Technic Photography

[Bricktrain]

Adam and I might have to meet together somewhere for a photo session. This was just a phone pic I quickly took today.

[therealjustin]

8070 V10 Spider

[Jim]

8070 V10 Spider

O yes....nice nice nice!!

[tismabrick]

Out in nature and grabbed directly from the video.

[Jim]

An excavator with a harddisk mounted in the back, you don't see that every day

[Jay Psi]

An excavator with a harddisk mounted in the back, you don't see that every day

You could say it's for ...

->

... data mining.

[Jim]

:laugh: :laugh:

You made my day

[tismabrick]

The harddisk is actually used to store its program on it.

It's a fairly complex one that's why I had to use a 2TB disk.

Will post more about this funny harddisk moc soonish. Stay tuned. :)

[Lipko]

A 2 TB program is "fairly complex"..... . That's HAL 9000 controlling the excavator?

[sm1995]

8070 V10 Spider

What a stunning picture!

[MRP_]

This should be called Technic Pornography. ^^

there's this thing called subtlety

[syclone]

This should be called Technic Pornography. ^^

LOL ,after this post I read the topic's name wrong everytime

[MRP_]

ye me too, I always consider saying something about it but I didn't want Jim to yell at me, so I guess thanks Micek for being the first to say it...

[BusterHaus]

Simple camera mount using two parts 3738.  The screw - taken from a tripod shoe - is 1/4" in diameter so the hole was enlarged using a drill bit.

The mount is very solid and gives access to all controls and, more importantly, gives access to the battery/memory card bay without removing the plates.

This is the first time I modified Lego parts.  The results are very good, but I'm not planning to make it a habit.

 

Edited January 21, 2017 by BusterHaus

[doug72]

On 1/20/2017 at 5:16 AM, BusterHaus said:

Simple camera mount using two parts 3738.  The screw - taken from a tripod shoe - is 1/4" in diameter so the hole was enlarged using a drill bit.

The mount is very solid and gives access to all controls and, more importantly, gives access to the battery/memory card bay without removing the plates.

This is the first time I modified Lego parts.  The results are very good, but I'm not planning to make it a habit.

This is the mount I use to hold my Canon Power Shot A2300 camera.

IMG_4255 by Doug Ridgway, on Flickr

Edited January 22, 2017 by Milan
Removed quoted image from previous post.

[Myers Lego Technic]

   Hello all!  I was wondering about your preferences of cameras and lenses in Technic photography.

 I am currently using a Cannon E0S Rebel T5 with a 50-250mm telephoto lens for taking pictures from 5' + away from the model. Is this a similar setup top what you all would use?  I have invested in a tripod and it is going quite well for me, but would you suggest changing anything in my setup? different lenses or distances? Thank you.  

Sincerely, 

-Myers Lego Technic 

Edited January 20, 2017 by Myers Lego Technic

[zux]

I think you have already a good start. Instead of spending more money on camera gear I would suggest focusing on lighting setup - extra lights, reflectors and screens. Shooting on cloudy day is another great option that hardly requires any investment, like a reflector to give some light from opposite model side.

Crop, brightness and contrast adjustment in Photoshop/GIMP is also recommended.

[dr_spock]

I use shock absorbers to hold my camera.  I think it is ok since my P&S camera is supposed be shock-proof up to 1 meter.  

 

3 hours ago, Myers Lego Technic said:

   Hello all!  I was wondering about your preferences of cameras and lenses in Technic photography.

 I am currently using a Cannon E0S Rebel T5 with a 50-250mm telephoto lens for taking pictures from 5' + away from the model. Is this a similar setup top what you all would use?  I have invested in a tripod and it is going quite well for me, but would you suggest changing anything in my setup? different lenses or distances? Thank you.  

Sincerely, 

-Myers Lego Technic 

My preference is a camera that works and has manual modes.      What do you find lacking in your current setup?

[Myers Lego Technic]

@dr_spock

My Rebel has some good manual functions, (Shutter speed, focus, etc.) but could have more.

In my setup I was purely looking for information about lighting, shadows, Photoshop, etc. currently  I have been using adobe elements, and finding it OK.,  

[agrof]

I had some spare time, so I experienced a bit in my Off-road garage. Unfortunatelly low light + no camera stand, so the result is not very good, but maybe worth to share.

