Gideon

Excellent builds! Great to see the typical Robuko inventiveness let loose on Mitgardia as well

Succeeded in getting one last-minute CCC IX build done, which also is my HSS: Raising Livestock entry for Barqa. Now I'm going to see if my ideas for two relatively quick GoH builds will be possible to realize within 3 days. Happy New Year!

Ostrich Farming Ostrich meat is an common at the dinner tables of the South. Here, a merchant is stopping by to place an order from an ostrich farmer outside Barqa. This is my HSS: Raising Livestock build for Barqa.

Thanks for the extensive answer! It reminded me that I need to be better at controlling the exposure, usually I'm just putting a small piece of white paper at the edge of my shot to use as the reference when correcting the white balance afterwards if I'm not using a white background. The exposure is just something I do at the moment by adjusting the exposure compensation according to what I think look good. I'm usually shooting lego with aperture priority to be able to make the whole build sharp, but I didn't know that the focus should be 1/3 in...thanks for teaching me that! For lighting, strobes (does that term also include speedlights?) is what I would prefer to use as I'm shooting my pics indoors, and very often at like midnight when I can have peace and quiet to do that. Are there any drawbacks of using speedlights vs bigger strobes "with cords" (in terms of white balance etc), or does it just come down to things like power and recharge time etc? That I think is important to stress...too many times I've seen people explaining that their MOCs didn't turn out on the pics like they wanted because the camera was bad.

Most cameras are more than good enough to take great shots of Lego for computer/phone/tablet screen viewing, given that all the other circumstances are good. How many Lego pics get printed in much larger sizes than a large monitor? So put time and effort into improving the background and lighting, and learning how to use your camera to it's full potential before wasting any Lego money on new gear

For shooting pictures for viewing on screen, just about any camera will be able to make great lego pictures as long as the backdrop and lighting is good. I'm not getting a new camera because the lego shooting needs it, obviously my 8 year old Olympus (probably worth <$100 second hand now) still can do the trick. I'm so tired of people blaming their bad lego shots on a bad camera... If the camera is not broken or only something like a smartphone it is most certainly the handling and not the camera that needs to be improved A tripod is always good to keep the ISO down and hence the noise down, at least when shooting indoors with continous light rather than flash(es). Outdoors with enough light it might not be an issue to go hand-held, but I advice forcing a low ISO. Stepping down the aperture to get a long enough depth of field is more an issue with DSLRs (especially with larger sensors), a smaller camera with a smaller sensor has a longer depth of field and is actually easier to take those overview shots with (although of course not with the same image quality, but for only viewing on a screen it can be more than enough). Anyways, for stationary objects such as lego bricks, a cheap pocket camera stand and a chair (or just the chair ) does the trick, no need to go for fancy carbon composite tripods us photo nerds like or anything like that. So the bottom line imho: People shouldn't get frightened by what camera other people are using, mind the other parts of the setup and the settings of the camera instead. And most importantly: People should learn to use what gear they have rather than think that you need to spend a lot of money that could have been used on bricks while still not using the gear to it's full potential

My wife wrapped one of our unopened MMV 10193 as a gift for me I gave her a Santa's Workshop 10245, as all the winter buildings belong to her. (So no parting it out for me...) But my best semi-lego related christmas gift was some money from my parents to use towards buying a new camera.

