Slot car photography Options

[DaveKennedy]

So much of the online experience of slot cars is taking photos of them. I decided it was about time to start a discussion about that topic here.

Shooting photos of slot cars is quite easy, especially if they're not moving.

Gear
The topic of what camera to buy comes up often. Basically the answer is buy the camera you can afford. Below you can see the cameras that I have used for taking photos of slot cars. The camera in the front I bought in 2004, it's an A400 Canon 3 megapixel camera. The black camera in the background I just bought and is a Canon G9 that's 12 megapixels. Now I know this may be hard to believe but it's possible to get VERY good photos from a VERY cheap camera. Until about 3 weeks ago I shot most all of the photos I've taken since 2004 (of slot cars) with the 3mp Canon A400 camera.


People get caught up in buying cameras rather than practicing with the camera they have. A good photo can be taken with most any camera. A newer camera will be able to resolve shadow detail better and will be able to deal with light balance better, and of course will have a larger file size. But for the internet you generally need to have a 640px wide file which is much smaller than the files that come out of most camera.


Above is an example of two different types of light reflectors, the one on the left is a home made cardboard and white paper relector, the one on the right is a Photoflex reflector. Both do exactly the same thing, one costs about $30.00 one was free (essentially)... I'll let you guess which one is which.

Buy a small, cheap table top tripod for taking photos. The camera is seen below on a $19.00 tripod that can be bought somewhere like Target. You don't need to buy a tripod BTW, you can sit the camera on something like a box or small bag of dried beans or on the track itself. Photos taken from track-level are more dramatic because they give you a perspective of looking up at the subject, which makes the subject look larger and therefore more important.


Camera settings
I shoot exclusively with my cameras set to shoot "jpeg" images at the largest file size. I know that many people shoot using "RAW" files which do allow the most ability to adjust color balance after the fact. But if you take your time and make adjustments in the camera at the time you shoot the photo you should not need to do much post-production photo manipulation aside form resizing photos for website usage.

Crop with the camera
Take your time and compose your photos. Think about what the photo you will end up with, and move the camera to get that photo. It's aways best to shoot exactly what you want rather than assume you're going to crop a photo after the fact.


White Balance
A commonly made mistake is mixing light sources. It's best to start simple, which is using only 1 light source and a reflector. Cameras see light as colors. Different types of light are different colors, tungsten light (normal light bulbs) are warm tone light and will cast an orange-ish light especially if mixed with another light source like natural light (window light that's indirect, meaning not direct sunlight) or fluorescent light (which is sort of greenish light). If you mix light sources you're begging for trouble with colors being off on the subject you're shooting. One side of a car might be orangeish and the other side might be greenish if you have the sides of a car lit by different types of lights. Its' best to try to keep the variables to a minimum which I why I use one bright light that's a table light with an adjustable head. It's a desk lamp that I bought at Ikea that has a xenon bulb (I think) in it.

In your digital camera is the ability to set the "white balance" which is usually icon's that look like a little sun and light bulb, and something that probably says "AWB" for auto white balance. AWB works well with one light source. But changing the white balance in your camera will almost always give the best results if you adjust the camera to the type of light you're using. Reading your camera owners manual is very helpful for learing how to set this.


Sharp and good
Getting nice depth of field (which is the term used for getting a lot of a car or subject in focus) is very easily done by using a tripod. Using a tripod is also the key to getting not only sharp photos but better photos. Why? Because when the camera is held still the photos will be sharp. And by putting the camera on a tripod it makes you slow down (myself included) and think about the photos are you're composing them.

Focus
Most point and shoot cameras have a "macro" setting. If you have a digital camera start by looking for this setting on your camera. Getting a photo that's in focus is critical to showing the details of such a small object (like a 1/32 slot car). Shaky of blurry images are not worth posting and especially since with a digital camera it's easy to see if the photo you've taken is sharp, it's important to post only sharp photos.

My process for taking photos is to look at each photo I've just taken after each shot... yes... each shot. If the photo is out of focus or there's camera shake, take it again, you've not wasted film just a small bit of battery power. If a photo is bad I delete it immediately.

