Photographing LEGO

[Big Cam]

MMM....prime lens at f/1.8. You're making me drool Big Cam!!! Oh...and you bring up a good point. Don't be afraid of prime lens for LEGO photography. The fixed focal length lens are usually WAY cheaper than a zoom and you can get much faster lens' in prime than zoom.

-Dave

Yes sir, it's the next lens on my list. I really want a wide angle fisheye although everyone tells me the novelty wears off fast, I still think I'd love it.

Anybody using a softbox? I've been using a couple parabolic reflectors and I'm wondering if softer light going into the lightbox would make a difference.

It would definetaly help with flashpoints, if you have them, use them. I have to bounce my flash off of the top of my lightbox. For what I do though, a softbox wouldn't really help me since I only have the one flash for now and I want the flash to cover the whole area of my lightbox. Of course..... If I had a softbox, I could get a flash stand and open up the top of my lightbox. Hmmmm

[Bored Robot]

Maybe I should try bouncing the light, but I like using constant lighting, Sometimes 2x500w Tungstens or 2x26W CF bulbs at 6500K (Soon to be replaced by 50W 5500k). The problem is the reflection of the bulb in Vader's podracer windscreen. I moved the lights to the side but lost the detail in the mask. Any ideas for keeping detail in the mask and no reflection in the windscreen?

[Davey]

Maybe I should try bouncing the light, but I like using constant lighting, Sometimes 2x500w Tungstens or 2x26W CF bulbs at 6500K (Soon to be replaced by 50W 5500k). The problem is the reflection of the bulb in Vader's podracer windscreen. I moved the lights to the side but lost the detail in the mask. Any ideas for keeping detail in the mask and no reflection in the windscreen?

It looks to me like you're losing depth of field. What is your aperture setting? If you can, set it at like f16 of f22 to capture more detail in the mask. It will mean a longer shutter time, but with a tri-pod, that shouldn't matter. As for the bulb, can you put some type of diffuser in front of it? Something as simple as tracing paper might work.

-Dave

[Bored Robot]

Good call on the aperture, it was shot at f/6 or so on an old Powershot G2 back in April. I've a bit more experience now so I will be taking new moc photos. Thanks for the feedback.

[Ricecracker]

So, Eurobricks, I need your help, and quickly! Tomorrow is boxing day, and I'm going to get a new camera. I need your help on which one to get. All prices are CAD

-Canon EOS Rebel XS plus accessory pack - $499

-Canon EOS Rebel XSi plus accessory pack - $599

-Canon EOS Rebel XS without IS lens - $369

-Nikon D3000 non VR lens - $449

Please help out!

Edited December 26, 2009 by Ricecracker

[Modulex Guy]

So... I recently decided it would be nice to take some pics of my MOCs to post, but for the life of me I cant get the pics to come out nice at all, what am I doing wrong?

I set up a white sheet as a backdrop, put up every lamp in the house around for a flood of light, and set the MOC in the middle.

My pics all come out yellow and dim no matter what setting both my cameras are, with flash its even worse, the colors are terrible and the brights are too bright and the rest is dim.

After a few hours of tinkering with the lights and cameras, I almost threw the camera across the room from being so pissed

I have tons of post worthy MOCs, but they never see the camera because I cant for the life of me get a good pic, and seeing some people's photos just makes me not even trying to compete.

Please Help!!! Tell me what I need to do so I can take good pics and start sharing MOCs.

If it helps, my cameras are: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37

[prateek]

Probably change your white balance or there might be a setting for what type of lighting there is. Try changing that. If that doesn't work, get a new camera, use it, and then return it the next day

[DLuders]

I recently took photographs of a Lego car ~4" wide x 8" long x 2-1/2" high, and tried various things:

1) Taking a flash picture of it inside a white bookshelf (to get even lighting via flash "bounce" off of the white surfaces)

2) Outside on a porch railing

3) Outside on the wet underside of a canoe

4) Outside on a wet hood of a car.

The best pictures were the ones taken OUTSIDE on wet surfaces (to provide a "mirror image" of the Lego car). Cloudy days would provide more even lighting than bright sunshine (when shadows may be troublesome). Any daytime outdoor lighting situation will be MUCH BETTER than taking flash pictures inside. The "depth of field" (range of focus) will be better, and the colors will be more vibrant.