Getting the lighting and the background right gets you most of the way to a "professional" look of your MOC pictures. The backdrop doesn't have to be fancy at all, just a paper or cloth with a uniform color that you can put the build on and curve it will get you a long way. This is how my backdrop setup looks like, using a cheap roller blind from IKEA and a drying rack I saved from being scrapped (hence the rusty parts): (I also have a white blind and will get a black one next time I go to IKEA as I'm slowly getting into some space building) The lighting on the other hand is an entire science (or maybe rather an art ). Never use the built-in flash pointed towards the build, you will get ugly reflections and shadows. Natural lighting outside on a cloudy day or in the shade works very well (point is: avoid direct sunlight). Natural light can however be in short supply here in the North, especially for us who are mostly taking the pictures when the kids are asleep... Presently, I'm using an external flash which I'm bouncing off the white roof and the white wall behind me (fortunately only one wall in the living room is black). Now to my question here: I'm looking into getting a more serious lighting setup with either studio flashes or use a couple of off-camera speedlights (slower to recharge and less powerful but no messy cables) mounted on stands. Right now I'm gravitating towards trying to equip my old Olympus flash with an external trigger to use it as one of the off-camera flashes and use a Nikon (probably SB700) I'm planning to get for my new camera. There are however quite cheap studio flash kits which doesn't cost much more than just buying all the stuff around the flashes. But as I already have one flash and need to get a new Nikon one, I'm thinking I might start out that way at least as long as I can find a reasonable triggering solution for my old flash and don't end up selling it along with the old camera. So far I also havn't been able to make up my mind on if I'm going to get umbrellas (shoot-through or reflective) or softboxes... Regardless of type, umbrellas at least seems more affordable and easier to put up/take down. So, any good advice on how to build good MOC studio lighting setup?

Nikon vs Canon was a hard decision but finally I settled on Nikon due to the superior sensors and AF in the price range I was considering. Still not entirely sure I made the right decision however, Canon seems to have a superior lens lineup... I was looking at getting that one or the D7100, but I got convinced by a couple of crazy photography enthusiast friends that full-frame was the future. After pulling the ace card "the kids are only small once, better ensure that we can take good pictures", my wife surprisingly approved me buying a D750 Since I am switching system I also had to get new lenses. Aside from the crazily affordable kit lens 24-85 f/3.5-4.5, I also ended up ordering a quite affordable fast prime lens (50mm f/1.8) and a not so affordable tele zoom (70-200 f/4). My hope is that I'll be able to take most indoor pictures of the kids with the fast prime and mostly use the telezoom at more of a distance when documenting them playing outdoors. I don't know yet however if 70mm is short enough to use for all lego photography or if I'll have to use another lens for the overview shots of larger builds. Anyway, as you might realize from my listing here this kind of stuff totaly can get out of hand...in this case to the point that after I'd placed the orders on the camera and lenses my bank called me and wanted to verify that no one had hijacked my credit card (!!). I've probably spend the equal of a couple of years lego budget in an afternoon... I've found out now when reading/watching camera reviews that there are tons of great tutorials (and even more not so great of course) on product photography out there...which after all photographing lego is. It seems to me like most are advocating a two-flash setup, which I'm eager to get to be able to control the lighting more freely. Especially getting light in underneath roofs/other protruding parts of a build can be tricky with my usual "bounce the flash off the ceiling" technique. So as I mentioned earlier, my plan is to get either stands for two speedlights with umbrellas or get a cheap studio flash kit with umbrellas or softboxes. Right now I'm gravitating towards trying to equip my old Olympus flash with an external trigger to use it as one of the off-camera flashes and use a future Nikon flash (probably a SB700 when my credit card has cooled off a bit, I need a new one as I'm not going to try putting another brand's flash with differend pin configuration on my new camera with the risk of frying it and/or the camera). There are however quite cheap studio flash kits (I've found one for about €160 which has two flashes with stands and umbrellas included) which doesn't cost much more than just buying all the stuff around the flashes. But as I already have one flash and need to get a new Nikon one, I might start out that way at least as long as I can find a reasonable triggering solution for my old flash and don't end up selling it along with the old camera. For taking pictures of an entire build I would strongly suggest using a tripod, as getting enough depth of field is crucial to get top notch images. To achieve that it's necessary to step down the aperture (higher f-number) quite a bit and as the ISO should also be low to avoid noise a tripod is best to be able to have a long enough shutter speed. (Seems like all product photographers are using a tripod at least). Another good reason for shooting from a tripod is that it is possible to fine-tune the parameters while maintaining the same composition, which is a plus for people like me who like to tinker with quite exact camera angles to show the right parts of a build while hiding where I've taken shortcuts (yes, that has happened more than once). I actually try to think of the camera angles already in the layout phase when I'm starting a new build. Taking closeups is easier to do handheld however as you then typically want to shoot with a larger aperture (smaller f-number) to get a short depth of field and a nice background blur. I'm planning to use my telezoom for those shots, and perhaps also the fast 50mm prime. Anyway, apologize for deviating a bit off topic...I have to blame the fact that my mind is filled with photography now instead of the usual thoughts of plastic bricks

