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John B

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  2. Posted · Edited by John B
    Sheesh. Grammar and typos.

    3 hours ago, dai phan said:

    I have used the tripod but I did not any better results. I think I am happy with the latest images but still blurry in some areas of the plane. You can see my latest photos on the GWH T-33 WIP thread. Dai 

     

    UnZdaCp.jpg

    That image looks fine.   The images in your T-33 thread look good, too.   There's one overarching secret to getting infinite depth-of-field and having everything near and far perfectly in focus for models -> there's a lot of illusion.   It's impossible for your eyes to have something 2 inches from you nose and 2 miles away perfectly focused at the same time.   Your eye changes focus when you look at each object.   The reason why your perceive it differently in a picture is because different areas of the picture aren't re-focused as you look at them.

     

    Let me go back to my list and adjust it for what you're trying to do -

      1.  - Use 18-55mm lens (aka the "kit" lens)

      2. Shot outside on bright days in the shade =OR= outside on overcast days  Turn on both work lights and open the blinds.

      3. Camera set up on tripod 1 to 2 ft away from subject with legs NOT extended more than 1 section.

          3a. Better to be a little farther away from the model and zoomed out a little more than just the area you want the attention on. 

      4. IS switch (Image stabilizer for Canon lenses.) on lens turned "off"

      5.  Set the ISO to 100

      6. Mode wheel set to "Av" and F-stop set between "14" and "22" 

      7. Remember to adjust the lens length to a little more area than I want to see in the final image.  (See step 14)

      8. Focus switch on lens set to "Manual" (On my Canon lenses, switch it from Af to M)

      9. While zoomed in on rear LCD display, I adjusted focus point about 1/3 from the front of the model. focus on the area you want to highlight.

      10. There was a shutter countdown function in the old Rebel Xsi.   I set it to take the picture 10 secs AFTER I pressed the shutter release button.  (Newer Canon SLRs can have the shutter button triggered with the Canon App on your phone.   I haven't tried it.)

       11.  Once I pressed the shutter release button, I took my hands off the camera and moved away from the tripod.

       12. After the "amber"  red light turned off and I heard the second "click", I knew the camera had finished taking the exposure.

       13.  I took a couple more shots with the F-stop a couple of values up and down from where I started.  

       14.  After shooting, I cropped the images in my computer to remove stuff I didn't want from the picture.  Example the parts of the model closer and farther than the area of interest will eventually look out of focus.*   Crop those areas of the image out.

       15.  (OPTIONAL, but I always ended up doing it)   See dog/my hair, feather, dust, finger prints, shadows or leaf/twig/insect in the image.  Slap my forehead.  Go back outside and retake pictures. 

      

    *Remember how I said getting something very close and very far all in focus is a lot of illusion?   Cropping out the the areas that are really blurry makes everything look focused.   

     

      Here are some tricks I found work for me -

       1.  Make the area you want people to look at the area that you try to focus.   Look at this image and read this - "I painted the engine cowl white and used red decal for the dots." Click here.    You're looking at the prop hub and the engine of the model?   You're not noticing that the letters on the tail of the model are out of focus?

       2.  Use a plain background.   No one notices when a plain background is blurry.

       3.  Whenever possible, take images of multiple objects so that they are the same distance to the camera.  This allows you to worry less about depth-of-field.  Examples -> Click here #1  and Click here #2

       4.  Position the subject so that parts of it isn't really close to the camera and another part is really far from the camera when trying to it all in focus.   Click here

       5.  You can position parts of the subject really close or really far if you only want to focus on a particular area and don't care that the near and far parts are out-of focus.  Click Here #1  Click Here #2  Click Here #3

     

    The images in your GWH T-33 thread look fine and already look "more in focus" than the A-7 image you posted earlier.   I'm not an expert in photography and I learned by playing with the camera and asking questions.  Since it's all digital, play with camera as much as you like.   I think you're learning technique and will just keep getting better.

  7. Posted

    On 5/31/2020 at 3:10 PM, dai phan said:

    Hi all,

    I just upgraded to new big workbench from 42" to 72" with new bigger, stronger LED lights. Before it was so crowded but now I can breath a bit easier. On my bench is the WIP T-33. Dai

     

    nslcm5w.jpg

     

     

    Nice workbench.  With the lights and the sunlight through the window, it looks much brighter now.   Have you tried taking in-progress pictures with a tripod and the brighter workbench setup?   Have the images improved the way you were hoping for? 

