. Turns my 5D into an excellent video camera.

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    Last edited by PFactorDave; 08-16-2013 at 13:09.

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by 7eat51 View Post
    So what would guys recommend in terms of camera and basic equipment for the following:

    1. AARs for me.
    2. Pictures of jewelry that Sue makes and would upload to her website.
    3. Pictures of flowers, other natural items - foodstuffs, etc. - and sculptures that Sue uses to make cards - a lot of closeup work.
    4. Pictures of minis - which I imagine would have similar requirements as the pictures of jewelry - stuff to upload to posts, albums, etc.

    We seldom take pictures of people, but after our poor picture quality at Origins, it would be nice to have the option. This simply would not be a primary focus.

    We are recognizing the limitation of our current camera, and have been discussing the need for a new one. We are somewhat lost as to where to begin.

    For what it is worth, Sue works with Photoshop.

    Thanks.
    Keith is right Eric, it really comes down to how much you want to spend.

    When you guys get ready to start shopping, call me and I'll point you in the right direction.

  19. #19

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    Nice info and suggestions! thx!

    Attilio

  20. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by PFactorDave View Post
    The 5D is a fantastic camera. It uses a full size imaging sensor instead of the smaller sensor that the 1D uses. That means, your 70mm lens acts like a 70mm instead of having the 60% increase that makes it act like a (roughly) 110mm. You'll be able to actually do wide angle again.
    Lol, I loved the extra reach the crop gave me for wildlife and motorsports... not so much shooting miniatures in my office! I'm not so concerned about video. My only need there is on the Jeep, so I need something that is water and dust proof (yet to find an action cam that meets all my needs).

  21. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by Oberst Hajj View Post
    Lol, I loved the extra reach the crop gave me for wildlife and motorsports...
    I must admit that the extra reach is useful sometimes. But, it's also nice not to have to put on an 18mm lens to shoot a wedding party. lol

    I have no advice on an action cam. Not something I have ever fiddled with really... I've seen some Go-Pro stuff, but nothing very impressive.

  22. #22

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    Sorry to drag this back on topic chaps, but I just wanted to give a thumbs-up for the paper fan idea

  23. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by Guntruck View Post
    Sorry to drag this back on topic chaps, but I just wanted to give a thumbs-up for the paper fan idea
    Oops... Guess we did go off the rails a bit. Perhaps Keith will mod out the chit chat.

  24. #24

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    Another lesson? Gleaned a ton of info off the first lesson Keith, thanks for that. Most of the information covered I knew, some was new to me though and real good. Have yet to try the fan diffusor, and looks like a great idea. I have photographed a few images for "Kingsford Miniatures" fan gallery and they came out okay. Would definitely like to take some snaps of some builds/paints/repaints that I either am doing or going to do and would like some nice pics for my Album here. Thanks

  25. #25

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    Good stuff gents thank you.

    Never Knowingly Undergunned !!



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