Photography tips for scale models

[beckylaw]

WARNING: There's no rules in good photo only good photo itself. These tips is just guides to what our Gunpla communities or merely just me on expected good photo of WIP/completed project.

Just share something i know. Before i own a DSLR, i also using a compact camera, its quiet handy once u got the tricks. The pro of compact camera are its light in weight and u can carry it anyway, and it easier when u taking some WIP photo.

I'm using a Canon Power Shot A400. (It been with me for over 5 yrs and it still working very well)

1. Get to know ur camera
Before starting, do spend some time on the manual, it does help you figuring out where to find the particular function.

As u can see they're different color box, and here's the function.
White: Capturing mode
1. Photo View
2. Manual/Auto mode
3. Preset mode (portrait, Night Scene, Foliage, Snow, etc)
4. Video Mode

Green: Zoom in / out

Red: Menu for setting such as LCD brightness, Print order, date/time etc.

Pink: Macro/ Landscape

Yellow: Function/ delete. When in live view it will enter function (will show u later), while in photo viewing it be deleting.

Blue: Flash.

Only show those frequently use button, and ignore other rarely use button.

2. Snap your WIP project
To snap a close-up photo, select the macro mode which most of the camera will be indicate with flower icon. Half press the button, this enable the camera to focus on the object, most of the camera will have indicator in the LCD, such as this,
Or it will have sound "beep" when the object is in focus. Then fully press the button and the picture snap.

Example:
Out-of-focus

In focus


Snap ur completed project
Its an enjoyable progress here, where u finally finish ur project and want to show it to the world, and you want to make look really pro, even with a compact camera. So here's some tips i got. Some illustration to give u the brief idea.

Ok, what most important in snapping a sharp and nice photo are lightsource. U need sufficient of it, even the ceiling florescent light seem dark in photo.
LightSource
Option 1: Sunlight, either place ur project near window or take it outdoor. Time i suggested are those time where the sun is not too bright, bright sun will cast heavy shadow on ur project, and we try to avoid that.

Option 2: Table lamp, you need 2 or more lamp to eliminate unwanted shadow, or u can replace one with reflective material such as aluminum foil, shining pla-plate etc. to bounce back the light and soften the shadows.

Background
Background is to cover the unpleasant environment and draw the attention to ur project. White background can reflect lights as well, making ur project 'shining'. Can try with different background and have different effect. Make sure the background is big enough to cover all of ur project.

Project
Try different angle of the kits, and ... u'll know which angle is the best.

Example:
How the project been place..

Outcome

Its taken with compact camera. Lightsource is the sun light.

Diffuse your lights
Direct light/flash can lead to harsh shadow/lighting such as this.

Actually its overexposed :lol: and I dun like direct flash... :cry:

To overcame this problem, you need to diffuse the lights, but if using sunlight no need to diffuse just need to bounce the light.
Here's some illustration again.

Reflector
If using a white shining background than its not necessary, but if using darker color, better use the reflector.
Can either be a shining pla-plate or aluminum foil glue on a cardboard.

Lightbox
Purpose of the lightbox is to filter and soften the light. Usually u can use tracing paper, mahjong paper, A4 paper if its thin enough.
Here's some example of DIY lightbox (Photo borrowed fr Druid_99 member of another forum)
Make from recycle paper box and some mahjong paper and with few tapes.


Outcome


U can adjust the distance of lights, layer of paper and get the satisfying photo u want. Even the background can be change.
Here's my lightbox.

Outcome:

Basically this is the usage of lightbox, so u guys can start building one.

[beckylaw]

Another function of camera to share here, this time its about white balance/color balance. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_balance

Usually it been use for the color correction, and to achieve neutral color. e.g. a WHITE paper under RED light bulb it'll show RED color instead of WHITE, therefore we need to neutralize the red light and capture the paper in WHITE.

Sometime you will see picture turn out to be yellow/orange under tungsten lighting and turn bluish under florescent lighting, this is because light have color temperature, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

Ok, i cut this short and do a experiment for better understanding.

Check your camera for White Balance setting

1. Auto White Balance: The camera will decide the white balance for you, sometimes it not function very well.
2. Day Light: Use under daylight, not sure which daylight it refer to....... morning, noon, evening???
3. Cloudy: Use under cloudy weather.
4. Tungsten: Use under tungsten/warm light.
5. Fluorescent: Use under fluorescent light.
6. Fluorescent Halogen: Use under halogen light.
7. Custom: custom set the white balance by pointing the white surface and snap, the camera will evaluate suitable white balance. (I use this most of the time during BAKUC, to neutralize the surrounding lights.)

This time i capture my Revoltech Eva 01, under a tungsten light.


1. AWB


2. Day Light


3. Cloudy


4. Tungsten


5. Fluorescent


6. Fluorescent H


7. Custom


Only one light source from left, therefore you can notice shadow at the right, background should be white, and shadow should be gray, now try and find which one closer to that. In this case, it would be Tungsten.

Here's a photo capture with DSLR under custom white balance, and with flash (proper lighting).


If you think all of this setting is frustrating, you can actually achieve the same result by Photoshop or any of your favorite photo editing software. Have fun and shoot more. =X =X

[beckylaw]

For the coming guides, u need to forgot what i mentioned in previous posts, forgot about casting a harsh shadow, forgot about neutralize the surrounding light.

Here i like to show u guys how to get mysterious photo out of ur Gunpla/collection.

What u need is, to confine ur light/flash in small area, in photography it can be done by using a tools call honeycomb.

I DIY a honeycomb by using black color drinking straws. Black absorb lights, that's what we want.





For compact camera, setup such as this.

Only do it in night, turn off other light and put the honeycomb on the table lamp, aim it to your subject.

Photo shooting with my Canon A400

Setting:
Exp: -2 (Read here for more info, My Blog)
ISO:100
Macro mode On (Flower Icon)
Use tripod to achieve this steady shot, as you can't control the shuttle speed for compact camera, so beware of shaky hand.

Now to add in the different mood for the pic, you can use colored transparent sheets.


Photo below are shot with DSLR, honeycomb mount on a wireless flash.
ISO: 100
Shuttle speed: 1/1000 sec
Custom White Balance: 4700k
Aperture: 3.5

Without any color sheet.

Green

Purple

Blue

Yellow


Hmmm, i prefer the Blue one, what bout u guys -_-

Either u are a DSLR or compact user, u still can achieve similar effect.
DSLR user got the advantage that it can be capture in anytime, not only during night time.

Happy shooting guys

[drgunpla]

thks for the comprehensive tutorial sis.. saw it first on MAC forums, good reference material, something new crops up with each read.. will be checking back from time to time.. Good Work !!

[Rayloke]

Sis, this is just lovely!

Simple to understand with so many examples!!!! *Salute!

[Phoon]

I don't feel noob anymore after reading your tutorial. Great tut and appreciated your sharing.

[GundamTS]

Very good TIPS

[banzai]

I should get a real camera for this really... The phone camera is great for WIP's but its pretty lousy for finished pieces. Gotta got a little cardboard box setup too, that looked easy to make!

[gollum3]

very nice tutorial, thank you for sharing photography tips

[beckylaw]

Glad it help, my photography setup had change again, I didn't use light box anymore, just one table lamp to do the work.

Here is the outcome