Model photography guide.

[Guest]

Before I get started, I'm not a pro nor do I pretend to be either. However some of the photos on this great forum of ours could be so much better so hopefully this will help.

Photography.

Photography is all about light and capturing light waves it sounds so simple ha ha!!

Light.

when you get your cameras out try to do your photography in the brightest room in the house this way your photos will have a more natural look.

If not then have a couple of halegen desk lamps handy, now the light from these will be a little strong however you can make a light diffuser from an old serial box, white kitchen paper some glue and staples sorry no need for sticky backed plastic!!

To make a light diffuser follow the below.

1. Cut out the two large serial box panels and on the plain side measure in an inch all round.

2. Cut out the middle of peace so your left with a frame.

3. With a prit stick glue go round the whole of one peace then stick the plain withe kitchen paper to the frame, with the other frame round the prit stick glue it then stick that to the paper and other frame.

4. Run a stapler round the frame be very genorous as this will help to stiffen the frame.

5. Repeat this as many times as you wish.

You can on some lamps clamp the diffuser to the stand so that it stays in front of the light, what this will do is softern the light so that it's not as harsh nor are the shadows to strong.

To make a light reflector.

1. Again cut out the large box panels.

2. Stick plain white A4 paper to it.

3. Make as many as you need.

or

1. Cut out the large box panel.

2. Stick tin foil to the panel (use this on very dull days)

3. Make as many as you need.

Cameras.

You don't need a fancy DSLR however they are very nice toys!!! At this point you will need to have a read of your cameras manual, although all cameras do the same thing as in take photo's, however each camera has it's own settings and setup's.

Appeture.

This govens two things

1. How much light is aloud through the lens.

2. Control of depth of feild (how much of what's behind your subject is kept in focus)

so for eample if you had set an appeture of f2.6 you will have a large fat hole in your lens so your shutter speed will be fast or very fast some but not all of your subject will be in focus however anything behind your subject will be out of focus, this setup works well for small detailed areas suach as a face, but not so good for tanks, aircraft or cars!!

So if you set an appeture of f22 you would have a very small hole so your shutter speed would be very very slow.

Depending on your camera try to set an appeture of between f5.6 - f18 have a play around to find out what's good for you and your camera.

The shutter.

This govens the amount of time that the shutter is open to allow light to register on the sensor, however this is also influanced by the appeture set on the lens.

Tripods

Lovely bit of kit and very nice to have, however if you don't have one try this.

1. Aquirre an old stocking( the wife or girl friend will have these)!!!

2. Cut about three or four inches about the foot of the stocking.

3. Fill the stocking foot with rice (two or three cup fulls) or something that's a small particle.

4. Tie a knot in the top of the remaining stocking.

5. Put all this into an old thick sock and tie the end.

You have a fexlible camera support.

Cable releace.

Again a nice extra but not really needed.

All cameras have a self timer on them some may only have one set time others may have two or three different setting i.e 10 5 or 2 seconds delay.

ISO.

This govens the speed of the sensor, in the old days it was the speed of the film used. However with digital you can can the ISO for each photo so you see what gives the best result. However go to high on the ISO i.e 800,1600 or higher the more "grain effect" you'll get in your photo, however you can use this to your advantage in that this graining works very well for black and white giving that old look to the photo.

I'll add some photo's when I get home from Stockport so as to give you all an idea of what the setup will look like.

The shoot.

Armed with your lights relectors and camera now the fun begins, truthfully there's not much I can say here as I do not know your setups, if you're ussing a stuffed sock as your camera support and need more hieght then use some thick book but becareful not to over do this as we don't want any broken cameras!!

Do some test shots to start off with to get a feel for the light conditions, or to move your reflectors around.

That's as far as I want to go as I'm trying hard to keep this simple and easy to follow.

I hope this works for some of you...

Regards

David

[Guest]

Some good advice David, For the price of a good kit what about investing in a tripod or table tripod, they are probably quite cheap s/h on ebay, or photo shops if you can find one, you would be able to position the camera a bit more securely,might be worth looking if we want to take many pictures, obviously not worth the expense for a couple of piccies. I have been taking photos for years but I don`t experiment anymore I let the camera do it, yes I am lazy but will give your ideas a go.

Cheers Gareth.

[Guest]

Sound advice David, cannot really fault any of it. Only thing I would add is white balance. This is the colour of the light source and how it affects your pictures. The 'Norm" is daylight (no such thing really as it changes temperature throughout the day) and all digital cameras have electronic filtering to try to convert and light source to the same colour as daylight. So household normal bulbs, known as tungsten, have a red/yellow warm light so the camera compensates by adding blue (bit more complicated than that but this is the principle). If your camera has Auto White Balance, then set it to that and in most cases, you will be near enough. If however you have control over the white balance then experiment to find what gives best results indoors with artificial lights. Halogen and fluorescent lights have an odd colour temperature but usually Auto White Balance will sort it out.

If you find that your pictures have an orange or yellow cast then check your settings for a Tungsten setting. If they have a greenish cast, check for a fluorescent setting. It is highly unlikely that you will get a perfect colour balance and you will always get some colour change, it would be near impossible to get natural colour perfectly no matter what the camera manufacturer says. But, with a bit of trial and error, you can get reasonably close.

For most of my pics on the work desk, I have a desk lamp that has a folded fluorescent type tube in it. It has very good colour balance and works well, I will miss it when it breaks. However, sometimes when the house lights are on as well and compete for brightness, you can see the 'warm' tinges in the shadows.

If in doubt, take your model outside and in shade, or on a cloudy day, shoot away at your hearts content and the colour will be as natural as you will get.

[stona]

Cripes! I know I really need this advice and I certainly appreciate you taking the time to post it. I may have to print it off and use it like the kit instructions. I know a couple of chaps here are experienced photographers but most of us need all the help we can get.

I'm guessing the white balance would explain why my beautifully concocted interior green colour has come out looking a bit like very young baby poo (which I remember all to well!)

Cheers

Steve