good eye on that "Then & Now" Skyline!!!!
That R34 skyline came out in January, I wonder how many of those I grabbed?
good eye on that "Then & Now" Skyline!!!!
That R34 skyline came out in January, I wonder how many of those I grabbed?
I played around with tiny cars and light again last night. Much fun was had.
Datsun nut by revlimit, on Flickr
I love this casting. I've got two of them, both loose. This one has a bit of detail painting. Nothing too elaborate. Mirrors, grill, oil cooler, headlights.
Yes please. by revlimit, on Flickr
My greatest JNC tragedy: not having the time or garage space to house a Datsun and restore it. Either a 510 wagon or 620 truck. I'm not picky. Well... I'd prefer the wagon. As for the HW, this one has a wheel swap and some detail painting. Headlights are painted silver up front, there's tail lights and mirrors. The wheels were silver steelies that I did flat black.
VW Drag Bus by revlimit, on Flickr
Randy sent me this one. I got it last night (THANKS RANDY!!!) What an awesome hunk of metal. The photo doesn't show how absolutely huge it is. I had no idea these things were this big. It flies down the track.
Hakosuka by revlimit, on Flickr
And the black Hako. I need to paint it up some, but it was calling to me from the sidelines while I shot others. The gloss black is stunning. A great repaint of a fantastic mold.
fwdtamiya (06-10-2014),JamieH (06-10-2014),Phatmiata (06-10-2014),RotorNutFD3S (06-10-2014),WASABI (06-10-2014)
Randy asked to see my setup earlier. Here it is. VERY very basic. It's all about light angle. A few mm up or down can MAKE the shot.
I used to do stuff with light diffusers. I really don't anymore. They have their place, but it's kinda like chocolate cake. It's not an all the time thing, IMHO. I generally use 2-3 clip lamps with daylight-balanced CFL bulbs installed. They're not huge bulbs. 30 watt or something. But I can set my camera on the little sun icon and get correct whites.
The backdrops are posterboard from Target. On these shots, the dark grey flat board was used for the street and a curved gloss white board was used above for reflections. There's nothing fancy to hide the edge. I just angled the light so that it wasn't falling on the intersection of the two boards.
I use an off-camera flash sometimes. That's the most exotic part of the rig. It's also a once-in-a-white chocolate cake kinda thing. Usually just a couple bare bulbs are all I need to get pleasing shapes and highlights, but sometimes a little extra pop is needed. I hand hold the flash and the camera sets it off in commander mode.
Tripod: necessary. I usually set mine to the height of the table so that the lens can rest on the surface. It gives a decent angle. Sometimes, I'll set the camera below the table surface and put the cars right on the edge to get ground level shots.
Lens: My favorite car, gauge, and everything else lens is a manual focus macro from the 80s, a Nikon 55mm 2.8. For the cars, I shot around f/22. A clean sensor is a necessity.
Camera body: doesn't matter. Any body can make these shots. A point and shoot camera in macro mode can make these shots. It's all about light and reflections.
Sorry if I was on a soapbox there for a moment.
fwdtamiya (06-10-2014),Phatmiata (06-10-2014),RotorNutFD3S (06-10-2014),theothersawyer (06-10-2014),WASABI (06-10-2014)
great shots!! Thanks for the info on the light box !!!
Awesome tutorial Adam! I'm envious of that Drag Bus, that thing is awesome looking!
I've got a lot less horsepower - luckily they are Japanese horses - usually in better shape and more motivated.
Hot Wheels 2012 ROADRCR set
I just shot my 2012 Canada-only Roadracer set. I also just blogged about it, hence no paragraphs of text about each car above. Cliff notes: you need this set. Every car is awesome, and 4 of the cars, IMHO, are each worth the price of the whole set.
Phatmiata (08-18-2014),RotorNutFD3S (08-18-2014)
Yes but where to get at a reasonable price??
After viewing this thread I decided to just grab whatever was sitting near the computer to play around with some pictures. I had a tripod, DSLR, remote shutter, and an iPhone. So I turned off all of the light and basically light painted these pictures. I didn't really do too much experimenting with the light. Maybe I will try doing this again and I will actually count how long the light was in one spot and adjust, but since I was just playing around I was just winging it! All of the light from these two photos is just from the iPhone light. These are straight out of the camera with no PP.
My old F50 that I have had since I was a kid. Recently found it, which is why it is all dusty!
The Pagani Huayra I opened up just for this, because of the awesome metallic paint!
RotorNutFD3S (08-19-2014),ZOOMX5 (08-19-2014)
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