How to build a "photo studio"

[mescalinum]

That's a nice tip!

Do you have a sample picture of a LEGO model you shot like this? I am interested to how this works on an actual model.

I've made a quick test.

It is a quite difficult one to get right, because of the white (well, Very Light Bluish Gray) parts. Lighting of the subject is quite wrong, because I don't have good lamps, and I usually shoot during day to exploit sunlight from outside, while now it is night time.

The setup is slightly different from the scema I posted earlier in which I have a translucent white plexiglas board as background, which I lit from behind:

You can find the original and postprocessed shot here:

http://www.brickshel...tprocessing.jpg

http://www.brickshel...tprocessing.jpg

Note that postprocessed shot only applies some tone correction, but 100% white background is there also in the original unprocessed shot.

[dr_spock]

It looks like you are shooting a back lit object. What metering mode did you use?

[mescalinum]

Yes, that's because the lamp illuminating the back of the board (60W incandescence) is much stronger than my ambient light (1 cheap 8W CFL). I definitely need some proper lights with diffusers .

Also the two lights had different temperatures, and that produced a very awkward tone effect which I tried to fix in post-processing.

I shoot in manual mode, so my evaluative metering is of no effect. As I said I tune exposure (and lighting) until the background is fully overexposed, and no part of the subject is overexposed.

EDIT: I tried again with some lights I found here and there:

Those helped providing a better illumination to subject, avoiding the back-light effect:

Edited November 6, 2014 by mescalinum

[Lucio Switch]

Some of the older models make some of the tips impossible. I have a Nikon D70, one of the very early DSLRs. For example, I can only go down to ISO 200 and it is pretty well impossible to focus manually because there is no preview (you have to look through the tiny viewfinder). Other than that I was able to follow most of the tips and get pretty good results, though my images are not as sharp as Jim's.

Well, obviously between a 5MP DSLR and a 20MP DSLR some differences there must be, without mentioning everything else that a DSLR than 10 years younger, and of another level, should have. What I mean is that, it's not the camera that make all the difference, it's the knowledge of what are you doing, how to set the camera, the background and the lights in the proper mode. I'm using a Canon EOS 700D, it's a little less powerful than a 70D, but the differences between my pics and Jim's pics are not done by the camera.

In any case, your photos are already cool!!

[Jim]

@mescalinum Your pictures are really promising. The last one looks very natural!

Is it possible to have a clear white underground too, or is it very hard with a setup like this?

[mescalinum]

@Jim: it would be quite easy using this very same technique, but unfortunately I don't have a second white plexiglas board.

Using the direct lighting method requires more careful placing of multiple lights.

By the way, I'm working on improving my lighting equipment: I just built a softbox for less than 1€ using cardboard, tinfoil, duct tape, adhesive tape, glue, and a spare spotlight:

And, I'm using the other two desk lamps I found in my home. This is my setup:

And the corresponding shot:

(this time I went easier with saturating the background, it seems it helped a bit in having a crisper image)

P.S.: is it allowed to post photos of TC5 entries outside TC5 topics?

[dr_spock]

^^ Nice work on the softbox. Are you still using bulbs with different color temperatures?

[mescalinum]

yes

I definitely need a coherent set of lamps.

which temperature is recommended for digital photography?

[Thirdwigg]

All, thanks so much for your help. Can you give any suggesting for light bulbs that you are using in your lights?

Most of the suggestions given I should be able to implement. I'll try some of the suggestions tomorrow when I have to do another shoot. Most of my work will be on MAC, so I'll have to fool around with the post production for a little bit.

[dlefik2014]

Man, this topic and all the great info is absolutely awesome. Thanks Jim for your great tips too. Now, I know my input is rather pointless, but I don't do photography, but 3D work, and some of the concepts in here are incredibly helpful for lighting ideas in my renders. I feel kind of out of place jumping in here with this being about photography, but it's even a good source for me. Thanks for all the great stuff guys, and love your photos Jim. Very professional, but I'm sure you know that lol.

[dr_spock]

I like Philips daylight bulbs. They are around 5000K and readily available at Home Depot. If money is no object, there are professional lights and bulbs at camera shops.

[cgarison]

As I don't have room for a permanent photo booth, I toss a couple of whiteish poster boards on the sofa and use an inexpensive Vivitar flash off camera for light. The flash is bounced off the basement ceiling. I triggered the flash wirelessly using inexpensive Chinese radio triggers. I shoot in manual mode. It's quick and dirty, nothing fancy.