The secret to taking a good picture is to take LOTS OF THEM. With digital photography, the extra "photos" don't cost anything other than your time. I must have taken 60 pictures of my Lego car before settling on the best 8 pictures.

[Inconspicuous]

If you use artificial lighting, it's pretty much guaranteed that your pics will have some yellow, but that's nothing a tiny bit of photo editing can't fix. Can you post one of these yellow images here?

[Mr. Lego-builder]

I set up a white sheet as a backdrop,...

That's a good start. Make sure there are no wrinkles in the sheet and it is propped up properly so the edges are not falling over and casting shadows.

...put up every lamp in the house around for a flood of light,and set the MOC in the middle.

My pics all come out yellow and dim no matter what setting both my cameras are...

It's not the quantity of light, but rather the quality of the light that matters. Your run-of-the-mill house lamps most likely have yellowish light being emitted. What you need are full-spectrum light bulbs. The reason why pictures of LEGO taken outside look better without much fuss is that the sun (yes, that bright light in the sky) has this full spectrum of light. This will remove the yellowish hue.

...with flash its even worse, the colors are terrible and the brights are too bright and the rest is dim.

It's pretty much a rule of thumb to never if rarely use the camera's built in flash for photographing LEGO. Like you said, the colors will be all washed out due to the reflective nature of the plastic bricks.

...After a few hours of tinkering with the lights and cameras, I almost threw the camera across the room from being so pissed ... If it helps, my cameras are: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37

Don't do that! The cameras you have are great. They are more than capable of taking good pictures. I dare to say that after following these recommendations, the pictures will turn out fine on their automatic/default settings.

Please Help!!! Tell me what I need to do so I can take good pics and start sharing MOCs.

Follow these suggestions. The most important thing is the lighting. Make sure the light is natural light (the sun) or from full-spectrum light bulbs. These bulbs should be bright (100 Watts preferred; 75 Watts at least). Even so, the key is to make sure the light is not direct. The light needs to be diffused first. This can easily be done using your materials:

1. Construct a box like (i.e. rectangular) support for your sheet.

2. Attach the sheets to the supports on the left and right sides.

3. Gently drape the sheet on the rear of the support so it does not form a 90 degree angle with the support, but rather a gentle slope

4. Attach tissue paper (e.g. the type used for gift-wrapping) to the top

5. You should now be finished with the light tent. There should be one opening in the front to place your MOC. Essentially, you have constructed a box where the light is properly contained and directed at your MOC.

6. Direct the full-spectrum light bulb/s over the tissue paper on top. This will diffuse the light (as we talked about before).

7. Mount your camera onto a tripod (important!) and point it at your MOC

8. Shoot away! (without flash of course...)

Hope this helps! Diagrams can be provided if you need them.

[Modulex Guy]

It's not the quantity of light, but rather the quality of the light that matters. Your run-of-the-mill house lamps most likely have yellowish light being emitted. What you need are full-spectrum light bulbs. The reason why pictures of LEGO taken outside look better without much fuss is that the sun (yes, that bright light in the sky) has this full spectrum of light. This will remove the yellowish hue.

Follow these suggestions. The most important thing is the lighting. Make sure the light is natural light (the sun) or from full-spectrum light bulbs. These bulbs should be bright (100 Watts preferred; 75 Watts at least). Even so, the key is to make sure the light is not direct. The light needs to be diffused first. This can easily be done using your materials:

This I did not know!

I had no idea that there are full spectrum bulbs, guess I'm going shopping today for bulbs.

[Mr. Lego-builder]

This I did not know!

I had no idea that there are full spectrum bulbs, guess I'm going shopping today for bulbs.

I'm glad it helps! When buying bulbs, try to find ones that are energy efficient (i.e. compact fluorescent bulbs). They work just as well and uses much less energy. Also, they run with much less heat. A 100 Watt regular full-spectrum bulb runs extremely hot. If you do decide to go with these, be careful! They get hot and stay hot for quite a while after they are turned off.

