Photographing your Model

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If you could make your models at a scale of 1:1 you wouldn’t need to be reading this. Because models are a small representation of a large object they become a challenge to photograph in a lifelike and pleasing manner. The object of this article is to make it easier for you to produce photographs that do justice to the models you make.

In a previous life I was a professional portrait and wedding photographer. While my experience with commercial product photography is limited I have done enough to be able to give some tips that may help your own photography.

The photography I see in the galleries is first rate. The biggest problem with photographing anything as small as our models is the limited zone of focus and sometimes backgrounds that are too cluttered to show off our work to its best advantage

The basic principle of photography is to record an image on film or digital sensors using light and lenses. The main thrust of this article will be on how to use light, lenses, and backgrounds to your best advantage. I will try to take in to account that most of us use point and shoot cameras and have little control over the settings. I will assume that if you use a digital camera it has some way to focus close, called macro focus, in the business.

Depth of field does not refer to the amount of water on the football pitch. Depth of field is the zone of acceptable focus in your pictures and is based on the focal length of your lens and the f/stop it is set at. Don’t worry if you don’t know an F/stop from a shortstop, I will explain all as we progress. We have all seen pictures where the foreground and background were out of focus with a narrow strip of focus in the middle. This area is referred to as the depth of field or the zone of acceptable focus. In a landscape of the rocky mountains the zone of focus is still there it is just not very noticeable. In a shot of a cannon at 1:64 scale it is a critical factor. The zone changes as the focus of the lens changes becoming smaller as the camera is focused closer, it also changes with the size of the lens opening that lets the light though. The closer the focus and the larger the lens opening (f/stop) the narrower the zone of focus. In the perversity of photo jargon the larger the f/stop number, the smaller the opening. A small lens opening f:16 for example, gives you a bigger zone of focus than one of larger opening like f:4. At the same time a small lens opening lets through less light making a dark picture. We will discuss exposure in more detail later in this article.

From the foregoing you will see that increasing the light on your subject will allow a smaller lens opening and therefore an increase in the zone of focus. The problem with light from a flash unit is that it decreases rapidly from its source. An object that is two feet from your flash will receive one quarter the light as an object only one foot away. (For the geeks among us that is the inverse square law.) One of the tricks in commercial photography is to use multiple light sources. A practical way for us, is to go outside and use sunlight. Every part of your model is 93 million miles from the light source so every part receives the same amount of light. The light is also bright enough to allow the use of a small lens opening. The disadvantage of sunlight is the presence of harsh shadows. This can be minimized by the use of fill flash from your camera. Using a white reflector on the shadow side will also help eliminate shadows. The smaller the light source the harsher the shadows. In this case the sun is a pin point light source and so is your on-camera flash. A diffuser on your flash can sometimes soften shadows to an acceptable level. A layer or two of cheesecloth between the sun and your model will also do wonders for the shadows.

There is a definite quantity of light that will create a properly exposed photo, one that is neither too dark or too light. The amount of light hitting your film is determined by the size of the lens opening and the length of time it is open. Time is measured in fractions of a second as in 1/60th or 1/100th of a second and is controlled by the cameras shutter. For the same exposure, a large lens opening requires a shorter time interval and a small lens opening requires a longer time. In a low light situation to get an adequately exposed photo you will need a large lens opening and a long shutter time. The large lens opening reduces the zone of focus and a long shutter time increases the chance of camera shake also reducing the sharpness of your image. A tripod will reduce camera shake but is not always practical to use. Film with a high ASA rating will allow greater flexibility and setting your digital to a higher ASA will do the same for it. The higher the ASA rating, the greater the sensitivity to light allowing smaller lens openings.

From all of the foregoing you will see that one of the keys to good pictures of your models is the quality and quantity of light. Multiple flashes or high power studio lights is the way the pros do it. In our case, sunlight or even window light combined with on camera flash is about the best we can get. If you have an adjustable camera you have the option of setting your f/stop for a large depth of field and controlling the exposure with the shutter, taking care to prevent camera shake.

Camera shake is probably the leading cause of less than razor sharp photos. It is almost impossible to hold a camera steady at a shutter speed of less than 1/60 of a second and I am sorry to say as we age it becomes even harder. A tripod is an obvious remedy but is not always easy to set up or to maneuver around the intricacies of our models. Sometimes a tabletop tripod or even a short monopod will get the sharpness we need. There seems to be some inherent unsharpness in digital images. I have never taken a photo or scanned an image that didn’t benefit from sharpening in whatever image software I was using. Raw digital images will usually also benefit from some tweaking in the contrast and/or brightness settings. One of the problems unique to our situation is that you can never know what kind of monitor our images will be seen on. I have done some work in a telephone call center. A row of monitors essentially showing the same image will be all different tints and even show different degrees of sharpness. In the end the only people who need to be happy with our photography is us, if it looks good on your monitor it will be acceptable on most others.

Backgrounds

With a subject as complex as our ship models the backgrounds in out photos need to be as simple as possible. Too much clutter makes it difficult to see the details of masts and rigging. Something as simple as hanging a sheet on the wall or placing a large sheet of poster paper behind your masterpiece will make it stand out. One of the basic concepts of art and photography is that light objects attract the eye. A dark background will tend to recede as it should and focus the eye on the subject. A dark background slightly out of focus is ideal. One of my most popular backgrounds was a dark storm cloud scene, I wish I still had it, it would be perfect for model photos. Showing your workbench with all its clutter (at least mine is) is perfectly acceptable, but for the finished model find a nice dark simple background (and use plenty of light).

Feel free to post a comment with any questions, or even flames.
Michael AKA Trawlerman