Enjoy! 

Edited January 22, 2017 by agrof

[BusterHaus]

On 1/20/2017 at 5:56 PM, Myers Lego Technic said:

@dr_spock

My Rebel has some good manual functions, (Shutter speed, focus, etc.) but could have more.

That's a nice camera you have. Your lens has a good zoom, which isn't usually required when shooting Lego models.  The zoom can be used to blur the background, but in studio work I would move the camera closer to the model and use the lens towards the 50mm side. It will help you keep the whole model in focus.

[dr_spock]

On 1/20/2017 at 5:56 PM, Myers Lego Technic said:

@dr_spock

My Rebel has some good manual functions, (Shutter speed, focus, etc.) but could have more.

In my setup I was purely looking for information about lighting, shadows, Photoshop, etc. currently  I have been using adobe elements, and finding it OK.,  

Your Rebel is fine for LEGO work.  You can experiement shooting at different distances and focal lengths to see if the "look" is what you like.  At 5' and 50mm and f11, you can get a bit over 9.5cm of depth of field.

There are many options for lighting depending your budget and preferences.  Sunlight would be least expensive.  Being in Canada and winter, its availability might be a bit hard to work with at the moment.  Continuous lighting can be as simple as 1-3 desk or clamp lamps to expensive professional light.  Strobe lighting can be battery powered Canon Speedlite flashes to bigger more powerful AC powered strobes. There is also an array of different light modifiers for them like softboxes, umbrella, snoots, reflectors, etc.

I think continuously lighting is easier to work with as you can see what you're getting and adjust the placements of the lights.  I find for LEGO, flashes work best off camera. If you don't have a off camera way to trigger the flash(es), bouncing the flash off the ceiling or reflectors is still better than shooting the straight onto the LEGO.  You can angle a white card in front the Rebel's built-in flash to bounce and diffuse the light.

I used to use Elements.  I have been using the free GIMP lately which is fine for a few photos every now and then.  If you have many photos you have to go through and edit often, you may want to look at something like Lightroom or Phase One Capture.  In which case, you can also shoot in the RAW format which allows more "fixing" possiblities than JPEG. Canon Rebel also comes with a RAW editor called DPP (Digital Photo Professional) on one of the CDs that came with the camera.

 

[WvG_853]

3 hours ago, dr_spock said:

If you have many photos you have to go through and edit often, you may want to look at something like Lightroom or Phase One Capture.  In which case, you can also shoot in the RAW format which allows more "fixing" possiblities than JPEG.

 

I second the use of Lightroom. Price has come down seriously since the first version and it is a good investment IMO for any serious photographer. Photo editing capabilities are largely sufficient for me,  I never use Photoshop any more. You can assign metadata/keyword allowing you to retrieve your pictures easier.

I always set my camera to create both a RAW and a JPEG file. Like this I can share the JPEG quickly if needed, but have the RAW for possible editing.

[Jim]

I second too, or is that called I third?!  

Lightroom....Lightroom....Lightroom.....indeed! I can't live without Lightroom. Did I mention Lightroom by the way?

Make sure you have sharp pictures, by using a tripod and a higher F setting, like f/11 or higher. I use even higher values like f/19. Go for Av (or Manual), choose RAW  and let the camera do its work (taking a picture can take several seconds). After importing in Lightroom, you can do pretty much anything you want.

On 20-1-2017 at 6:14 PM, Myers Lego Technic said:

I am currently using a Cannon E0S Rebel T5 with a 50-250mm telephoto lens for taking pictures from 5' + away from the model. Is this a similar setup top what you all would use?  I have invested in a tripod and it is going quite well for me, but would you suggest changing anything in my setup? different lenses or distances? Thank you.  

Get yourself the Nifty Fifty, Plastic Fantastic, 50 mm prime lens! It's the cheapest lens available (around 100 bucks), but it's so good! Be aware that it doesn't have zoom, so you will need 3 meters if you want to capture the entire 42009 (for example). 

https://petapixel.com/2015/05/11/canon-unveils-the-50mm-f1-8-stm-the-new-nifty-fifty/

[Myers Lego Technic]

Thank you @Jim, and others! 

I am looking into adobe light room, and have my 50 mm arriving tomorrow. Thanks again for the great advice. 

-Myers