JediDefender.com Forums
Collecting => Collections => Topic started by: Darth_Anton on March 29, 2008, 10:40 AM
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I've been working on my "open all army builders" project for a while now. I've just completed my first phase, ROTS republic army. My army is displayed on a 3x6 table with just over 300 troops. I know enough about photography to know that I do not have sufficient lighting to take focused photo's. The real estate of the table top renders a flash useless (hot spot in the middle with drop off on the ends) and the 500 watt halogen lamp I tried out still gives out insufficient light. I'm probably going to have to rent a 1K light, but want to avoid having to spend money to take clear pictures of my army(s.) My camera is digital, so I have little control over the exposure time (at least I think I have little control.)
Any suggestions? Questions to help render suggestions?
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You might be able to just put a lot of light onto it...if you have a bunch of lamps in the house you could move in there.
Another option would be to focus on sections of the table and put the images together digitally.
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Unfortunately, 10 100 watt bulbs still equally 100 watts of light. And I ain't remotely good at photoshop. :P
One other problem I know I have is that the room is smallish, so I don't have enough room to stand far enough back and use the zoom to make the flash more effective. I can move the table with some effort, and then stand outside the door way, so I'll have to give that a shot.
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I think I found a solution. I have a ton of diffusion (opal) and have experimented with putting sheets in front of my flash. It seems to work. Hopefully soon I'll get this part of my collection photographed.
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I have a ton of diffusion (opal) and have experimented with putting sheets in front of my flash. It seems to work.
What kind of sheets did you use? I'd really like to improve my pictures when I'm forced to rely on the flash.
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It came on a large roll (3 feet by 25 feet,) so I cut up a bunch of 2 1/4 inch by 1 1/2 inch sheets (sized based my Digital Elf camera flash) and created various "thickness" filters for wide shots, close-ups and inbetweens. The thicknesses filters range from 4 sheets to 12 (doubt I'll need the 12) simply tapped together (top and bottom) for easy use. For wider shots, I'll grab a 4 or 5 and for the closer shots I'll dabble with 8's or 9's.
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the reason I need to filter the flash down so much is because of the white armor. :P
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Hi DA, that's a nifty solution, and I'm glad you came up with it. I'm less than novice to be able to give you any advice. I am however eager to see pictures of your grand army! :)
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If you just use a tri-pod and a timed shot (so your finger doesn't make it shake) you can get a sharp image then you can set your camera for time-priority and it will take a longer exposure, letting more light in, to make up for the dim room.
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Thanks for the advice Rob. Using the timer is a fantastic idea to avoid shake. :)
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I'm trying some of that as well.