[CP5670]

I set up a white sheet as a backdrop, put up every lamp in the house around for a flood of light, and set the MOC in the middle.

My pics all come out yellow and dim no matter what setting both my cameras are, with flash its even worse, the colors are terrible and the brights are too bright and the rest is dim. default_sad.gif

Most cameras have a tungsten light setting for the white balance that removes the yellow tint on indoor, unflashed pictures. However, you will probably still have the issue of blurriness. I find that with the small, point-and-shoot cameras, flash is essential to make indoor pictures look sharp. If the colors with flash are looking washed out, try moving the camera away from the model and zoom in to compensate. I find that this distributes the flash lighting more evenly and produces fairly good results. The best solution is to just take the pictures outdoors if possible.

The secret to taking a good picture is to take LOTS OF THEM. With digital photography, the extra "photos" don't cost anything other than your time. I must have taken 60 pictures of my Lego car before settling on the best 8 pictures.

I do the same thing, taking 3 or 4 pictures at every angle. Some of them always come out looking sharper than others, and you can compare and delete the bad ones quickly.

[Milan]

I would also recommend taking a lots of them, choose few of he best and maybe enhance them in some editing program a little bit.

[CP5670]

I would also recommend taking a lots of them, choose few of he best and maybe enhance them in some editing program a little bit.

I use Irfanview (free download) to do things like this. I typically downsize the original (big) image with the Lanczos method and then apply a 20% sharpen filter, which produces very good results on Lego pictures. You can do this on a lot of images at once using Irfanview's batch conversion feature.

[Modulex Guy]

Well, I went out and bought some full spectrum bulbs, dug out my instructions for the cameras and tried again.

Let me just say one thing, wow those bulbs make a difference!

That and I figured out how to change the color settings on the camera and got a much better result.

To me, so good that I posted one of my MOCs:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42810

Thanks for all the help!

[CopMike]

We have tutorials here on EB, this one is on photography written by Hinckley - check it out! And there´s more also! Good luck!

[MrTools]

I myself have a not so good camera, but what I do is put a white backdrop down, take the picture (sometimes at a distance to get good quality), and after that save it to a file on my computer. Next I use Picasa (free photo editing program by Google), to fix the brightness, crop the picture, and some other things (shadows and other effects). After making the MOC itself look good (not focusing much on the background) I put the picture in MS Paint. From there I color over all the dark areas to give it a pristine white background. (this may take a little time or a long time depending on how well you set up your backdrop and lighting). I hope this helps you out.

[Henchmen4Hire]

I have a Nikon D80 which is kinda old, so I imagine the D3000 can only be a million times better with today's technology. Here are some older pics below. All you have to do is use a tripod with a high enough F-stop to get everything in focus. The tripod (and timer or remote shutter release) is necessary because your shutter speed will probably be a few seconds.

Oh yeah, and don't mix lights. If you're using natural light (like from a window) then don't shine another lightbulb because the colors will get all messed-up (look at the last picture).

(The face is a little overexposed in this, my lighting setup kinda sucks)

Here's why you shouldn't mix lights, I left the window open so I got a nasty blue hue on the left side of the tower. Only used one lightbulb from the top because I like dramatic lighting in my pictures. If you want cheerier pictures then do what the OP said, more lights, good stuff :) This is just a picture for an ebay auction so I didn't care much about the narrow depth of field (which is why the Dementor is out of focus)

Your goal will usually be to set the F-stop only big enough to get the figures in focus while leaving the background blurry, that way all attention is focused on the figures instead of the background.

Edited December 26, 2010 by DrNightmare

[CorneliusMurdock]

I've been trying to learn how to take better pictures of MOCs and contest entries lately. Doing online research and even getting books out of the library have helped me learn more about digital photography in general. Understandably, though, most resources I've encountered have only touched briefly on macro photography and none have really talked about taking good pics of Lego. I guess Digital Photography for Dummies can only get me so far.

Since there are so many members here on EB that take excellent pictures, I was wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks for taking great pictures of Lego. It would even better if there was a little tutorial outlining the best ways to do it. (I tried searching for one here but came up empty. If someone has already done one that I missed, they can point me in its direction.) Photography is something that affects every part of this forum since it's the main way we share our creatiions with each other.

