Transformers Photography - Tips and Tricks

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by simplygriff, Jun 8, 2010.

  1. Night Flame

    Night Flame TFW2005 Supporter

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    Aperture. Wide open (F4.0 on that lens you have) = very shallow depth of field. Closed down (on my best lens that'd be around F36) = huge depth of field. Of course, for each F stop, you end up having to adjust your shutter speed longer and longer. But, so long as you're using a tripod, that really doesn't matter. I've done exposures as long as fifty seconds without any camera shake thanks to the remote trigger and tripod.

    The XTi has really good control once you get used to it. Either flip to manual or Aperture priority (AV) and play with your F stops. Pick a nice setup, adjust F stops from all the way down to all the way up and then look at the difference it makes in the photos. Track what F stops which photos are and keep track of it, then use it as a frame of reference in the future. It won't take long before you get a pretty good grasp of what F stop gives you what depth of field.
     
  2. simplygriff

    simplygriff Elitist Dick

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    Nice. That's the kind of stuff I should have remembered from my college photography class. :lol  Thanks! :thumb 
    -G
     
  3. Night Flame

    Night Flame TFW2005 Supporter

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    I hate to see this thread die, so I'm adding another tip I found from another forum.

    I ran into a macro situation where aperture settings would not overcome the depth of field issue. Being me, I went looking for a solution. It's called "focus stacking." Essentially, you take many shots of the same subject, each with a very small adjustment to focus. Each focal point becomes a "slice" of perfect focus in a "focus stack" which is created by either manual editing, or use of a program design specifically for focal stacking, like, Helicon Focus. If I had to manually edit it at this point I would probably lose my mind, but Helicon Focus will take your series of images, find the focal point in each "slice" and fold the images together into one nearly perfect render.

    Case in point. These images (kept small to not slam my server) show the shallow depth of field I found myself stuck with. I didn't concentrate on perfect white tonight, as my goal was sharp focus.

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    As you can see even in these very tiny images, at the beginning of the run, the cockpit is in near perfect focus while the tail is a bit blurred. By the end of the run the tail is in near perfect focus, while the cockpit is blurred. Fold them together, let the program find the focal points automatically, and. . .

    [​IMG]

    I could have gone just a little further in each focal direction, to get the far wingtip and the nosecone in better focus. But, overall, I think this shows how much focus stacking could help when taking macro/toy photos.
     
  4. Sportimus

    Sportimus Well-Known Member

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    What about working with Leader-sized TF's? What would be the most ideal sized light box for everything between a Scout class to Leader class figures? Would 19 inches be enough? I have seen 24-25 inch boxes, but they take up a LOT of table space.
     
  5. Night Flame

    Night Flame TFW2005 Supporter

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    Mine's 18" cube and I find myself frustrated with how much work is required to get a well formatted pic of a leader class in it. You're forever running into borders when "looking up" or from the sides. Get as large as you can. It'll never be too big.
     
  6. SydneyY

    SydneyY @syd_tfw Veteran TFW2005 Supporter

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    My light box is very tall (as I said I had it built for a tall figures), but it's too narrow. ROTF Jetifre didn't fit in jet mode.

    That's very interesting trick you've got there NF. I guess I don't have enough patience for that (and impossible for me to do since I don't use a tripod) but it's really cool. I an surprised there's even a program for that!
     
  7. ryanlb

    ryanlb Well-Known Member

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    Nice Dirge pics. That's something I'll have to learn to do, once I have a lightbox, might be tricky though, I don't think my camera has a manual focus.
     
  8. simplygriff

    simplygriff Elitist Dick

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    That's pretty awesome. I've encountered that and tried to do it manually. I eventually gave up. I'm gonna check that program out!

    The eBay one I posted before will accommodate a G1 Scorponok. :) 
    -G
     
  9. Night Flame

    Night Flame TFW2005 Supporter

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    Don't absolutely have to have a light box, just controlled/unchanging lighting between shots. No manual focus though would be a problem.
     
  10. Sportimus

    Sportimus Well-Known Member

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    Thanks to everyone for the advice on the box size. :) 
     
  11. ryanlb

    ryanlb Well-Known Member

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    Got a lightbox for Father's Day, here's my first attempt. What do you think? Also get to show off the tiny little touch ups I made to Arcee's head.

