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How to get a clean shot?

I want to capture my model kit which is gundam, and i want to achieve this clean all in focus kinda look. I use a direct light from a table lamp. So what manual setting should i go for? I know its kinda hard to just tell this in sentence but i hope i can get some sort of a recommendation of the settings?

4 Answers

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  • keerok
    Lv 7
    7 months ago

    The camera: A fully adjustable is ideal so that's either a dSLR or mirrorless. Normally, I would recommend a macro lens but that would blur out most of the subject. Gundam models at 1/100 scale aren't that small. You could go for a short telephoto lens and shoot at a small aperture (larger f/number) for getting everything as sharp as possible. Experiment, start at f/16 (or f/32). The small aperture however means you will need extra lighting.

    Lighting: No, a table lamp just won't do. Look for a portable studio light box and buy a couple more light strips for more lighting. The more the light, the easier will it be to shoot at such small aperture sizes.

    Tripod: You need one to steady your shot. Even with lots of light, you might still have to use a slow shutter speed. The tripod will help prevent blur. Just remember to turn off the anti-shake feature on your camera.

    If you don't have any of those, you can still try. The most critical part is lighting. You need lots of it. Even with a phone, if you can provide lots of light and steady the phone while you shoot, you may get decent photos. If nothing works, try shooting from a bit further away. Just crop later in the computer.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 months ago

    Model kits are often very small, so getting the entire model in focus can be tricky.  You do not state which make or model of camera you own, so it's difficult to say what you should do.  However, if you've got an adjustable camera, I would shoot the scene in aperture priority and choose the smallest aperture which is often f/22.  Put the camera on a tripod since this is a very small aperture and you're lighting the scene with only a table lamp.  Use the self timer instead of just pressing the shutter button because when you do press it, the camera moves a bit.  Using the timer will allow for the camera to settle down before the exposure is made.

    If you have a polarizer filter, I'd check to see what affect it has on the image if any.

    Shooting at f/22 will produce the largest depth of field, however you will probably get a better result if you focus about 1/3 into the scene as 1/3 of the DOF is front of the point of focus.

    Watch your backgrounds.  Make sure that they're clean and uncluttered.

    Table lamps are pretty harsh sources of light, so you will find that while one side of the model is nice and bright, the other side will have deep shadows.  To avoid this, use a reflector on the opposite side of the lamp.  Or, you can skip the lamp and use window light which is often much better.  Or, you can take your model outside under shadow.

  • qrk
    Lv 7
    7 months ago

    Camera and lens model is important. Are you using a DSLR, cell phone camera, or something in between?

    A 60mm or 100mm macro lens will work for this sort of shot. I would go with the 100mm macro. An aperture on a f/2.8 lens means you will have best optical resolution around f/5.6 (2-stops from wide open). However, you'll want to maximize depth of field, so you can get by with an aperture of f/8 to f/11 on an APS-C sensor, perhaps f/11 to f/13 on a full frame sensor before diffraction becomes an issue. If you don't have access to a macro lens, use a lens with a focal length in the 80 to 100mm range.

    If using a cell phone, your image shouldn't be more than 1/3 of the frame so you can crop out the edges which will be highly distorted.

    ISO needs to be set to the lowest natural ISO number which will be around 100.

    Use a custom white balance and/or shoot with a calibrated grey card so you can adjust white balance in post processing.

    Adjust your shutter speed to give you a proper exposure. If your camera has a histogram function, use it to ensure that you aren't clipping or underexposing.

    Use a tripod.

    Shoot in raw mode if your camera supports this. You'll convert your raw image in to 16-bit DNG or TIFF so you can post process your image in a decent image editing program like Photoshop (expensive) or GIMP (free).

    You'll need lots of light. I would suggest many light sources using all the same type of bulb so you won't have funny color casts. The 100W equivalent LED lamps with daylight color (5500 to 6500 °K) work well for an inexpensive light source. You'll want to diffuse the light so you don't cast hard shadows. Shinning the light through a translucent white panel is very effective. Light boxes, found on e-bay and Amazon, are very effective. Or, make your own.

    You may want to consider focus stacking if you want all the parts in good focus. Shooting object up close is challenging if you want good focus. There are various free programs out there that do focus stacking (I use Hugin's Enfuse program along with Hugin's image alignment program).

  • 7 months ago

    Use the smallest aperture you have (maybe f/16), place your light camera left and reflector camera right (that is how they are drawn), let the camera select shutter duration and ISO. You know we can't see how strong your light is, or how your set looks, so can only give guidance.

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