[Brickdoctor]

The majority of us take photos in the day without flash, but I know there are exceptions. I like taking photos at night whenever I have to take a lot of them, so I can control the lighting more, and I can always brighten and color-correct on the computer. I know smokebelch partially lights his shots with a flashlight app on an iPod touch/Phone, and I've been able to do that on close-ups with great success. Anyways, that's just me.

As for tutorials, I know the RA has some, and there's Hinckley's tutorial here.

[Big Cam]

There is no set way for taking pictures, but a few of us have our favorite or personal ways.

I'll give you my way of picture taking and if it works for you, great, if not at least you'll know what not to try.

Usually there are 2 types of LEGO photographers, those who use natural light and those who use artificial light. I use artificial light. I take all of my review pictures in a light box. A light box is essentially just 5 pieces of white cardboard, commonly known as poster board or foam board. Then I cut two squares in the sides and put a piece of white paper over the hole, this is the entrance point for my two auxiliary lights. You can use anything from desk lamps to big work lights like me (they were $7 at wal-mart). The objective is to be able to take a picture without using your front facing flash. The reason is because front facing flashes (found on every camera) is they create bright spots or flash spots on the front of your subject, and LEGOs get them bad because they are mostly reflective.

So in my opinion the camera is a big deal as well. Others have pr oven me wrong that fantastic photos CAN be taken with almost any camera, but for me, it helps to start with a RAW image so the post editing options are greater. I use a Nikon D40 which is considered an DSLR camera. Another bonus is I can use a flash that allows me to point it's flash up wards essentially eliminating the flash spots and creating an almost natural light effect, since it bounces off the top of the light box and comes down on the subject.

If nothing else one of the most important things to use is a tripod or at least have a very steady place for your camera to be. Without using a flash you need to hold the camera almost perfectly still, thats why a tripod is so helpful.

Otherwise it takes time, trying different shots over and over. I for one am a huge fan of post editing software like photo shop, in there you can brighten or darken a picture, smooth out the edges, amplify color and so on. Here is a picture of my setup, and the end result after editing. I use this setup in a room with no natural light, if there is some, I don't mind, but I don't need it.

DISCLAIMER: I know my pictures are not perfect, but they have gotten to a level that is acceptable to me.

SETUP

END RESULT

[mikey]

Those lights you are using, do they need to be a special type of bulb? Or does any bright (and unnatural) light work as long as it gets filtered through the white paper?

[AussieJimbo]

You've got a nice setup there, Big Cam.

Those lights you are using, do they need to be a special type of bulb? Or does any bright (and unnatural) light work as long as it gets filtered through the white paper?

Filtering through the white paper on the sides would be diffusing the light not changing it's hue to a significant degree.

Different light sources have a distinct colour tone known as the colour temperature:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

Some lights give a blue tinge (eg neon light) and others a yellowish hue (eg incandescent or tungsten bulb).

Your camera probably has a "white balance" setting that allows you to compensate for this with various setting for the different light settings so that your whites appear white rather than shifted one way or another by your light source.

Many cameras also have a Auto White Balance which you can set by taking a full frame picture of some white card or piece of paper. The camera then uses this a reference so that your whites come out white.

I'm currently using a couple of those newer light bulbs that have a halogen lights inside the regular light bulb and once I've got the exposures right I don't really feel the need to change the colour balance either in the camera or after shooting.

:classic:

Edited March 26, 2011 by AussieJimbo

[brickmack]

Well, here is how I do my pictures:

I use a white background (Just a big sheet of white paper I taped to the wall and my desk), and I have the main light source to the left. I also have a second lamp that I use sometimes to balance the lighting better, but I usually get the main light so I don't have to use that. Occassionally I use paper filters over the lights, but most of the time I'm to lazy... I usually take the pictures at night also, so as to avoid added light from the windows (Or people upstairs yelling and disturbing me ). Then on Photoshop I do basic stuff like cropping, color correcting, brightening, removing dust spots, etc. Sometimes I also remove the background and add in my own (But I won't go into all of that here). Hopefully this has been somewhat helpful.