Many threads have photos with some type of apology saying,"sorry for the bad pix"... there's no need to be sorry, just take them again. It's just as easy to take a good photo as it is a bad one. Pratice helps.

Setting up to shoot

Above you can see the whole area. The camera is on a tripod (a larger tripod but you get the idea), the car is sitting on a small piece of track. All of that is sitting on a large piece of black construction paper that I use for a background. Pretty high tech, eh? The home made reflector is propped up and is filling in the shadows on the car.

Now from the camera position, the car is on the background the main light is on. I've left the other lights around my workbench on to show the set up, only.


The other lights have been turned off and now the only light on is on the subject.


The car is lit by only 1 light source and the exposure is balanced using the reflector and adjusting the distance of the light source to the subject and then moving the reflector closer to the Porsche to "fill" in a bit of the shadow area.

The photo I posted above is the exact exposure as it was shot, meaning I did no lightening of the side of the car that has the reflector lighting it. That reinforces trying to get the photo as close to publishable as possible before you take the photo. The side of the car could be lightened a bit though but I wanted to post it as-shot so you can see what a reflector can do.

Actually taking the photo

1. Hold the camera still or lay it on the track or put it on a tripod.
2. Compose the photo by pointing the camera at the subject
3. When you have composed the photo... hold the button half way down... DON'T take a photo yet! By holding the shutter button half way down you're allowing the camera to focus first. This is essential, let the camera do it's job and focus before you push the button the whole way down.
4. Keep the button held down after the camera has focussed.
5. Only after the camera is focussed (which usually has some type of indication like a green light coming on, on the back of the camera)...NOW take the photo.
6. Look at the photo on the back of the camera, if it's out of focus or blurry, take it again.

There's no substitute for practice. I had been a photographer for about 15 years before taking the job with SCX. When I would go to a sports event and take photos I'd take hundreds if not thousands of photos during that assignment. It depended on the assignment of course. And from those hundreds of photos I might get a handful (maybe as few as 10 out of 500 raw files) worth looking at. The more familiar I got with a subject matter the more keeper photos I'd get. Sometimes I'd take dozens of photos of the same angle of a subject just with slightly different ideas about what I was going for each time. Thinking about the subject and practicing the technical aspects of photography is what actually takes the photo... the camera is incidental, it's the photographer that takes the photo.

DaveK
SCX North America

[odsource]

Dave,
Great topic thread and well presented, thanks! (Now if I can just figure out how to put them onto the site?)

Bruce

[DaveKennedy]

http://www.scxworldwide.com/ipb/index.php?showtopic=186

I moved the "how to post" thread into this forum, thanks for bringing that topic up Bruce.

[kidvoltage]

GREAT STUFF Dave. Thanks! Maybe now I can learn to take a decent picture. I always admire your pics.

[V8Vantage]

Brilliant stuff Dave - excellent tips.

You always post superb pictures and now (hopefully) some of us can get a bit closer in quality...

[nascar03]

Dave. thanx for the photo tutorial.
A tripod and a reflector will be the next thing in my slot car tool box!

thanx ................... graham

[kidvoltage]

D-d-d-d-d-dumb question time. Is that reflector just a piece of white cardboard or did you paint a piece of cardboard white? And would it matter either way?

[DaveKennedy]

Not a dump question. It's taped together pieces of cardboard and the front is 2 sheets of plain white paper taped around the edges to the front of the reflector. I used to sheets of paper because only 1 sheet wasn't "white" enough.

BTW, you want the reflector as close as you can get it to the subject but still keep it out of the photo. Which is why I suggest the tripod also. That way you can move the reflector a matter of fractions of a inch to get it placed just right to light up the subject.

[timo]

That´s very interesting!!! Thank you, Dave!

I have a question: why does my plain white background always appear grey ??
Any suggestions?

[DaveKennedy]

Because the camera has seen the over all image and has decided that the bright white area on the front fender/side of the car is "white". Shooting a white car on a white background is tough. I try to shoot white cars on black backgrounds (because the background usually isn't important the car is), and black cars on white backgrounds.