  8. Posted · Edited by John B

    On 4/28/2020 at 5:17 AM, Darren Roberts said:

     

    Terrible song? How dare you! That's heresy. Nothing beats 80's hair band music. Go sit in the corner and contemplate the error of your ways! 😄

    Are the terms "'80s" and "hair band" redudant?    That's like saying "old school Super Nintendo". 😜

    A lot of songs can be reworked/mixed into styles that appeal to the listener - hard rock, country, techno, dance, etc.   If you are/aren't a fan of particular style, it may bias the you towards/against the song in that style.  Here is the "The Final Countdown" given the "EPIC"-style rework  ->  EPIC COVER | ''The Final Countdown'' by Damned Anthem   

     

  9. Posted

    1 hour ago, habu2 said:

    I still have all my gear from my film days, but no desire to shoot film.  A while back I picked up a Sony a6000 body (24MP, 1.5x cropped sensor) and some Canon FD to Sony e-mount adapters.

     

    I used to shoot Kodachrome 64 and film, but I would never go back to film again. I can't even think of where I could get film processed anymore.

    Sony is making making fantastic mirrorless camera bodies.   The max number of frames per second in multiple exposures sounds like a 3 high-end FILM cameras with motordrives going off at same time.  The only criticism I have of them is the short battery life and body that is too small for my hamhock hands.  I think you've hit the perfect combination of quality lenses with high-tech Sony electronics.👍

    On 5/16/2020 at 4:46 AM, Rob de Bie said:

     

    If I can add a technique too: I recently experimented with High Dynamic Range photos. Basically you shoot 3 or 5 photos with different exposures (under to over-exposed), and the software combines the best parts of those photos to one. It's comparable to the human eye that adopts very quickly to different lighting conditions. I stayed on the (very) conservative side, you can 'enhance' the photos a lot more. Top photo is normal, bottom is HDR. The difference is not that big, but I really like how the underside of the model is shown now.

     

    Rob

     Sometimes I feel like using the HDR function is cheating... sometimes .😉  I never had the capability before my current Canon body.  I used to bracket the exposures of my images, but there is a limit to exposing for highlists and shadows. HDR makes it so easy and it allows me to capture images that would have required a lot of work in the darkroom in the old days or Photoshop just a decade ago.

     

    On 5/16/2020 at 7:26 PM, Mstor said:

    I have an old film EOS Rebel, but never bought a digital one. I have a very old digital point and shoot Canon somewhere around the house.  But now that I have access to my old lady's Rebel XTi, I just need to get off my a*** (I think the censors on this site are a little out of hand) and try it out. An old film Rebel was the one I did all my experimenting with years ago. Not the one I have now, but one a few years older that went to my ex. along with the lenses I had for it. Oh well, fortunes of war.

      Definitely break out that XTi!   Every technique you learned the expensive way on film will apply on the XTi.   In fact, you'll find it very familiar territory and many things will be even easier on the dSLR body.  The old film SLRs didn't have preview, couldn't show you results in almost real-time, and you couldn't change ISO at the press of a few buttons to name a few.   Experiment all you want to with settings in digital, it costs you nothing and it is so forgiving.  It's becoming the new "normal" to learn photography on digital first and learn on film ONLY if there is some look that you're trying to achieve that is impossible on digital. The latest and greatest dSLRs have so many menus to go through that they can discourage for those making the transition from film and/or point & shoots.  The Canon Rebel XTi is the perfect bridge for people coming from a film background who don't want to invest too much in learning the latest dSLR technology.   You won't regret playing with that Canon Rebel dSLR.