I've yet to start on any of my challenge builds...life has been tough as a father of two and a new job on top of that, thought I would have some time during the holidays but so far that has not translated to lego building. Mainly due to spending way too many hours researching the new camera and lenses I've finally ordered. Ska will be happy to know that I'm now retiring my Olympus and is now venturing into the guild of Nikon instead! Now I've just got to find out which flash setup I'm going for, will probably buy a couple of stands and umbrellas to improve the ability to position and modify my lighting but I've yet to decide if I'm going to go for speedlights for convenience (need to buy at least one anyway) of simply buy a couple of studio flashes and try not to trip on the wires and hurt myself and/or the builds. I promise I will make an attempt at category A and/or B however when my parents are here a couple of days after New Year's, they are mostly not here to visit me anyway

Lovely colors and overall landscaping

Great build overall and many nice details! I think the patched roof is my favorite here

Nice landscaping, foliage and "foliage"

Great build overall and as with so many others the roof is what really stood out for me here Keep up the good work!

Very nice addition of the vegetation

As long as something is obviously in character I don't think that any of us non-native English speakers will be offended

Excellent build! (Or builds, each ship would merit a topic of it's own) Glad to have been able to see this in person in Chicago

Lovely build with some very cleaver details! I especially like the hot iron and the water tap I think the wooden floor looks a bit out of place however, at least around the furnace. UoP +1

Escorting a Valuable Load | Gideon | Kaliphlin Ice Fishing in Mitgardia | Gideon | Kaliphlin Ostrich Farming | Gideon | Kaliphlin

Not a Kaliphlin build, but at least a small freebuild from a Kaliphlinite to celebrate the season here in the North:

Transporting a Valuable Load Grasslands [Geography] (1/4 still needed) Ice Fishing in Mitgardia Fishing [Agriculture and Zoology] (4/4 still needed) Underwater [Hydrology] (4/4 still needed)

A small free-build to celebrate the new season. During the long winter, an important source of protein for the Mitgardians is fish caught underneath the ice of the lakes. This fisherman is both lucky and unlucky, he has found some big fishes but should have made a bigger hole in the ice... I'd like to claim the following UoP credits: Underwater [Hydrology] Fishing [Agriculture and Zoology] (I know that it's a small scene, but together with this build and this build maybe I've shown enough underwater skills to merit the "Underwater" credit? I thought about asking for "life in Mitgardia" as well, but since I've been trying to tell people not to claim too many credits for too small builds I'll save that for another build)

Thanks! The tower was mostly built because I didn't have quite enough tan bushes... I reverted to something in my comfort zone (a tan fortification of course!). Did some experimentation at least, I think this is my most busy mottling so far and the crenelation was also a bit of an experiment. But I agree that a ruined tower would have looked better here.

Finally had some time to build a little and now finally got around to take some pictures also, here is my first freebuild since I don't know when:

Escorting a Valuable Load [Freebuild] In the grasslands of Kaliphlin there are bands of nomads who are known to sometimes prey on undefended merchants. So if the load you are transporting is valuable enough, there are good reasons to do like this merchant and bring a strong escort of your own light cavalry to be able to counter fast moving bandits. In some places along the roads however there are watchtowers where the authorities of Kaliphlin are trying to manifest their presence, but this tower looks strangely empty so the escorting riders are even more on edge here...well, not everyone. I'd like to claim a UoP credit for Geography: Grasslands.