Photography Help

[mccoyed]

So since my Landscape Help thread went so well with folks weighing in with tips, links to helpful tutorials, etc I thought I'd try it with photography as it has been my #1 greatest challenge with taking the Lego MOCist's hobby to the next level. A lot of people suggest using daylight or taking builds outside. It's impossible for me to take my stuff outside safely and I get fairly poor daylight except in the evening and it's not ideal even then. I've seen some tips and general tutorials out there but usually they are very unspecific (use white backgrounds, use daylight, etc). One part of my problem may be that I use a Galaxy Samsung S3 to take pictures with but I don't have regular access to a better camera.

Some background:

I have a poor setup, I think, living on the 9th floor of an East-facing apartment. I have a North-facing kitchen window where my Lego table and wife's art table are set up. I had a light box, which I was using for pics before, but that was destroyed by wind (it's very windy where I'm from) when I tried to take it outside to get some natural light. That lightbox was much too small for the kinds of large MOCs I'd like to make and I had a heckuva time photographing the 32x32 I did for Phase 2 of Warlords of Nocturnus. Because I get poor light, I have to use lamps to try and generate enough light for good pictures. I have two table lamps, I use a 100w halogen light in each (can only be turned on for limited times) and the dining area light which is terrible.

In lieu of a lightbox, here's my current photograph area:

So you get the idea. Some light (less than it looks here) comes through that window. I think people would suggest first and foremost that I capture that light by moving the table out and flipping the sheets around so the light from the window hits the build instead of sitting behind it. I get that, but it's difficult to do in my apartment so I'd like to find an artificial solution if possible.

Here's an example of the lighting quality I've been able to achieve at the limits of my own knowledge and imagination about how to use my situation.

As you can see, it's not terrible. Those dents in the backboard aren't nice, but I don't think I'll be using a solid board for background again. More likely I'll go back to using a more pliable white poster paper. I haven't experimented with white fabric as I've seen some use. Anyway, this level of quality does not make me very happy and it's kind of demoralizing that no matter how good I get at the building, I'll never be able to match presentation because I just have no idea what I'm doing! So that's where GoH comes in. If you guys out there, and you know who you are, who have great presentation skills can help out with some tips and ideas... I'd be mighty grateful.

[Lord Vladivus]

A white roller blind, of the kind you get from IKEA etc, has served me well recently- gives a solid, smooth background, and is large enough to display some fairly large MOCs. A decent camera, and daylight bulbs are useful additions. I've had to actually head back to my trusty iPhone5, as my camera has broken. I'm not much of a photographer though, I'm constantly trying to make it better. Oh, plus some white boards to reflect light back in towards the MOC.

[mccoyed]

Thanks LV, but I don't know what half that stuff is. I don't have an IKEA nearby so I'm not sure what a roller blind is but I'll google it. I also don't know what "daylight" bulbs are. I have plenty of white boards and poster paper though, just not in very large sheets as can be seen in those photos.

I forgot, though, that my wife has a large UV lamp. I'm gonna try to finish out this WoN Phase 3 build/photoshoot with that to help the light setup. It makes a pretty big difference, actually.

[Gideon]

White roller curtain (the kind that blocks all light) from Ikea works very well for me. So glad I don't have to start every photo session with ironing a sheet and still don't get all the wrinkles out

Since natural light seems to be a problem I think if you do obtain a decent camera, I would not rule out using a flash for light. Just make sure to get one you can point away from the build onto another surface like a white roof (that's what I do) or get a softbox/umbrella. But now we're talking more serious photo setups.

[Kayne]

So, here is a tutorial that helped me a lot with photography.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=73917

That being said, here are simple ways to improve photgraphy. If you go to a Home Depot(or whatever you have around). You can get clamp lights http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-150-Watt-Incandescent-Clamp-Light-HD-300PDQ/205031467 that you can put daylight bulbs into. A daylight bulb is just the color spectrum that it represents. These are typically in a bluish package. You will find them in Flourescent or LED varieties. I bought a 4 pack of Daylight 100 watt CFL bulbs http://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-23-Watt-100W-Daylight-CFL-Light-Bulb-4-Pack-E-ES5M8234RS50K/202913023 to go in the Clamp lights. I use 3 Clamp lights for my setup. I have one above shining down(about 3 feet away), and one from the front right and one from the front left(also both about 3 feet away). These give plenty of light to the creation. I have also used a white sheet in front of the bulbs at times if I have a glare problem off of the bricks. Then, I use these corrugated plastic sheets for the background http://www.homedepot.com/p/Plaskolite-18-in-x-24-in-Corrugated-Plastic-Sheet-1TW1824A/202043334 I totally copied Hinkley from his tutorial in how I put it together. It is just 3 of them to form the bottom corner of a cube.

If I have a smaller build I put the sheet right over the top of the 'cube' and move the lights in closer. Then, to finish it all off I use Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 2 (CS2) which is freeware to edit the photography.

So, finally here is the link to the photoshop tutorial http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39134

Hope this helps!

[mccoyed]

I grabbed a roller blind from walmart and will experiment with it soon. As for all the help, thanks so much guys! I will look at that tutorial, Kayne, but I suspect I'll wind up getting a lot of mileage out of your Home Depot suggestions as well. We have Home Depot in my city so a product guide for stuff I can actually get is super helpful. Also, the definition of "daylight bulb" helps tons because I do not believe I have those now.

[Simon_S]

Try to set your exposure/brightness a little bit higher on your camera. I have no idea how well that works on your phone, so if it doesn't, just use more/brighter lights. The sharpness of the pictures looks enough good (could only be improved by a better camera or a stand/tripod if you don't use one yet).

So the photography you have showed in the OP isn't bad, but it also isn't very good. Editing it on the computer would be the easiest way to improve it a lot .

Edited July 2, 2014 by Simon_S

[mccoyed]

I think my wife's UV lamp has helped, as can be seen in the WoN Phase 3 thread I posted today. That said, the further away I get from the build (for overview shots and the like), the less good the lighting. In fact, it seems that my phone works best with my lighting conditions when I am partially zoomed in. No idea why.