Photographing your treasures

[mklotz]

Photographing model engines or, indeed, any sort of small metallic object, can be difficult. Even if one turns off the dreaded flash, hot spots and reflections can make for an unattractive photo. One way that photographers solve this problem is with a light box.

I had long intended to make a light box from some muslin and a cardboard box but one day, while strolling the aisles of Amazon, I came across this:

http://tinyurl.com/5tfmapn

My wife was after me for father's day suggestions so last Sunday one magically showed up at the homestead.

I like it well enough to recommend it and, if I'm recommending, I think it only fair to provide a brief review...

The entire package looks like this:

The black case contains the tripod and the two photo floods. In addition it unfolds to form the light box.

Aside: One of the problems with making one's own box is making it foldable for storage; a large empty box just takes up too much room. This neat package can slip behind a bookcase.

The separate envelope contains four colored cloth backdrops - white, red, blue, black.

Aside: One secret of good model photography is to use a neutral color, UNPATTERNED AND UNTEXTURED backdrop.

When all assembled, the setup looks like this:

The translucent panels that form the light box are held in place with Velcro along the edges; the back drop cloth attaches similarly. The two halogen lights have built-in tripods that drop out of their bases when the cap is unscrewed and each has a separate on-off switch.

The 'tripod' is really a monopod that attaches to a folding set of flat legs. The monopod has a tilt feature at the base and a ball joint camera mount at the top. While it's perfectly adequate, I must say that I prefer my miniature pan-tilt tripod. With the monopod structure, camera vibration can be a problem, especially so for larger cameras. Use the time-delay setting on your camera to allow time for the oscillations to damp out after pushing the shutter button.

First, for comparison, I took a picture of the subject using ambient light:

Not terrible but also not great. Note how the table top pattern detracts from the subject.

Next I took the same shot using the automatic flash setting on the camera:

About all one can say for it is that it's brighter - way brighter. Lots of hot spots and reflections - not a shot I would treasure. When taking pictures where you are in control of the lighting, turn the camera flash off. Flash wielded by an expert photographer can do wonderful stuff (though he seldom uses the one mounted to the camera) but, for duffers like us, it's far better to leave it off and use controllable lighting.

With the subject in the light box, I first tried a flash shot with the exterior lights off:

Not nearly as bad as the flash shot above but look at all those shadows. Ugh.

Finally, I took this shot with no flash and using the exterior floods. It's a little "warm". I probably need to adjust the white balance but... no shadows, no hot spots and no reflections. For the first shot with a new toy, I'm happy. I'm looking forward to more experiments.

Aside: I'm hoping that George Britnell will chime in on this thread. His photographs of his marvelous engines are so professional that I'm guessing he uses a light box too. Perhaps he'll be able to provide some further hints.

 

[Omnimill]

I know where you're coming from Marv with the light tent as I've been meaning to get one myself, but none of your shots here are really bad! ;D
I think you need to practice taking some bad shots ... :big:

Vic.

 

[Maryak]

none of your shots here are really bad! ;D
I think you need to practice taking some bad shots ... :big:

Vic.

Yes, box or no box to my untrained eye they're are all pretty good :bow: :bow:

This is the fun of the game. If photographing your efforts is part of your fun, then more power to you.

Box on Marv.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[cafox513]

Marv, I love it! And I just happen to have a birthday coming up (good news) . . . but we don't trade presents anymore (bad news). Might just have to treat myself to one of these.

I've been limping along, though pretty well, with a delightful, cheap (!) gadget I got for the not-in-camera flash I use on my Canon SX-1. It is a frosted cup over the business end, and it softens the effect of the flash just enough to make many shots acceptable that otherwise would have shown the dark shadows, bright splotches of light, etc. you mentioned. $20 if I remember. But of course I don't know where I got it, nor the name. Age is a cruel joke . . .

 

[Tin Falcon]

not to be critical Marv but I think a bit of ironing to get the wrinkles out off the back drop cloth will make things even better. the box does improve lighting immensely.
Tin

 

[Rayanth]

Another 'cheap photographers trick' for diffusing your camera's built in flash, is to put a piece of wax paper, or a couple layers of tracing paper over the flashbulb. It'll greatly soften the shadows cast by the built in flash.

If you're after strange effects you can even put colored plastic over it ;D

A whitebox is still a great investment for good photography, but if it's out of your budget then lay a piece of cloth (or butcher paper) on the flat surface, curving to be held up vertically...the gradual curve won't show in the photo, and gives an impression of depth of the background. Aim the flash at the ceiling or an overhead white posterboard, so it is reflected/diffused light instead of direct light, and you won't have shadows.