For this car I might use a second light to light up the background. Notice in the upper left side of the photo there's a shadow. For this car you might have to really throw a LOT of light at it.

Also you could over expose the photo just a bit more so the background looks brighter.

[timo]

Okay, I understand ... but same problem with a non-white car:



Btw: I use 4 lamps

[Markitoo]

Good job guys!!

Timo, that Porsche looks awesome!!

Very nice pics!

Marco.

[Markitoo]

That´s very interesting!!! Thank you, Dave!

I have a question: why does my plain white background always appear grey ??
Any suggestions?

Timo

And this Porsche??? its a new decoration or an special edition?

Regards

Marco.

[Len1775]

YES!!! This is the thread I've been waiting for!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, Dave!

[abs]

Timo, not saying this is true, but my findings with the limited pics I've taken, too much white ends up being greyed by the camera, as it is not really designed to take a pure white image... remove the car and you'll probably find the pure white area still ends up greyed


I cannot back DK's comments on framing enough. I am forever grimacing at the shots my wife takes where the tops of heads are cut off, or feet are cut off.... sheez. If you are that closely zoomed in, zoom out a bit. IF I have to, and there is too much "border" around the subject, it can be cropped - can always remove part of the image, but you can't add back in what was never there


Also, resizing. We run a website where we have company logo's on job ad's, and also have a BuyandSell section... cant believe the number of 3Mb+ pics people try to send us for their ad's - I reduced them down to under 100Kb - that's like 1/300th of their original file size - BTW I use Adobe Fireworks, never really got into using Photoshop


Oh yeah, on zooming. A lot of cameras come with 2 zoom modes.... Optical and Digital. You are FAR better staying as much away from the Digital modes as you can. Typically a camera will begin zooming in optically, and once its gone as far as you can, will then being using Digital Zoom

Saying it simply, say your camera has a max size of 600x400 pixels (low, but using it for discussion purposes). Zooming in Optically, is simply making less picture fit across those 600x400 pixel sensors (less picture across the same area means we are zooming into the image). Once we have maxed Optical zoom, most cameras tend to pause for a few moments in their zooming

Going digital further, then you can think of it only using say 540x360 (90% of each original direction) of those pixels to read the incoming image, but then resizes it back up to 600x400 pixel size when saving the image. This can lead to blurring depending on what the used number of sensors is. If it went to 300x200, it is a whole number for increasing size and thus can look a little better than if it was increasing from 330x220



You can see these effects by playing in whatever graphics program you have. Start with a smallish image, and then increase the size - zoom into it. That is digital zooming, since you cannot optically zoom into a picture already on the camera. If you increase an image by 145% to make it fit perfectly to your desired target size, a better result is 150% then crop back a little.



Thats some thoughts from me who has had zero eduction on photos and camera work, just personal experience



Thanks for the fantastic thread Dave

[Markitoo]

Dave!

Could you teach us how to is teh best way to take pics when cars are running, I tried to do it but sometimes the pics are only lights and lines!

Nice thread!

Marco.

[abs]

Simple... Pretend they are running - place them on the track in the appropriate places, and go for it

[abcando]

Dave, thanks for sharing your techniques on how you take your great photos. Your tips are extremely helpful.

And Timo, those Porsches look superb!

[Texslot]

Great topic Dave, I've always admired your photography skills. I'm really amazed you were able to get this kind of close-up and clarity using the built in macro setting on your old camera. After our discussion a few months back regarding the macro lens for the SLR, I thought you had been using one yourself to get these close up shots. It's great to know you can do without it.

[JCWRACER]

That´s very interesting!!! Thank you, Dave!

I have a question: why does my plain white background always appear grey ??
Any suggestions?

Hi guys,
I am a wedding photographer whilst not racing my cars, but in relation to white not appearing as true whites is because a camera photgraphs on a grey scale. in order to get pure white you will need to adjust your exposure compensation by 2 stops, cameras will otherwise read it as grey 18% if i can remember correctly that is why when you go to the snow and flick off a couple of shots on you holidays then when you get home look at them and they look not as pure white as actually you remember them.
cheers
mick