Picture Taking on the Cheap

[John W. Reid]

Low-cost picture taking on the cheap.
I have my own way of taking pics, so far I have 15,000 pics(and counting) of my models and model making.Prior to the digital age, I hardly took any pics at all and I have been modeling for 50 years.It was just too expensive and technical for me.Now I just set my camera to auto and clean them up in photoshop if necessary(actually I use Imgur)Most of the time I just use handheld lights holding them in one hand and moving it around to get the shadows I like etc..The camera I hold in my other hand with the stabilizer on and take as many shots that I want and delete the others.Outside, of course, I use the light of day and compose my shots accordingly to the composition I like.Forced perspective outside is really fun to experiment with and can be used to great advantage.

 

[idlemarvel]

Thanks John, do you have an examples you could share?

 

[John W. Reid]

Sure do idlemarvel

but some of the pics may stray into other genres but they are large scale 1:16 and larger.

 

[John W. Reid]

This is the camera that I use but I have upgraded to the 20X-SK240HS recently.

 

[John W. Reid]

 

[John W. Reid]

My fancy lighting system.A clip-on study light.I can vary the intensity by simply changing the bulb wattage or using filters like paper or cloth over the front end.The most difficult part is holding the camera in one hand while pressing the button and moving the camera around with the other.It takes a little getting used to but it is lots of fun.

 

[John W. Reid]

I will show you some pics of what can be achieved using this simple system.Photobucket is unfortunately still holding my pics hostage which makes it a little more difficult finding them on my computer.

 

[Madman]

How true. Being frugal with the camera back in the day, I mean. Of course I am old enough to have been around, back in the day.

Oh, should I shoot this one or not. I only have a 20 shot roll. But then there are those times when I had a 36 shot roll.....Whoopee ! I was living large then.

The digital age has certainly made photographers out of most of us. And having a smart phone has not only made that easier, it has made me realize how un-smart I am.....

 

[John W. Reid]

I never thought that I may have to resort to taking pictures of my pictures on Photobucket!

 

[John W. Reid]

View attachment 235265

 

[John W. Reid]

I am just getting into taking pics using LEDs.This is a simple setup using a piece of rounded aluminum as a background.I cropped this pic up to where the horse is standing.

 

[John W. Reid]

 

[John W. Reid]

The overhead lighting really works well for this type of composition.The shadows are well defined and natural.This is the simplest form of lighting but not my usual method of moving the light around however it would be easy to turn off the LEDs and use the handheld method.I would try to put more shadow on the main and tail to make it look more real and not so much like a statue.Cost wise it is not an expensive setup.The aluminum could be replaced with white card and a single strip of warm white LEDs is pretty cheap these days and last forever.

 

[maxi-model]

Old trck when dealing with shadows - place some tissue paper in front of your photo flood or flash unit. Or you can "bounce" the light rather than light directly. Don't set tissue alight though. Max

 

[John W. Reid]

 

[John W. Reid]

I know it is not you expected but it is for demonstration purposes only.The lighting used here is incandescent and was of the dollhouse type a single 5 watt Christmas light as seen in the top righthand corner of the pic. Here I used my handheld light as a fill-in type and played with the shadows until I got the effect that I wanted.
I wouldn't recommend dollhouse lighting as the bulbs burn out too quickly but they do produce a nice soft glow.

 

[John W. Reid]

Old trck when dealing with shadows - place some tissue paper in front of your photo flood or flash unit. Or you can "bounce" the light rather than light directly. Don't set tissue alight though. Max

Thanks for the tip Cheers! John.

 

[PhilP]

Now that is an impressive piece of woodwork!

You can almost smell the resin in the woodwork.. I like!

 

[stevedenver]

John i looked through your photo bucket pics.


You are a gifted modeler, to understate things.

The picture of the soviet woman soldier is astounding.facial features and color look like a photo of a real woman.

What scale is she? 1:12? I noticed the clothing, and stitching.
Might post that one.
please.