I'm working through some topics I want to talk about. Some of it is of general photographic interest, such as choosing lenses, whether to have a UV filter or not, general chatter about the kit, and some will be aimed squarely at the techniques of scale model photography. This latter part – the main thrust of this blog – will cover the hardware, the philosophy (sounds clever, doesn’t it?) and also post-processing once you’ve captured your shots. Overall, though, I want this blog to be about model photography, so that will always be somewhere in the background of any topic I raise.
When I photograph a scale model, whether it’s a car, a boat, a plane or a model railway, the first thing I try to do is get down to a level where my eyeline (or lens line, if you prefer) is about where it would be if I were the same scale as the subject. The snag is, once I’m down at that level, there’s a lot of what’s above and behind the model that appears in the frame, and that will often be distracting and can potentially ruin a shot. Sometimes, I can contrive a backcloth – if I have control over the set-up, in a proper shoot, for example – but most often I end up having to strip away the unwanted background in Photoshop, and replace it with something more appropriate.
Incidentally, I’ve noticed a trend in the past few years, as the technology and software has become better and more readily available, for magazines to use “faked” backgrounds and even steam effects on model railway shots. Now, I’m not a great fan of adding the steam effects, unless a client specifically asks for it, but I will happily substitute a background sky if necessary. If you like, I prefer the models to speak for themselves, and the viewer can add their own special effects if they wish!
I'm currently very enthused about this blog, even though it’s unlikely I’ll have many readers for some time. Let’s hope I can maintain the interest and keep it fresh. Thank you for reading.
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