     

    I like to tell people new to photography that film was like driving a car with manual transmission, no power steering, and no GPS navigation.   Digital SLRs like the Canon Rebel series is like driving a car with automatic transmission, cruise control, and a backup camera.   Using the latest point & shoots in full auto mode (for me) feels like letting the car drive itself.   My personal feeling is "Let me drive the car, I pay for the fuel and insurance.   If I'm about to drive off the unseen cliff or I swerve into oncoming traffic, please don't hesitate to intercede and get me back to safety".😜

  10. Posted · Edited by John B

    More fun facts...  {SPOILER AHEAD}

     

    After the F-14 lands near the beginning of the movie, the camera angle switches to a shot from the island.  As the jet taxis out of the landing area, it can be seen that "203" is painted on the flaps, but "200" is painted on the nose. -> YouTube Clip 1

     

    At the end of the credits, there is an in-cockpit shot of someone wearing a VF-84 helmet.   In the visor of the helmet, you can see the reflection of a A-6 Intruder windscreen.  Several in-cockpit shots were done in the cockpit of a A-6 Intruder. -> YouTube Clip 2

     

    These things were pointed out to me by others. Once you've seen them, your eye always catches them next time you watch the movie.

     

    Bonus non-aviation fact...

    The radio equipment that the senator uses to contact Pearl Harbor are in a bogus radio configuration.   There are 2 radios that operate on different bandwidths, a power supply and speaker and they aren't even connected together.   The power supply is just there so that the orange "receive" light on the RT-524 stays "on".  (Imagine putting a rotary phone, cordless phone, and flip-phone on the table.)  They also wouldn't work inside the giant steel faraday cage that is a warship.  More Hollywood fudgery?  

     

  11. Posted

    These 3 threads have images that I shot with my old Canon Rebel XSi dSLR.

    1/48 F4U-4B and AU-1 Corsairs

    1/48 Monogram F-4J

    1/48 Revell F/A-18C

     

    If you like how the images look, here's how I set my camera for most of the images -

    1. Used 18-55mm lens (aka the "kit" lens)
    2. Shot outside on bright days in the shade =OR= outside on overcast days
    3. Camera set up on tripod 1 to 2 ft away from subject with legs NOT extended more than 1 section.
    4. IS switch (Image stabilizer) on lens turned "off"
    5. Set the ISO to 100
    6. Mode wheel set to "Av" and F-stop set between "14" and "22" 
    7. Adjust the lens length to a little more area than I want to see in the final image.  (See step 14)
    8. Focus switch on lens set to "Manual"
    9. While zoomed in on rear LCD display, I adjusted focus point about 1/3 from the front of the model.
    10. There was a shutter countdown function in the old Rebel Xsi.   I set it to take the picture 10 secs AFTER I pressed the shutter release button.  (Newer Canon SLRs can have the shutter button triggered with the Canon App on your phone.   I haven't tried it.)
    11. Once I pressed the shutter release button, I took my hands off the camera and moved away from the tripod.
    12. After the "amber" light turned off and I heard the second "click", I knew the camera had finished taking the exposure.
    13. I took a couple more shots with the F-stop a couple of values up and down from where I started.  
    14. After shooting, I cropped the images in my computer to remove stuff I didn't want from the picture.
    15. (OPTIONAL, but I always ended up doing it)   See dog/my hair, feather, dust, finger prints, shadows or leaf/twig/insect in the image.  Slap my forehead.  Go back outside and retake pictures. 

     

  13. Posted · Edited by John B

    8 hours ago, habu2 said:

    ....  I don't understand why people buy a fully functional DSLR and never take it off the green Automatic setting. :bandhead2:.

    {In sympathetic tone} - The initial learning curve for SLRs is pretty steep.  There are so many physics principles and technical non-intuitive jargon.

     

    {In grumpy old man tone} - Shooting digital today makes it so easy to learn.   You can change a setting, take the picture, and instantaneously review how it came out.   I learned on a Konica SLR (when they still made cameras) that only had auto metering for F-stop.   Everything else (focus, shutter speed, film advance) was done manually and I knew how to develop my own film!  Even then, you still had to buy film, developing chemicals, print photo paper, print chemicals, and that's after you got access to a darkroom or bought your own equipment.   That was uphill, both ways, without a helmet or eye protection!

