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(6x) Black Base Pics; Random Cars From My Collection
Topic Started: Jan 6 2013, 01:36 AM (1,685 Views)
funeralxempire
SUV
Thank you for providing that little article, I'm excited to get home and see how much quality my webcam can provide with good lighting.
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Dean-o-mite
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Muscle Car
While messing around with things, I figured out my camera doesn't do too bad with the brightness turned all the way down. My previous camera turned pictures into grainy nastyness with anything less than about -1 in brightness. As a result, I never ventured into the darker settings on the newer camera.

Here's what my normal white-car-on-lighter-background looks like, at a setting of 0 for brightness adjustment.
Posted Image

Adding a dark base paper turns the car into a glowing blob.
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This was the result after turning the brightness setting down several settings (note how dark the background building is compared to the previous picture).
Posted Image


Here's my set-up. Two desk lamps and a Walmart floor lamp which includes an additional lamp halfway up. Daylight-white light bulbs all around.
Posted Image

Posted Image

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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
Dean I think that was my problem. Wow I'm impressed with your neat and organised storage!!!
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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
Posted Image

Here's another one after taking Dean's suggestion of turning down my light in the camera and this one looks more up to what were doing. Still It could use some more fine tuning. I need to buy another tripod mine has gave up the ghost or it could be the best this camera can produce in these lightning conditions, to be frank I don't know.
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Black Wind
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Midsize
tszuta
Jan 15 2013, 12:27 AM
What kind of base are you shooting on? Are you trying to duplicate the black base pics? If so, I used a piece of black acrylic. If you can find a black tile, you should be able to get similar results. A piece of plexiglass over black paper may work as well. I've tried that method before but didn't have the best of luck.

I've never been a fan of 'unrealistic' shots but I've got to broaden my horizons sometime. Here's a new one. No black base - just having fun.

Posted Image
Aaaaahhhhh!!!! :surprise: :surprise: :surprise: Why the heck... :wall: :wall: can't I.... :beatit: :beatit: do this?
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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
Dean-O-mite
Jan 15 2013, 03:45 AM
While messing around with things, I figured out my camera doesn't do too bad with the brightness turned all the way down. My previous camera turned pictures into grainy nastyness with anything less than about -1 in brightness. As a result, I never ventured into the darker settings on the newer camera.

Here's what my normal white-car-on-lighter-background looks like, at a setting of 0 for brightness adjustment.
Posted Image

Adding a dark base paper turns the car into a glowing blob.
Posted Image

This was the result after turning the brightness setting down several settings (note how dark the background building is compared to the previous picture).
Posted Image


Here's my set-up. Two desk lamps and a Walmart floor lamp which includes an additional lamp halfway up. Daylight-white light bulbs all around.
Posted Image

Posted Image

Dean just how many cases do you have? Does your wife approve?
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Dean-o-mite
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Muscle Car
daniel60
Jan 17 2013, 08:05 AM
Dean just how many cases do you have? Does your wife approve?
The Jammer cases number into the hundreds. They are my favorite way to store my cars. Longer cars (many of the castings from Jada, Racing Champions, M2, Siku, and others) get stored in nuts-and-bolts hardware drawer cases (some can be seen on the floor behind the desk). I have two bedrooms dedicated to the 1/64 cars, with similar wood shelving along the walls in the other bedroom, as well.

And I have a fairly jaded view on marriage, so I am not married, nor do I anticipate ever getting married. My better half is very supportive of the hobby, as well as diecast hunting at the stores with me (and has started a little collection, which mainly consists of pink/fuchsia cars, expensive exotics (Bugatti, etc), and cars we have owned in our lifetimes). The only criticism of my collection comes in the form of not understanding why I feel the need to collect minor variations, such as wheel and/or interior color variations. Oh, and I do get some heat if I spend "too much time" taking pictures of the cars. :)
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NoirGuru
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The All Original Gentleman
Not Hot Wheels, but took a stab with acetate sheets.

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image
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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
Looks good man where do you get those sheets?
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NoirGuru
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The All Original Gentleman
daniel60
Jan 20 2013, 06:30 PM
Looks good man where do you get those sheets?
Went to an art supply store, this particular one sold it bulk on a roll, so it was $1.50 per foot.

Had tried transparencies/overhead sheets in the past, but they are too thick and get "cloudy" when viewed at an angle.

This particular setup was two lights, an acetate sheet on a low grain black cardstock.
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QuicksilverDC
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Mopar Fanatic
Dean-O-mite
Jan 18 2013, 01:46 AM
The Jammer cases number into the hundreds. They are my favorite way to store my cars. Longer cars (many of the castings from Jada, Racing Champions, M2, Siku, and others) get stored in nuts-and-bolts hardware drawer cases (some can be seen on the floor behind the desk). I have two bedrooms dedicated to the 1/64 cars, with similar wood shelving along the walls in the other bedroom, as well.

Dean I hope you live on the ground floor, I am here to tell you all that diecast adds up I had--key word had been storing much of my collection in the spare upstairs bedroom, until I noticed a crack in the wall :duh: and could see a slight sway of things when walking thru the room, now storage is in basement for the most part.

Keep up the great info on pics guys and awesome pictures, I will be trying some of them with my trusty old Sony Mavica :rolleyes:
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tszuta
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I like photography...
Messing around with a Madd Propz I had sitting on the shelf.

