Since a while I`m not very happy anymore about the quality of my photos. My painting skills became better and I think a normal photo doesn`t show the differences between a 30 hour paintjob and a 80 hour paintjob well enough.
So I considered how I can get better photos and remind on the fact that dispersed light makes better photos. Here you can see another way of to reach this by using the Roman`s light dispersing bucket, lol. Sorry for all that horrible english. I also don`t know if I can call the thing I built up a photobox, I just do it because I don`t know how to call it.
I tinkered something similar yesterday and thought it would be a good idea to share :-)
It is quickly done, cheap, easy to do but it won`t last for eternity. It is just a quick, cheap solution if you want to improve your pictures but don`t want to spend much time for it or pay a lot of money for professional equipement.
Okay here we go:
First take a cardboard box and cut out three side panels (walls?) of the box but leave the frame, because you need it for to fix the transparent paper. Put in something you want as the background for your photos. Now take a sheet of carton, cut out a frame, fix again some transparent paper on it and fix it with sticky tape at the frame of the cardboard box. In the midst of the frontside you need a window for the camera. You can make it bigger or smaller (depending on the position of the camera) if you use a small piece of transparent paper and fix it also with sticky tape. You can easily get it off again because the sticky tape doesn`t stick to much at the flat transparent paper.
I also put a sheet of transparent paper right before my lamp because I got better results then.
My photobox is very tiny because I hadn`t got enough of the transparent paper. I guess a bigger box works better and you also should use 2 lamps. I will buy a second lamp and will put one left hand and one right hand in front of the box. That should be perfect :-) For the moment I have only one lamp but as you can see on the last photo: The results are really a lot better just because of this tiny, cheap box.
There is one thing that feels very strange to me : youre making photos with just one lamp and its standing in front of it??
ReplyDeleteIt looks as if it has very rich shading as result of the single diffuse light. Without the box is technically brighter, but it looks much worse. The goal is obviously to make them photograph the best, not to use the most light.
ReplyDeleteSeems strong!
Perfect idea. I need to diffuse the light for my photos and will try your idea as well. I wanted to keep my colored backgrounds as different colors work better with certain color figures. The one thing I do that you might want to try is that I built a small wooden box and used a lamp repair kit to put a light inside. This box is painted black and is what I set my figures on to photograph. This would carry your new high quality figures to the next level by making the background brighter on the bottom and darker on the top as well as removing any shadows cast by the figure on the background. I will try to take a picture of my box tonight and send it to you. The lamp kits are really cheap and give you everything you need from the socket, attachments right down to the cord. Great Job! ~Jim
ReplyDeleteI've buyed a Photobox for 14€ at eBay and im happy with it. 2 Lamps to the sights and no disturbing shadows. For me is 14€ much money but so i had no trouble with my thick fingers ... :)
ReplyDeleteBut one thing i has learned: the best Photobox is nothing without a good cam.
By the way ... a great paintjob!
Hi,
ReplyDeletetried a similar setup before I gave up because of my shitty skills (it looked bad, probably was bad)
then on ebay I found light tents from a german seller:
2 Lamps, holder for the camera, 80x80x80cm lighttent fo 39 euros including postage.
it was one of ny best invested money for the hobby of the last few years.
@Count Zero: As Namiriel says: A brighter picture is not necessarily the better picture. There is no use in painting a lot of depth when the shadows are not to see well on the picture.
ReplyDelete@Namiriel: Yep.Thanks for feedback :-)
@Jim Johnston: I would be pleased if you send me an email with instructions of how you built up your box, but I`m afraid I won`t build it up by myself because you said it is wooden. When I was at school I had to work with wood and metal when we had manual training and I was the only one who never reached the goal,lol. Everything I built up was wrong and wry...So wood and I is not a good combination,lol. But neverthless I would be intrested into your box. Maybe my husband can craft it for me. Please send the mail to the email adress at my profile because I hate the massive voodoo lockbox because the letters are very, very small and I barely can read it. Thanks for feedback :-)
@Marsdawn: Thanks for feedback :-)
@MA5x: Lol, yep the photobox doesn`t make the mini better than it is. Means: Painting mistakes are also clear to see when you use a Photobox. But it makes a good mini look good and not worse than it is. So this is a great relief for me. I`m glad you also found a setup which works well for you :-)
wow vodooo ! thanks men ..
ReplyDeletei create a pseudophotobox like this :D and my cam now take better pictures :D
i always read your blog but never leave a comment .. thanks for everithing you are a great modelist
@Maldito Duende: Thanks but I`m not a man, lol. I guess you meant Roman with your comment but I have posted this article, lol. If you look at the beginning of the article you can see the name of the poster on the left side. But I`m glad to read that the photobox works well for you :-) I bought more transparency paper and will build up a bigger box now because I have problems with the small box. Bigger is better I guess.
ReplyDeleteCheers Yvonne
Great article... a wonderful addition to the Article Section and finally something more in the photo area, thanks a lot for your effort my dear :)
ReplyDelete