Fire Fighting Train by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

Despite owning portable studio equipment and some amazing lenses, I don't have the room in my condo (where I build the majority of my Lego creations) to actually setup an environment to get these kind of pictures. So I usually end up with a sheet on the side of a bed or the sofa to capture my work to post or wait until it is displayed in the wild. My GhostTrain 1.0 model is a perfect example of a model that I have completed but have not photographed because I am waiting until I am at a show in NJ to capture the MOC.

[KlodsBrik]

Sorry for upping this. But this comes in very useful when taking photos and editing them.

A big thank to everyone who contributed to this thread. Very helpfull for me .

Im sure a lot of other people will find this usefull as well.

EDIT:

Yesterday i got hold of these three lamps. They drop insane amount of light, which is good.

I got them at a very cheap price, for free actually. I so love good friends !

Ive only had them on for an hour before i took this photo and they dont seem to get very hot ( they are led ).

Now, what fabric can i cloth them with to make the "shine" dissapear. And please, cheap solutions. Im so caught up in bills these months.

They do seem to drop quite a "bluish" light onto the object at hand, which i figure is good for editing ?

All advice would be appreciated. Though ive loved taking pictures for a long time, ive never taken it as serious as now.

Edited November 12, 2015 by KlodsBrik

[kibosh]

If you're getting bluish light, or yellow for that matter, you may need to adjust your white balance. Your camera should have an option for this, or at the very least, options for preset white balance settings for different light sources.

Edited November 13, 2015 by kibosh

[Sven F]

If by "make the shine disappear" you mean you want to diffuse the light, then the cheapest solution is to put baking paper in front of the light source. Another option is to bounce the light, but then you loose a lot of light.

It would be better to use a kind of box first. for example you can cut out a slot in the bottom of a white paint bucket (it has to be white), place the cutout over the light and cover the bucket with non-stick baking paper.

I don't know if LED's are now used in photography, but I wouldn't really want them either way, LED's have a much narrower light spectrum, even when they are a warm color, they can never achieve the same effect as tungsten lamps, and LED's are very hard to project softly. the technology has evolved significantly in recent years, but still not enough to replace tungsten.

[Jim]

If you're getting bluish light, or yellow for that matter, you may need to adjust your white balance. Your camera should have an option for this, or at the very least, options for preset white balance settings for different light sources.

Agreed! Or you can adjust the WB in Lightroom/Photoshop/...

I always postprocess my pictures in Lightroom and I always adjust the WB.

Another thing you can try is pointing the lamps upwards, instead of pointing at the model. This will result in less shine.

[KlodsBrik]

If you're getting bluish light, or yellow for that matter, you may need to adjust your white balance. Your camera should have an option for this, or at the very least, options for preset white balance settings for different light sources.

Its indeed very little. But i can definately adjust it on my camera ( Canon EOS40D with an EFS17-85mm lens )

If by "make the shine disappear" you mean you want to diffuse the light, then the cheapest solution is to put baking paper in front of the light source. Another option is to bounce the light, but then you loose a lot of light.

It would be better to use a kind of box first. for example you can cut out a slot in the bottom of a white paint bucket (it has to be white), place the cutout over the light and cover the bucket with non-stick baking paper.

I don't know if LED's are now used in photography, but I wouldn't really want them either way, LED's have a much narrower light spectrum, even when they are a warm color, they can never achieve the same effect as tungsten lamps, and LED's are very hard to project softly. the technology has evolved significantly in recent years, but still not enough to replace tungsten.

Yes, kinda ment difuse the light.I meant, i can se the reflection from the lamps/led´s in the pictures. Which offcourse isnt good. I will try with the baking paper. Thanks.

I should have mentioned that i work in quite a narrow space now. After christmas though, my girlfriend has allowed me to set up a "real" lightbox in another room.

I dont know much about leds neither, but the guy who gave them to me works as an electrician with light daily. He said he have seen some use these for taking photos, and he did mention that most use the "umbrella" type setup with these, shown a page back. But i surely have no space for trying that out right now. They were leftovers from a tv studio he had worked on.

Their is no printing on the lamps whatsoever so i have no clue how to get info on them. Gonna contact my friend after the weekend since hes occupied till then. Maybe i can get some more info on them then.

Thanks guys for helping me out . Much appreciated

Another thing you can try is pointing the lamps upwards, instead of pointing at the model. This will result in less shine.

Ahhh , offcourse, i will try to point them upwards as well. Geees, didnt even think of that . Thanks

Edited November 13, 2015 by KlodsBrik

[dr_spock]

Sorry for upping this. But this comes in very useful when taking photos and editing them.