    [​IMG]

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    The Ringwraith looks pretty good to me, but I did something wrong with Arcee.
     
  12. simplygriff

    simplygriff Elitist Dick

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    Looks like you need to adjust your white balance and ISO. The grain on Arcee comes from too high of an ISO. and the background's not coming out white due to a white balance issue. Not sure what kind or camera you're running though.
    -G
     
  13. thenatureboywoo

    thenatureboywoo Veteran

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    Those top two pics and the bottom Arcee are good. The top Arcee as Grif said looks grainy or something like oversharpened then blurred. It looks odd. One thing you will notice is that your background will be brighter when photographing a darker object. Which may be the reason Arcee 's bg is a little darker. Also in that those top pics, it appears by the shadow that you are running only one lightsource from the front. Two lights from different sides will eliminate that along with proper brightness settings.
     
  14. ryanlb

    ryanlb Well-Known Member

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    All four pics used the same setup, I just zoomed in a bit more on Arcee in one. I used a light tent with a light on each side, and the camera's built-in flash was used.
     
  15. catz

    catz Well-Known Member

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    I would say just turn off that built-in flash and lower the iso
     
  16. poorboy8u

    poorboy8u Well-Known Member

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    When using on camera flash as a main source.The camera will ignore all ambient light(your hot lights on each side) so they didn't even factor into the picture you took. All the camera saw was the flash you used.
     
  17. ryanlb

    ryanlb Well-Known Member

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    Oh, okay. Doesn't seem like there would be enough light that way, but probably just means I need to learn how to place the lights better. Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

    I'd give this a shot too, except you keep saying ISO as if I'm supposed to know what that means. :dunce 


    For what it's worth, I have a Kodak EasyShare Z650. It does have some settings that can be manually adjusted, and it looks like ISO is one of them, but I'm going to have to see if I can find the manual I stole from my brother (who has the same camera) or look it up online to figure out how to adjust it.

    Can you give me an idea of how far to lower it, or how to tell if I'm in the right neighborhood?
     
  18. thenatureboywoo

    thenatureboywoo Veteran

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    My camera from the same line except a little older, I can help. The whole point of using a light tent, light box is to not use the flash. Turn it off, don't use it. I use two light off to each side for my pictures so your good. From there, there are only three changes I make in my camera. First is changes the white ballance to tungsten. This will eliminate color from your white. You change the white ballance to whatever your lightsource is when you are shooting. Second thing I change is turn the flash off, as I mentioned before. Thirdly, this may change depending on how much your camera is upgraded compared to mine. On the back where the viewing monitor is, to the right is a button with a circle around it it. Push the outer ring on the right side. This will make the brightness of your pics go up. Depending on the lighting, I usually set mine between +.7 and +1.3. Nothing good has ever come from me messing with my iso, so I have left it at the factory settings. I hope this info helps you as much as it did for me. :) 

    Also, one last thing. Don't be afraid to back up a little bit.I usually take pics of my transformers from about 18 inches back using the macro setting up by the "take the picture" button. On my Koday Easyshare, it is the flower icon on the ring around the "take the picture" button. Sorry I can't remember the buttons proper name right now. I woke up about 40 minutes ago, and I can't think yet.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2010
  19. Night Flame

    Night Flame TFW2005 Supporter

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    I'll agree with thenatureboywoo except for the ISO thing. ISO is essentially setting sensor sensitivity in digital cameras. It used to be film speed, but on a true digital there is no film so it's simply adding or removing gain from the sensor. More gain = more noise. How that manifests is grain or grit in the shot.

    Myself? When taking light tent photos I keep ISO either on the lowest possible setting, or only one step up from the lowest. If you have a tripod you can compensate for low ISO by having a slower shutter speed. Higher ISO is for low light situations where you still need speed. Like trying to capture a picture of a moving animal at night. Unless your toys are moving around on their own, low ISO should be better.
     
  20. thenatureboywoo

    thenatureboywoo Veteran

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    I know the ISO thing is important, I've been okay so far dodging the issue. I messed with it a while back on my Easyshare, and I got nothing but grain. But I imagine if I go back to it knowing now what I know about my camera it may be beneficial.