Ryan

Edit: to 'aim your flash', use a mirror or highly polished piece of metal to bounce the flash's light in the appropriate direction, if your flash isn't adjustable)

 

[gbritnell]

Hi Marv,
There's certainly nothing sophisticated about my setup. I have a sheet of plywood clamped to one of the support posts for the cross beam in my basement. Against that I have a pedestal with a piece of 1/4 plywood mounted to it. I drape a piece of light blue cotton sheet down from the top of the plywood and over the table. Projecting out from both sides of the vertical sheet of plywood I have pieces of 2x2 mounted about 10 inches above the table level. At the top center I have another piece of 2x2. On these 3 pieces of 2x2 I have those cheap aluminum reflector lights (8" dia.) with daylight fluorescent bulbs in them.
The trick is to get uniform lighting on the subject so that there is virtually no shadowing. Sometimes the lights need to be adjusted because of the bounce-back from polished surfaces. I have some linen drawing cloth cut up into pieces large enough to cover the reflectors but to be honest they don't make a lot of difference.
I have a Canon S2IS, 5 megapixel camera. It's about 7 years old. I set my white balance to fluorescent and I shoot 3 pictures with the bracketing setting set at 1/3 f.stop. Usually the first picture taken of the set is without the f.stop adjustments and 90% of the time it's the best picture. The second picture is the dark picture. It actually has more information in it and is good if you want to do any adjustments in a photo program. The third picture is the brightest and sometimes works but usually the reflections are washed out so I hardly ever use this picture.
I am by no means a camera geek. When I bought the camera I took out the book and used every function until I knew what it did. I hardly ever use all the functions by at least I know what adjustments I have to make if necessary.
One of the most important features is AV. On my camera I have different settings available, manual, P, Tv, Av, and M. When doing an extreme closeup I use this setting which gives me manual aperture adjustment. A higher aperture setting sets the depth of field so that everything, well almost everything, will be in focus. Sometimes the camera display will warn me that the shutter speed can't be adjusted for the selected aperture but with the bracketing on I just shoot anyway. These cameras gather so much light that with my shooting setup there's always enough light.
The first picture is of my shooting setup. The second is one of my lathe. I just ran down stairs and took the picture. I didn't spend much time adjusting the light so there is a little shadowing.
I always shoot at my camera's highest quality picture setting and then adjust it to 800x600 in Irfanview. This way I have the best picture I can take and one that's small enough to post.
George

 

[Troutsqueezer]

I like the idea of the thing. I'm wondering how the black version works.

I've always liked to turn down the ambient light and place a small swing lamp or two in the vicinity to get reflections on the metal in just the right spots. Then I'll adjust the exposure to ensure there is enough detail. This way, the brass warms up and contrasts nicely with the aluminum. I think that brings out the 'metal-ness" of the model and also sets up a "mood" if you will.

I did make my own black box out of cardboard and black paper and did some experimenting but as Marv alluded to, it took up too much room.

The first take in the black box, St. John's Wort

My first engine. Here I tried a black material from the wife's sewing room.

Not shot in a black box but you can see what I mean by bringing the colors out by reducing the light and upping the exposure.

-Trout

 

[Rayanth]

Trout, glad to see you're not afraid of experimenting =)

In today's age of digital photography, experimenting is cheap! there's no film to buy, processing to pay for, or any serious equipment needed to share your photos online. and they last forever (or until you hit the delete button) - no aging, acid to absorb from backing paper, etc.

Whether you have just a cheap point-and-shoot, or expensive digital SLR camera like myself, there are still many things you can do to adjust the outcome of your photography. Whether it's the setup and lighting, as discussed in this thread, or learning what all the little 'gizmos' on the camera actually do, I highly recommend learning more and experimenting a little bit to get what YOU feel is 'just right'

There are countless books written on the subject of photography and digital photography, but a long time running favorite of mine for any subject matter, is the 'for dummies' books. In this case, 'Digital Photography For Dummies' is a good read, and covers all of the fancy terms like f-stop, aperture, etc. and gives you great ideas on how to make the most of your photography. Combine this with the manual that came with your camera (and if you don't have the manual, every major camera maker has them on their website as a free PDF download), and your photos can easily change your subject from "that's neat" to "wow that's awesome!"

After all, what's the point of building an engine if you can't share its beauty with the rest of HMEM? ;D

- Ryan

Note: As you experiment with your photography, keep a few things in mind. Other people may not see your photo precisely the same way you will, as monitor settings and capabilities vary widely. It is entirely possible that a deep black on your screen is a washed out gray on someone else's. Contrast and 'gamma' or depth of color are often the biggest differences. Also, while you experiment, take copious notes on a notepad. If you are shooting the same setup but with different settings on the camera, you may easily forget what was what when you go to look at them on the computer. (Was the third picture the one with the 'warm' lighting setting, or was that fluorescent?)

 

[Jasonb]

I do find a mid tone colour works better than a pure white background, if using the automatic settings on teh camera it tends to adjust for the brightness of the white background and therefore dulls the subject.

This is my setup, developed when I used to paint figures, look at teh photos before and after to see how the background fades.

Jason