Tips needed


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Grey Knight

Senior Member
Jul 21, 2008
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Singapore
hi all, need some tips.
Gonna help my friend take photos of her model this thurs. I'm assuming its those architectual model sort of thing. Any tips?

I'll be bringing all I have, which is not much .
heres everything I will be bringing:

K200d
18-55 da II
28-80
70-300
ef 530 flash

any tips on how to take them more "life like" and look good?

any tips would be appreciated.
Thanks all!
 

As with any model, shoot low, shoot close and use the widest lens you can to give it the 'wide angle perspective'.
 

Main subject is model or building...? Anyway, the wide angle lens is good for overall, but best is portaiture.

Regards,
Jay
 

Grey Knight, what do you mean by architectual model?
Sorry but I am unfamiliar with the term?
To my knowledge the term refers to those scale models of buildings like what you find at HDB showroom. If you mean a model shoot not done in the studio, then call it an outdoor or location portrait.
 

i think he means a scale model

as to how to make more lifelike, make sure the shadows are nicely done, unless she wants something without shadows.

not a must to use wide angle perspective, that depends.

my advice is to make sure the verticals and horizontals are straight, this is quite important for architecture, whether model or real building.
 

use a tripod

use liveview

use tethering

have some lighting separation... too evenly spread and its becomes flat and lack the 3Dness

but my best tip is... tell her u are doing this the first time...lower her expectation so in the event the pics turns out not as expected, at least u are safe...:bsmilie:
 

Thanks night86mare for that clarification. :bsmilie:
So if you're shooting a scale model, I would suggest a short macro lens like a 50mm macro because it can pick up details and because of good centre to corner sharpness and control of aberration.
Like any still life, the camera angle to the subject needs to be thought carefully. I'd rely on ambient lighting or off camera flash, but lighting must be soft and diffused.
Suggest you use a tripod so you can focus pin sharp and adjust aperture to play with DOF.
A wide angle lens may be able to focus pretty close but at such shooting distance, barrel distortion and foreshortening distortion needs to be taken into account.
 

if it not too big, bring it outdoor, shoot with sky and real daylight will more reallistic feel.

if have to do it indoor, don't think your flash able to deliver f11 or f16 for ceiling bounce light, you have to think of a way.

you need to set up with a tripod, make sure you get your horizon perfect, if you shoot at low "street" level with a wideangle lens, probelly you will see lot of ceiling, you need to PS the backdrop out, be careful about the building perspective, don't go too low till the building like going to fall apart.

you can minimize the perspective distortion with wideangle by shooting with the sensor perpendicular with the building, you can crop away unwanted area during the post.

you can also choice to shoot with a longer focal length lens to minimize the perspective distortion, provided you have enough room to back off.

I don't want to mention about PC lens since you don't have any, and don't think you can just rent the lens to shoot with good result on the first try, so don't bother about getting a PC lens now.
 

I don't want to mention about PC lens since you don't have any, and don't think you can just rent the lens to shoot with good result on the first try, so don't bother about getting a PC lens now.

does pentax even have PC lens?? :think:
 

any tips on how to take them more "life like" and look good?
any tips would be appreciated.
Thanks all!

Use your flash off camera to mimic the sun. But I don't know if your Sigma can do wireless
To get the big building feeling, use your wider angle lens. You have the 18-55, depending on the size of the model, I think 35mm should be nice. It will also have a greater DOF.
Shoot low, as if you are a tiny person shoot a building. If you shoot from above, it's only going to look more like a model.

There is a software called ShiftN. It corrects converging lines. Very useful if you shoot from low and the building looks like it is falling backward. No need to buy a perspective control lens.
 

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thanks for the quick replies guys!
just to clarify, yep, its just like night86mare said. it should be a scale model .

I'll ask her if I can bring it outside to shoot. Hopefully she wont mine:bsmilie:

for macro, I have a +4 closeup filter for my 18-55.
would that work?

She said that there is a tripod in her room that I can borrow so it should be ok.
I've not really played that much with my flash yet so I'm also not sure :sweat:

edit: @sbc : woah just downloaded shiftN and tried it out. wow. it works nicely. thanks!
 

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No problem ;). Those models are usually quite big, so I don't think you need the close up lens. Your 18-55 should be able to cover it.
 

With an APS-C crop sensor, all the old perspective control lenses that were once made for film cameras are of limited use on digital today because the focal length is just not wide enough due to the reduced field of view.
With Photoshop, you can by and large correct keystoning and converging verticals during post processing using perspective crop and other tools.
 

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