A big thank to everyone who contributed to this thread. Very helpfull for me .

Im sure a lot of other people will find this usefull as well.

EDIT:

Yesterday i got hold of these three lamps. They drop insane amount of light, which is good.

I got them at a very cheap price, for free actually. I so love good friends !

Ive only had them on for an hour before i took this photo and they dont seem to get very hot ( they are led ).

Now, what fabric can i cloth them with to make the "shine" dissapear. And please, cheap solutions. Im so caught up in bills these months.

They do seem to drop quite a "bluish" light onto the object at hand, which i figure is good for editing ?

All advice would be appreciated. Though ive loved taking pictures for a long time, ive never taken it as serious as now.

You can use tissue paper, white cloth, printer paper, etc. to diffuse the light. Try different things and see what works for you. Double check to make sure the material is not getting to fire hot.

You can try setting your camera white balance to flourescent to see if that helps with the blue. If your camera supports manual white balance, you can try that too. You can also fix the WB in postprocessing.

[Andy D]

I keep coming back to this thread. I have been thinking and gathering stuff for a photography set-up, but I am so far unhappy with my results.

I enjoy the DIY aspect and as such I have gathered a few clamp lights, built some PVC light stands, but my table/backdrop elludes me. So far I have been just using a couple of white foam core boards but they are a PITA to set up and use. Every time I get to this thread I see Jim's set up with the sweeping grey backdrop and table and try to think how I could make something like that work in my area. Well I do not have room to make a dedicated photography area, so it needs to be collapsible.

Has anyone used a fabric backdrop (which could be rolled up) and maybe a folding table? I guess what I am trying to figure out is how well I could get a sweep backdrop with fabric on some sort of stand rolled up and then unroll the fabric and lay one end across the table when I want to shoot.

Does this sound feisable? Or would I forever be fighting wrinkles?

Thoughts appreciated...

Andy D

[Jim]

Hi Andy,

I think Mostlytechnic used somethin like that in his latest reviews:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=117984

[dr_spock]

I find the quickest setup and tear down is with large sheets of construction paper for $1 or less at the Dollar Store. They bend smoothly for a seamless background. Also when I'm done, I toss them on the top of a book shelf to keep them flat. Less effort than when I was using a light box and having fold it up to put it away. I've used color fabric inserts with my lightbox. Once they wrinkled, it's a pain to iron out the wrinkles.

[anothergol]

What you need is called a 'light tent'.

That's what I thought as well, and I bought one of those. It was a real piece of crap that wouldn't stand by itself, and was actually doing a poor job. I get it that it's supposed to diffuse light better & soften shadows, but it wasn't even doing that properly.

I then ditched it and got a large piece of white paper instead, and that worked much better for me.

The camera also helps, if the lights aren't enough. I use a Lumix LX100 and I'm really happy with the quality (not with the OS, though).

I'm using daylight (under a roof window) with 2 cheap, yellow lamps because that's all I found. While I wouldn't advise that (daylight is too variable and stronger & whiter lamps would be better), there's nothing Photoshop won't fix. It's just more time spent in it. Color correction & sharpening do a lot, even though I'm sure that the right setup will produce the right image out of the box, that's more time spared for the pro's who do that all day.

Oh and I'd avoid fabric backgrounds, even with good ironing they will suck. Good old rigid paper, that works well.

Edited January 5, 2016 by anothergol

[Gondorfan]

How can I show my Moc profesionally?

http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=103411

My Moc skills are great but my photography skills mean that my Moc is often overlooked

Edited January 7, 2016 by Gondorfan

[Jim]

You have a different challenge at hand....the size of your MOCs

You are most likely shooting on location, which means you have to deal with lighting on location.

What camera are you using?

[Trugga]

...Has anyone used a fabric backdrop (which could be rolled up) and maybe a folding table? I guess what I am trying to figure out is how well I could get a sweep backdrop with fabric on some sort of stand rolled up and then unroll the fabric and lay one end across the table when I want to shoot.

Does this sound feisable? Or would I forever be fighting wrinkles?

Thoughts appreciated...

Andy D

I use a "pop up background" - reversible black/white - if it is far enough away behind your subject, any creases should be out of focus.

This was taken on a circular smoked-glass coffe table, with a black cloth background. It's a long exposure with the light coming through a window:

www.loz.pics 241A5942 by Lawrence Fowler, on Flickr

Lawrence