Vinster Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 Swearing removed, read and comply with the forum rule regarding swearing in Chat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clogged Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 The smartphone should be fine. For me its just a case of avoiding any background clutter, provide a nice plain background, maybe a screenshot from your PC (clouds etc?), use extra lighting such as a desk lamp, dont forget to edit the image. The smartphone usually has great editing properties, such as cropping, and lighting enhancements. Just play around and experiment! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckw Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 This is a huge area. and very much depends on how much you want to spend on this (if you thought modelling was expensive, try photography for a hobby!). But even with your smartphone you can get reasonable results. The big thing (which applies to any camera) is light, and lots of it. Use reflectors (tin foil, mirrors) to get some light into shadow areas. Use a light background. BTW "F4 focus" is meaningless 😀 Cheers, Colin 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard E Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 (edited) There are some very skilled, and if you ask for advice, helpful photographers on Britmodeller: have a look at the different Ready for Inspection Threads on the forum which may give you some ideas and don't be afraid to ask the "how did you do that ?" question, Edited March 24, 2020 by Richard E 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinster Posted March 24, 2020 Author Share Posted March 24, 2020 7 hours ago, Clogged said: The smartphone should be fine. For me its just a case of avoiding any background clutter, provide a nice plain background, maybe a screenshot from your PC (clouds etc?), use extra lighting such as a desk lamp, dont forget to edit the image. The smartphone usually has great editing properties, such as cropping, and lighting enhancements. Just play around and experiment! Thank you - the main trouble for me is my smartphone camera isn't a great camera - it is better than the previous camera I had but it's just a bit grainy etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhouse Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 56 minutes ago, Vinster said: it's just a bit grainy etc That's often because the subject didn't have enough light on it. If the subject is too dark, the camera increases the brightness of the image (referred to as 'increasing gain') which also increases the random noise that is present in the original. Get enough light on the subject and the grain should be substantially reduced. To see the effect, try photographing a model indoors and comparing the result with a photo of the same subject taken outdoors on a bright day with light cloud cover. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 I just did these in about 10 minutes, using my IPhone 6S. I did wipe the lens off with a soft cloth first. The background is just two sheets of legal size white paper. I also used the photo editing function on the phone to crop and centralize the images. Now the Blitz is an old ESCI kit that I built back in the late 70's and later weathered a bit with Tamiya Pastels. This just shows that a cellphone camera can do a good job. There are also clamp-on lenses that you can get for cellphones. I have a set for Christmas a few years ago. I have tried them out, but not here today. Chris 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinster Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 13 hours ago, bhouse said: That's often because the subject didn't have enough light on it. If the subject is too dark, the camera increases the brightness of the image (referred to as 'increasing gain') which also increases the random noise that is present in the original. Get enough light on the subject and the grain should be substantially reduced. To see the effect, try photographing a model indoors and comparing the result with a photo of the same subject taken outdoors on a bright day with light cloud cover. Thank you - I shall give this a go and try and post the results here (when I work out how to do it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vinster Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 12 hours ago, dogsbody said: I just did these in about 10 minutes, using my IPhone 6S. I did wipe the lens off with a soft cloth first. The background is just two sheets of legal size white paper. I also used the photo editing function on the phone to crop and centralize the images. Now the Blitz is an old ESCI kit that I built back in the late 70's and later weathered a bit with Tamiya Pastels. This just shows that a cellphone camera can do a good job. There are also clamp-on lenses that you can get for cellphones. I have a set for Christmas a few years ago. I have tried them out, but not here today. Chris Looks great - I'll keep to using my smartphone for now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desert falcon Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 Hi @Vinster If you have an iPhone or iPad, for editing your photos you can also download a free app called Snapseed from the app store. It might also be available for android, etc... To add to @dogsbody tip of using white paper, for reference below is a picture I took of one of my H0 engines using a single piece og large white paper which I bended. The picture was taken with a digital SLR camera (though not an expensive one) on a tripod and indoor, only using natural morning light coming in through the windows in the living room. I used Snapseed to do some light correction and cropping. Good luck and have fun !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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