     

    {In encouraging, school appropriate D-Rob voice}  - You can read up on all the physics principles and get bogged down in the minutiae of optics. =OR= you can turn the mode wheel and play around taking as many images as you like.  It's all just electrons without the limits of 36 exposures per 35mm roll of film.  The camera even records what settings the camera was in for pictures that you like.   Have fun taking pictures.   Keep pictures you like, learn how you got them, and delete all the images you don't like.   Now is the best time to learn photography.   Pick one photo session to play with just the shutter speed in manual mode.   Pick another session to focus on objects near and far.   Play with the aperture settings and notice how it affects depth-of-field.   Play with the ISO setting to show how sensitive sensors are now in low-light.   People learning today don't need to be handicapped by 36 exposures of print film that you took to a photo-lab to develop and prints to be made just to see how changing one setting affects the image.  Learning SLRs now is the easiest and most forgiving that it's ever been.  It's a good time to learn what all those little things on the mode wheel do, it doesn't cost you anything except the time to learn.   Learn what features your camera has and you will be rewarded with images that you didn't know you could create.

     

    Two pieces of advice I've learned from old-school photographers.   1) "There is no such thing as cheap good glass."  Invest in good quality lenses and they will last longer than any camera body.  2) Memory is cheap.   Shoot as many shots with as many settings as you want.  Delete the images you don't like and learn from the images you do like after the photo session.   During the photo session, keep shooting because the perfect light, perfect subject, and/or perfect event won't be there in front your camera forever.

  14. Posted · Edited by John B

    11 hours ago, dai phan said:

    These quality photos are exactly I am looking for. I can do the same with Canon Rebel EOS T6? The lens I used is EFS 18-55 mm, Macro .25m/0.8 feet. I just type what I see on the thing. I also have a longer zoom lens( not used) EF 75-300mm, 1.5m/4.9 feet, 1:4-5.6. No idea what these mean. Dai 

    There have already been a lot of good posts in reply to your question.  In case you're wondering if you need to invest in another lens or upgrade your camera body, the general consensus here is that you do NOT need to.   

     

    In addition to the what everyone has posted,  here's my simplified list.

     

    1) Use a tripod on as stable surface as reasonable.  

    2) If possible, shoot outside in the shade or on an overcast day.   The more overall light the better, but resist the urge to put the subject in direct sunlight as it causes harsh shadows and highlights.

    3) Set your camera ISO to 100, 200, or 400.

    4) Set the wheel on your camera to Av (aperture value) mode.   Set the aperture to somewhere around F10 to F14 on the LCD screen.

    5) If you're shooting exposure times are longer than 1 second, turn the image stabilizer "OFF".

    6) Use "MANUAL" focus.   

    7) Take as many pictures as you want and try setting the Av value to different settings.   You're shooting digital so you can delete any images you don't like.

    8)  I like the airbrush analogy! Once you get comfy with your camera, you'll get a "feel" for the settings.

     

    I think there is a Canon app now for the newer Canon dSLR bodies.   There is a technique to lock the viewfinder mirror "UP" and look for a feature called the words "Bulb release" or "Cable Release".  What you're looking for is way to trigger the shutter through your phone instead of you pressing the shutter button on the camera.   The point of all this is to reduce "camera shake" which will cause blurry images.

     

    There used to be cards with tables that showed "depth of field" distances for different camera lenses.   Camera lenses used to "depth of field" lines on the lens, too.    

     

    Take home ideas -

    1 - If you don't have a tripod, get one.   You don't need to buy any other new hardware.  

    2 - You have a capable camera.  

    3 - Play with your camera's settings and take as many pictures as you like.   You're not shooting film.

    4 - Don't let all the camera terms intimidate you.   Remember, there was a time when you didn't know what "gap-filling", "post-shade", "washes" and "dry-brushing" techniques were.   After you tried them, you learned how/when to use them.

    4 - Have fun and keep learning stuff about your camera.   You will learn camera techniques for modelling and those techniques will transfer to situations beyond modelling.   There are principles you will learn about your current camera that will work on cameras in the future.   (You can't change the rules of physics unless you're a StarFleet Engineer named "Montgomery Scott".)

     

  15. Posted

    Hey folks -

       I'm looking for 2 pilot figures from the series of 1/48 Hasegawa VF-1 kits.   

    They can be from ANY of the the VF-1A/J/S Valkyie fighter boxings...

    (VF-1A/J)-  https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10107282

    (VF-1A/S)-https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10127265

     

    ...or the VF-1A/J/S Strike/Super Valkyrie boxings

    (VF-1A/S )- https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10242344

    (VF-1J) - https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10271012

     

    Please drop me a PM if you have any to spare.

     

    Be safe, stay healthy, and keep modeling!

     

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