Hi folks,
One of my main gripes with my blogging is that the photos are of only average quality. Having recently replaced my camera, it had become even more apparant that the camera is less of a problem that the lighting I am using. Being in the dreary north of England, the weather is rarely glorious enough to take decently lit photos. However, Mrs J was kind enough to buy me a light tent as a little gift for our wedding anniversary and so I thought I'd give it a shot. Here are the results against an older pic for comparison:
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| Inside the light tent using the black background and no direct lighting |
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| A slightly closer up pic, this time with some lighting behind the tent |
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| A normal picture taken in artificial light in my hobby room |
Now this is just my initial opinion and I'll have to make a closer inspection of these 3 pictures, but it looks as if the light tent does a world of good. It was becoming frustrating to paint models to a good standard and then not be able to share them properly due to poor pictures and so hopefully I'm now on the right track. I will read more about light sourcing but for now I think this will do. They don't cost that much (£13 shipped) as it happens and fold away handily for storage and so I'd highly recommend one to people. Cheers.
Woah that's a massive difference! Gonna have to invest! Is it big enough for your larger models? You can print off some nice backgrounds online by the way
ReplyDeleteGot it on eBay. It said it was 30cmx30cm but it looked a bit bigger. Folds away easy enough. Might have to printsome backgrounds in that case.
ReplyDeleteSuch an improvement, and models that are definitely deserving of a good photo or two. Looking at those pics, it may help to push the model a little further back into the tent if possible as there's some shadowing to the torso, especially behind the shield suggesting the light is coming side on.
ReplyDeleteCan you link to the particular one you got, I'm very tempted.
Here's a link to the one I bought:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280728443563?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
My mistake, it is actually 50cm3 not 30. They also sell ones with the full lighting set up but the price quadruples. Not sure if it's not something you can't reproduce to some extent using desk lamps etc - gonna play around with it a bit. On second thoughts, I'm sure someone i know has the lights for it so might see if I can borrow them.
Big difference! Love that yellow too, really rich. Nice.
ReplyDeleteYou can use desk lamps rather than forking out for flashes, you'll just need a slower shutter speed so a tripod would be needed to stabilise the camera. I wrote an article on miniature photography here:
ReplyDeletehttp://clawsandfists.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/photographing-your-minis.html?m=0
At less than £15 I think I'll be getting one of these, thanks for the tip!