More Model Photography

 

Some time ago I made myself an MDF box to use as a portable photographic stage for shooting models. I painted the inside matte white, to keep as much light as possible bouncing around in there. Ever since, from time to time, I've been tinkering with various setups to get the best out of it, and in the end it seems that the simplest is best.

For light, I'm just using a single cheap equipoise lamp with a 14 watt cool-white LED bulb.

For camera/phone stabilisation,  I'm using an old tripod head screwed to some bits of plywood. A wheat-bag or something would also do the trick, though it would take more faffing about to set up, and to change if need be.

I have a bunch of quick-change mounts for the tripod head, so swapping between the camera mount and the phone holder is very quick and easy. Again, not essential, but it does make life easier. 

 These two were photographed with my iPhone 14, and the setup shown above. Apart from cropping them, and assembling in this attractive frame, I haven't edited the photos at all — no sharpening, no tonal correction.

The cyber-gorilla is a largish miniature, 60mm to the top of his mecha-fist, and photographed fairly well. The Roman centurion, a plastic Victrix (I think) 28mm figure, shows the limitations of the iPhone's digital zoom, and the detail is a bit indistinct. The tonal (dynamic) range is fairly compressed in both photos.

 

This photo of Vibius the Centurion was taken with a Canon EOS 50D, with a macro lens.

Again, no editing apart from cropping and resizing. 

The detail is a lot cleaner, and the tonal range is wider than the photo taken with the iPhone.

On the down-side, the camera is a lot bulkier and more trouble to use. 

On the plus side, the resulting images are much better.