Taking pictures and proper lighting need suggestions...

[Tanker52]

I have a Kodak EasyShare C653 6.1 megapixel digital camera. Over all is a nice camera and I have had great results. But for taking pics of my builds is a different case. My pictures either come out to dark or to wash out. I tried the predefined screen settings but had no luck. So far I have the camera set to auto for white balance, auto ISO, exposure meter set to center-weight, and focus zone set to center zone. Any suggestions on camera settings? I think I may have my lamps to close to the subject. I have two 60 watt incandescent bulbs that are 24 inches apart with the subject palced in the middle. The light up above is two 40 watt florescent which being a different light may be an issue too. I may need to cut off the florescant and place another 60 watt light behind me. What type of lights do you use when taking pictures and how far away are the lamps from the subject?

 

[fumblethumbs]

Great questions Tanker!! Thanks for posting them. Unfortunately, I don't have any answers for you but I'll be looking for advice here too!! My photos are inconsistent at best ;D

 

[Splashcoat]

One problem you might be having is that you're mixing your light sources. Incandescents have a different colour temperature than flourescents and the mix might be messing up your camera's metering or auto white ballance. White ballance adjusts for the colour temperature of the light source and incandescents (a "warm" light) and flourescents (cool) are just too far apart for most cameras to deal with. Try manually white ballancing with just one light source.

Also, if your camera is capable, use a manual shutter/iris mode. If you iris down the camera as much as possible (the larger the f-stop number, the smaller the iris opening) and then experiment with exposure settings, you'll increase the depth of field (front-to-back focus depth) and have better control over the exposure. I usually shoot at f22 with an exposure around 1 second using daylight-ballanced photo lights. You'll need to put the camera on a tripod if you expose for this long, it's impossible to hold the camera steady enough by hand. If your camera doesn't have a remote shutter release, try using the auto-timer so that you don't shake the camera when you fire the shutter.

 

[Junkie]

Great tips and that's one nice photo.

A white kit on a white background is tricky...but that looks awesome.

 

[spud]

I have 1 light I use a colored back ground. I boune the flash off either the wall or ceiling, for my latest pics in my Stryker build I bounced off the wall,

Settings F/ 9 to 18 will be good enough. For the wb play with the settings if you have so many lights and pick a setting that looks good, for me I just use auto. Iso mine is at 50-100 I don't like to go over this because you get better quality pics.

Does your camera have different shooting modes? On mine I use tv or av mode it's like an advanced auto mode and it's handy for this no need for ful manual

Tripod or a few books is a must, and use the timer mode.

Also if you have a macro lense or macro mode try that. My last pics I used a macro lens

 

[JohnSimmons]

These are all great tips, also there's the program 'paint.net' that Ken told me about. It's free and can realy make your photos shine.

 

[spud]

if your camera can shoot in raw you will need either photoshop or teh software that cam with it to edit the raw files if not dont worry about it

 

[Tanker52]

Great ideas. I am going to experiment this weekend. I will post my results.

@ spud yeah my camera has several different shooting modes. I will experiment with these. I will also put the camera on a tripod to prevent me from shaking the camera. I think this is part of my problem too.

@ splashcoat great pic, thanks for the suggestions and feedback on camera settings.

 

[JMac]

A while ago I asked a similar set of questions - some of the guys posted some really useful tips in this thread-

http://www.scalemodeladdict.com/forum/index.php/topic,3297.0.html

Really has helped my photos.

Jason

 

[Tanker52]

@ JMac thanks for the link

Here are the results of my new approach to taking pictures. I purchased some blue poster board, put the camera on the tripod, flouresant light only, and set the camera to auto. Here are two pics that I think turned out nice. Better than any I have taken before. Shutter speed is 1/60 sec, f-stop 3, and ISO 80. The blue backgorund really makes the difference and helps bring out the details on the model. It almost looks like the tank in floating in space. The third pic is for comparsion which shows the poor quality of not having a uniform background and not having the camera on a tripod. Thanks for everyon's suggestions and advice. I looking forward to more picture taking...

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[spud]

Big difference tanker, keep playing around with the settings, you will get a clearer pic by going to f/9 the lower the f/ stop number the more out of focus they will be the higher the more in focus it will be.

 

[Splashcoat]

@ JMac thanks for the link

Here are the results of my new approach to taking pictures. I purchased some blue poster board, put the camera on the tripod, flouresant light only, and set the camera to auto. Here are two pics that I think turned out nice. Better than any I have taken before. Shutter speed is 1/60 sec, f-stop 3, and ISO 80. The blue backgorund really makes the difference and helps bring out the details on the model. It almost looks like the tank in floating in space. The third pic is for comparsion which shows the poor quality of not having a uniform background and not having the camera on a tripod. Thanks for everyon's suggestions and advice. I looking forward to more picture taking...

Looks great! That's the key, just keep experimenting with different settings until you get the the result that you're looking for. If I could make another suggestion; try turning off your camera's flash. When shooting in auto mode, most cameras will still fire a low-powered fill flash even if there is enough light for a proper exposure. I've found that using a flash really washes out colours when used at close range. Greys and light yellows can practically turn white if the flash hits them just right. Additionally, the flash can sometimes give you unwanted reflections, highlights or complete elimination of shadowed areas that ruin the scale appearence of certain models... figures are particularly susceptible to this effect. Keep up the great work!

 

[spud]

i bounce my flash off the celing or the wall behind and it works great for me, could because my room is ony 8x10

 

[Splashcoat]

A bounce will help but I still prefer to take the flash out of the mix altogther. Try both and see what gives you better results for your particular set-up. Be carefull if your ceiling isn't white, that can give you an interesting colour cast which you might not be looking for

 

[Grendels]

I usually turn the flash off as well.

 

[Capt_Taggert]

I'm a professional photographer and can offer some advice. First, turn off the auto setting. Cameras are designed to shoot an exposure that's balanced for neutral grey %18. That's why when you shoot a white subject on a white background it all looks grey. The auto setting can really mess up a photo. Use manual setting whenever possible. Control, control, control. Shoot at your highest available aperature. Depth of field is critical with small models.
Second, use a tripod.
Third, lighting. Mixing light types (eg. Florescence and Tungsten) is not recommended. The reason is that these lights produce different color temperatures, and when you white balance for one, it's out of balance for the other. Stick with either Florescence or Tungsten. There's no hard and fast rule for light placement except to light what you want to see and don't light what you don't want to see. Start with one light overhead and move it around till you see what you like, add a light and move it around and so on. I've seen really nice photos using one light and really nice ones using 5 lights. Small white cards can bounce light back onto your subject.
Keep a clean simple background Blue is very popular but white or grey is great as long as you expose properly.
The key to shooting is control. Control over your exposure and control over your lighting and control over your background.

 

[spud]

some good tips there but you really dont need to to manual mode, I dont and i get great results, at least i think i do For me a Cannon user i Mainly use AV mode for just pics of models but any other time ill do Manual,

My light setup is my FLash for now really need some light over my area for taking pics tough mabe one day

 

[sunsanvil]

Lighting tip if you don't want to buy lights: take your background and kit outside on a overcast day (NOT sunny). PERFECT light for photographing models (just not the most convenient).

 

[Junkie]

I have access to two cameras...an expensive Canon Rebel and an inexpensive point and click. I get WAY better photos with the point and click. I've tried every setting on the Rebel and am constantly frusterated by the crappy photos I take.

 

[sunsanvil]

Don't fret, Just bring that Rebel to CAMS and I'll dispose of it for you.