Lightning at 1:50 Scale as in real world

Hi, im fairly new to controlled lightning, and I would love to hear some advice.

Yesterday I tried to fake studio light on a 1:50 scale model of a Murcielago.

http://www.striking.ch/archives/12-Lamborghini.html

Two questions:
Is it light ok? When not, what would you change?
Can I somehow improve to let it look more like a real car, not like a model?

The whole setup is explained at the bottom of the post, and yes, it is fairly improvised. No excuse though for not making good pictures.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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http://www.striking.ch

I like it, its pretty convincing but for me the one that spoils it is the top one. The body panel behind the drivers door looks wavy. On the models scale those waves might be unavoidable but if you can light it in some way that hides the waves there it would help.

The main technique is to try to maximise depth of field - most close up shots of small objects have a thin DOF.

Not sure if you are aware but theres a bunch of people doing the opposite: Making full size scenes look like models. People often incorporate images taken from high up overlooking a street with people walking around. You can use a tilt lense to impart an unnaturally thin DOF to an image - or you can do it with a gradient lens blur in photoshop. Thin DOF, + a little extra saturation and contrast, + hard light and suddenly your full scale subject looks like a model.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/magazine/20070531_VINCENT_FEATURE/blocker.html#

So im thinking the opposite is true, Fat DOF (small aperture/high Fstop), reduce the saturation a little (not much) and try to hide any imperfections in the model.

But I think you did a great job.

Thanks, it's funny that you mention it, the exact same went through my head when planning it.

Actually I wanted to mention the TS thing in the post, but figured most people wouldn't understand it. An example that I really like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wvs/252142355/in/set-72157594304183547/
(not by me though)

And about giving it away: Yes the imperfection of the model are one of the most obvious things that spoil it. As long as it's not my imperfection

But you are right, the next time im doing this i'm planning to pay more attention on how the light is being reflected. The bottom image is the one I like the most, because of the highlights in the left lower corner. But it was happy accident.
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http://www.striking.ch

I agree with you and the other poster about imprefections, DOF, etc.

Nice shots BTW.

Something to perhaps consider is light size/distance relative to the model. There are a few studios that have softboxes bigger then cars but even then size isn't 400 times bigger, and the distance isn't measured in hundreds of yards.

So if you're using a 2x2 softbox a foot away do the scaling math and you might get something 'unreal' in the real world.

Since light fall off is in proportion to distance from light to subject to BG, and size of the light source affects the "look" (quality...) of the light you might try replicating scale lighting, more or less, and see what if any difference that makes. Shooting outside in the sun would be an easy test as the sun should appear the same on models and full size items - or at least it has in pics a friend takes of his n-scale (1/160) train items.

Nate Khler said:

Two questions:
Is it light ok? When not, what would you change?
Can I somehow improve to let it look more like a real car, not like a model?

Click to expand...

It looks like a nice model and your photos are very impressive. Two things struck me, which others mentioned. I did some photos of a scale model for a friend and I ended up using a small-sensor camera to get greater DOF (at the optimum aperture for the camera). If the DOF is too limited, it gives the whole thing away as being a model. Also, the light fall-off in your photos seems wrong for a full-size car. I used umbrellas with off-camera hot-shoe flashes to try to convey the feeling of a large studio. Here's a sample from my effort -- a different approach and not as dramatic as yours. Just a point of comparison.



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Darrell

Well, that is an amazing model! I bet it wasn't cheap

The trick with the small-sensor camera is a nice idea, i was already at F14 or more, the max I was able to get from my 50D withouth big loss of quality because of ISO and too small Aperture.

You are right, the top softbox is too far away and too big. But I had it to be far away because of acessability, and with the distance I choosed to increase the size because I wanted to keep the relative size to the object. (Further away = Appears to be smaller) And when lightning cars like this (real cars) big studios often choose to use big softboxes, as in really big. But maybe I've overdone it

I like your picture! The only thing I would try to change, would be to have more shadow under the car. But thats just a minor point and my oppinion.

Thanks for your critique!
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http://www.striking.ch

Sorry I mixed up the answers, my answer to your post is at the bottom of my answer to the other post. But shooting outside is actually a great idea. I will try it on a nice day, maybe during sunset.
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http://www.striking.ch

You might try focus stacking in PS CS4 or with a stand-alone application:
http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfocus.html
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cheers, Peter
Germany