I was messing around with my camera and I’ve found a very cheap method of filtering the flash for those close up photo’s.
How many of your photo’s look like this?
when you wanted to see this.
The only difference is the filter I made from an A4 sheet of white paper.
Just cut the paper to roughly the size of the camera, cut a hole for the lense and presto.
Hope this helps.
Mark
looks intrsting, i’ll have to give it a try. I normaly just take a lot of photos and hope one comes out good enough(got to love digital cameras)
That’s a great, simple, inexpensive idea. I’ve seen elsewhere the suggestion to use paper of one sort or another as a filter over the flash itself. In this case, it looks like the full sheet of paper is acting not only as a filter to diffuse the flash, but also as a reflector to bounce some of the light off the subject and back onto it. At any rate, the result is a nice, even lighting effect.
Here’s another thought. Flash is tricky for model pictures, largely because (obviously) it’s only on for a fraction of a second. Lots of modelers (including me) like old-fashioned “constant lighting” for model photos - i.e., light bulbs that stay on, so you can adjust them and the model to your liking before you press the shutter button. In the olde dayes that involved a fair amount of expense, because the light had to be synchronized with the film. (If you used normal light bulbs with normal print film, your pictures came out looking orange; if you used flourescent lights, the pictures looked green. So you had to buy either tungsten-synchronized film, which is kind of hard to find, or “daylight bulbs,” which cost quite a bit and burn out after four or five hours. The digital revolution changed all that. If you’ve got a digital camera with adjustable white balance, you can get nice pictures in any kind of light. Set up your model in a convenient spot (preferably with a simple, uncluttered background) and point whatever lights you like (workshop lights, desk lights, whatever) at it, till you like the effect. (Try pointing at least one of the lights at the background behind the model, to eliminate harsh shadows.) Keep at it till you’ve got the model looking just like you want it. Then follow the camera manual’s instructions for setting a “custom white balance.” (For my Pentax, that takes about a minute. The process involves scrolling through the menu to the right place, then holding a piece of white paper next to the model, pointing the camera at the paper, and squeezing the shutter. That tells the camera to render that piece of paper, whatever it looks like, as pure white, and the camera automatically reads all the other colors in the shot appropriately.)
I confess I was a relatively late convert to digital - and I still think film has its virtues. In retrospect, I wish I’d waited a little longer. The camera I bought in July, 2005 is now on the verge of obsolescence - and Pentax has a new one with more features for two hundred dollars less than I paid. It’s reached the point where digital cameras are like cars. (“I’ve got a 1999 Canon.” “Oh really? When are you going to trade it in?”) But I’m glad I did it. Digital photography is great fun - and for many purposes, including model photography, it’s a lot easier than film.
Don’t laugh too hard guys…
I was never really into photography much, I remember having a few Polaroids many, many years ago… I went out and picked up a Sony Mavica MVC-FD90 when they first came out. I have to tell you, it takes some killer photo’s too. Ok, I really wanted to take the plunge and get something like the Canon Rebel or better but my wife was squeezing the trigger as I approached the check-out counter, so I took that as a no. [:(]
Any way to the point…
I remember playing around with the white balance, only having to point it at something already in my photo subject and it would take care of the rest. To this day I still don’t know how to play with all the features of the camera. I pretty much leave it on auto-mode, pick the scene mode (it has micro) and snap. It sure makes taking pics fun and easy. That’s one reason I missed out on the film era; f-stops, which film, shutter speed, lighting, etc… oh heck, there goes that deer again!
Now all I have to do is get my wife to dig out my camera. She can’t remember what box she packed it away in. Imagine that, packing away a camera! I should pack away the TV on her hehe. [:-^]
I dont use a flash gun for any of my plastic model photos. I own a tripod.
I rarely use a flash, prefering constant direct lighting. In the past I’ve used diffused lighting and bounce flash. Anything to spread the light around instead of letting it hit the subject directly will make much better photos, IMHO.
I had to give it a try and i love it and decided to use a post it note the yellow ones and this is how looks. Kinda cool.
Looks like a old time photo all yellowish.
Bud
Thaank yoou; sick of lighting with clip ons, gonna try this right away[:P]
I Hope it works for you.
I like Smoking guns variation with the post it note. Even EASIER!
I’m a firm believer in K.I.S.S
Keep It Simple Stupid.
I know you can mess with the white balance etc, but I just want something tht is quick and easy.
Mark