Seamless backdrop and lighting

[Chris Johnson]

Any good Art Supply Store should carry Light Gray sheets for pastel painting.

Thanks Jay. I'll look into that.

Cheers,

Chris

[Chris Johnson]

Due to lack of space, my Pace paint booth doubles as a photo booth with the pair of internal lights providing overhead and background lighting. 

I have a Pace myself and it never occurred to me to use it as a photo booth. Good idea!

Cheers,

Chris

[drdave]

I think white works best for silver dope and NMF finishes as it adds that icy cool ambient light.

[GHE]

Messieurs !

Lighting: try several light sources and watch the model before pressing the button; natural light ist a very nice source, too.
Unless you are not using calibrated light sources (Kelvin degrees) you are able to adjust the Kelvins in your developing
programm.
Do not forget the f-stop, but I feel there is no need to close it further than f 5.6.
A good combination for close ups is a camera with APS-C Formate sensor and a 24mm or 21mm lens. With these lenses you
can get very close to the object ( some 20 cm ) and you will have enough depth of field; furthermore the smaller sensor
( in relation to Full Frame size ) changes the focal distance of the lens in direction of a) 21mm to ca. 25mm b) 24 to ca.30mm.
This helps to keep a natural look.
Of course - for detail work you may use tele lenses or macro lenses; I feel that 1:2 is really enough.
Try out your Equipment, the angles of view etc.

beste Grüße, Gunther

[Des]

I started using a soft blue back drop but I noticed that it changed the colour of my model somewhat, it also had an effect on all my camera setting, so I went back to the all white background and I have had no further issues. (maybe it's just me )

Des.

[Edo]

hi Des, no it is not you. A coloured background reflect some light back to the model changing the colour balance.
A blue background will add some blueish dominant to the model which you have to compensate in Photoshop by changing 'colour balance' and/or 'hue/saturation'. It is not as hard as it seems, just toggle towards the red and yellow reducing cyan, blue and maybe green.
hope it helps
ciao
edo

[Des]

I have mucked around with trying to photoshop some images but I can't seem to get the balance correct, I will just stick with a white back drop to save any issue, thanks for the advice Edo.

Des.

[Des]

Just a quick revamp on the way I photograph my models. I use a stiff white card and place it on my work bench having it curve up at the back, this gives a really good seamless background. I have experimented with different colours but have found white to give me the best results. My daughter is a photographer so she set my camera setting for me for the conditions I use, it all seems to work pretty well and I end up with nice crisp clear shots.

White balance - Fluores light
Sensitivity - 100
Auto ISO range - ISO 100 - 200
EV Compensation - +1.0

Here is the set-up I use, takes very little effort to set it up, is really cheap, and best of all, it works. Will easily handle single seat and two seat aircraft but I would have to come up with a new idea for the larger bombers and seaplanes.

Des.