Posted Image
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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
that pretty Tony, how do you sign your pictures.
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tszuta
Member Avatar
I like photography...
Thanks.

I have a Wacom tablet and used it to create my signature. It's saved file and I apply it as a smart object to each of my images. I adjust the color most of the time so it ties in with the image and takes away from it as little as possible.

Here's another:

Posted Image
Edited by tszuta, Jan 20 2013, 10:39 PM.
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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
tszuta
Jan 20 2013, 10:15 PM
Thanks.

I have a Wacom tablet and used it to create my signature. It's saved file and I apply it as a smart object to each of my images. I adjust the color most of the time so it ties in with the image and takes away from it as little as possible.

Here's another:

Posted Image
Awesome picture and car.
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kurikabu
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Fullsize
tszuta
Jan 20 2013, 10:15 PM
Thanks.

I have a Wacom tablet and used it to create my signature. It's saved file and I apply it as a smart object to each of my images. I adjust the color most of the time so it ties in with the image and takes away from it as little as possible.

Here's another:

Posted Image
very nice and crisp shot!! :thumbup:

If I may ask, what camera brand and lens are you using?
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tszuta
Member Avatar
I like photography...
kurikabu
Feb 11 2013, 12:19 AM
very nice and crisp shot!! :thumbup:

If I may ask, what camera brand and lens are you using?
Thank you. :D

My camera body is a Canon 60D. I upgraded back in December - I used to have a 500D (t1i). As far as lenses go, for 1:64 diecast I typically use either my Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS or my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II. It really depends what lens is on at the time. LOL If I am looking for some nice bokeh, I will use the 50mm and shoot around f2.8 or so. I've found that the 50mm is a sharper lens than my 18-135mm. The 50mm is a prime lens, it should be sharper.

Well, that's what I am using although I'm certain that it doesn't matter. Using my sons old 3.2mp Polariod point & shoot camera, I would be able to produce relatively the same images, just at a much lower resolution. I think the lighting is what is most important in the entire equation. If you are shooting with a long exposure (greater than 1/60 second) be sure to have a tripod. Any sort of shake will show up as a blur and ruin your images. Recently I've been shooting with a remote trigger and MLU (mirror lock up) enabled. This helps eliminate the little camera shake that is created when hitting the shutter release.

Any more questions, I'm always here to help. :thumbup:
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Firehawk73
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I would love to see a over view of your setup and what material you use for the black backgrounds and keeping it so black instead turning grey when light is applied to it. I am using a point and shoot camera. I do have a tried pod that needs alittle repair which I will be doing this weekend. I have the same problem of bluring lines and a friend of mine gave me the tri pod I have now and use the timer to combat the shaking of the camera. I won't be able to upgrade my camera anytime soon so any advice would be much helpful. I think I have gone as far as I could with my current setup and some colors give my camera a fit trying to photograph. Most of my red cars become blurry or orange. I also have trouble with white and bright yellows.
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tszuta
Member Avatar
I like photography...
Here is a shot from my cell phone. Not nearly as sharp but I guess it's close... LOL

Posted Image

My number one tip, USE THE MOST LIGHT YOU CAN! When I had only my point and shoot, I would only shoot in direct sunlight on a piece of white printer paper. Here is an example of that:

Posted Image

Do you have a macro mode on your camera? What are you shooting with?

Build yourself a 'photo studio'. You can do this for next to nothing. Here is a good link:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
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SeberHusky
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Station Wagon
Hosspower98
Jan 6 2013, 05:55 PM
Excellent work! The black really makes the cars pop! Good idea with the signature too. I have seen a lot of my stuff in a Google search. Pics can be altered even with a watermark or sig I would imagine.
You can also just go in MS Paint, take a color swatch of the black, and just paint right over the signature.
There's not much you can do about it other than pasting a giant ugly photo-ruining watermark over the entire image.
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tszuta
Member Avatar
I like photography...
I've used a very faint (20% opacity) watermark over the center of my images before. In a more subtle approach, I put together a signature that followed a round path in Photoshop. I then distorted the path to follow the profile of the wheel. My signature appeared in a fashion such as the 'Goodyear' lettering on tires. I felt this method was too distracting. The images I post online are low quality JPGs. The are 'saved for the web' using a quality of 70-80. It just irritates me when people use my images to sell their stuff. Just give me a percentage of the sale and we'll be square. LOL

DMCA takedown notices have worked quite well in the past...
Edited by tszuta, Feb 14 2013, 03:16 PM.
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daniel60
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Personal Luxury Car
tszuta
Feb 11 2013, 10:07 PM
Here is a shot from my cell phone. Not nearly as sharp but I guess it's close... LOL

Posted Image

My number one tip, USE THE MOST LIGHT YOU CAN! When I had only my point and shoot, I would only shoot in direct sunlight on a piece of white printer paper. Here is an example of that:

Posted Image

Do you have a macro mode on your camera? What are you shooting with?

Build yourself a 'photo studio'. You can do this for next to nothing. Here is a good link:
http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html
You have the James Bond cell or Batman's cell? :thumbup:
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tszuta
Member Avatar
I like photography...
daniel60
Feb 14 2013, 05:04 PM
You have the James Bond cell or Batman's cell? :thumbup:
Honestly, I've got an LG Lucid that I picked up on sale at Wally World for $1, with a 2 year contract of course.
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harry
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Minivan
Great photo tips, thanks for sharing Tony!
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