Photo Tips (Was "This was probably covered before but...")

[Rogue Shadow]

How do you get photograph backgrounds like this: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/244445. More specifically, how do you get the white background to come out so clearly? I have been looking around for a way to take a picture and get a background like that. Any help would be appreciated!

[JoshWedin]

This has been covered before but I'm too lazy to go find it. Therefore, I will just tell you what I do.

1. Get a large sheet of white posterboard or stiff paper. For smaller MOCs a sheet of printer paper will also work.

2. Find the best lit area of the house and place the posterboard on a table or counter. You need to place the posterboard so that it "leans" against the wall and gently bends down onto the counter or table. This eliminates the seam where the wall and counter meet. Put your MOC on the paper.

3. Find some good extra light sources. I use two desk lamps that I picked up at Walmart. Place them around your MOC, so that it is lit from multiple sides and shadows are eliminated as much as possible.

4. Take a picture and DON'T use the flash.

5. If possible, edit the photo in some sort of program to adjust the color balance and such things.

Hope this helps,
Josh

PS. I edited your title so that people would know what you wanted without clicking on the topic. The other was too vague.

[Rogue Shadow]

Aha! So that's how they do it...and thanks for editing the title. I tried it once with a bed sheet, but it didn't make the smooth curve that paper would make. Thanks again!

[Frank_Lloyd_Knight]

I know it's also key to pay attention to the settings on your [digital] camera. I'm sure I don't know the technical terms, and I have to re-read the instruction manual every time I take a photo, but there are different settings for natural sunlight, florescent lighting, and incandescent lighting. Good luck.

[Drucifer]

I know it's also key to pay attention to the settings on your [digital] camera. I'm sure I don't know the technical terms, and I have to re-read the instruction manual every time I take a photo, but there are different settings for natural sunlight, florescent lighting, and incandescent lighting. Good luck.

The technical term for that is "White Balance". If your camera can shoot RAW, you can shoot in that mode and adjust the white balance afterwards.

I've also heard of people getting good white backgrounds with a clean well-lit bathtub. Or you can use a light box. I've got an old post on how to build one for cheap.

[Rogue Shadow]

I've also heard of people getting good white backgrounds with a clean well-lit bathtub. Or you can use a light box. I've got an old post on how to build one for cheap.

The link on your old post (to the forum with the light box) doesn't show any sort of light box instructions...unless I'm missing something.

[JoshWedin]

The link on your old post (to the forum with the light box) doesn't show any sort of light box instructions...unless I'm missing something.

Click on the word 'guide' in the old post. I was able to get to it.

Josh

[Drucifer]

The link on your old post (to the forum with the light box) doesn't show any sort of light box instructions...unless I'm missing something.

You're missing the link in the first post to the guide (it's just guide). Sorry that's a little unclear. Light Box Instructions

[Hrvoje]

I remember when my photography was really bad...


Now, since it's really good now, I would like to help.


If you want your photography to be good, you don't need to have super-expensive photo-studio.

Here are some tips:
- Turn ON Macro mode on your camera (it's marked with flower icon)
- If you can, use the tripod to hold your camera while taking pictures, and turn the timer on your camera (5-10 seconds is ok),
so there's no blur on your photos.
Note: If you don't have a tripod, improvise.
- Take WHITE sheet of paper for background (unless your MOC is all white... Then use black).
Size of it should depend on the size of the MOC.
- If you don't have any lamps that emitt white light, take the pictures outside, using DIRECT SUNLIGHT

Then, usually adjusting contrast and brightness in photo-editing program creates the white background.

But, there's another soultion: photo-editing.
I've made a tutorial for GIMP 2.6 few months ago.

You can check it out on my Brickshelf. No text, though. I might write English version of tutorial for CC.
First 14 pictures in Brickshelf folder are for creating white background.

I'm sorry I'm not writing everything down, but I don't have the time right now.

[surixurient]

What i do for photographing lego is use a tripod and put the aperture really narrow (very tiny hole for the light to enter the sensor). the photo might take a while to complete with a narrow aperture so that's why the tripod is needed. This causes all of the lego to be in sharp focus from the near to the far plane. Using a flash is really bad being it lights only the front of the lego and it looks flat shiny and harsh. I find that natural diffused light coming in from a window (not direct sunlight) is best. Long exposure with this kind of light looks very soft and professional. Strobes or halogens look good too if diffused through a white cloth or photography umbrella.

[condor]

I think flash is ok as long as you don't point it directly forward. That's hard to do if you have a point and shoot, but if you have an SLR with a separate flash, you can get good results. I took this one with the flash pointing upward towards the white ceiling. The light bounces off the ceiling and creates a more uniform flash. Here's a picture I took using this technique, and sorry it's not Lego

[mpoh98]

Go to a dollar store, and get a poster board, the color depends on the color of the background your going for. I use white. Take the picture with GOOD lighting, and no flash. Then get the free editing system called GIMP. You can download it from the internet, it is free, and it is awesome! Experiment with it!