The DIORAMA Thread; Tips, Tricks, Tales, Pics.

[AOS-]

In case anyone missed it in the hot wheels thread, this is one of the first pictures I took of my Blank Space Garage when I got my T3i.

The focus is off because I couldn't really tell at the time. But yeah, gaze upon the shiny floor.

 

[motortrend]

That looks really nice, what did you use for the floor?
EDIT: This is the most diorama-like pic I have

 

[AOS-]

It's a plain sheet of white acrylic..... 1/8" thick.

And that's no diorama! We can clearly tell you're taking pics on a glass table with white drywall behind.

There IS however something else you can do there. Cut off all the lights in the room and any daylight. Grab a small LED flashlight and shine it directly above the car. If the light is flooding it, diffuse it. Then get your camera down to the car's level and take a pic of that.

What can you produce? Something similar to these I took months ago:

And if you can find a way to illuminate your backdrop, kill the spot light and....:

These were taken with a Sony DSC-P73, a 4.1 MP "Auto-Everything" Point&Shoot.

 

[motortrend]

It's no drywall... It's concrete
Thanks for the advice 👍 Though the pic I posted is acutally with the room's lights off and using a lamp from the top/front to give light

 

[AOS-]

Though the pic I posted is acutally with the room's lights off and using a lamp from the top/front to give light

Oh.






Still not good enough.
Go take a new photo if you got some free time.

 

[F1GTR]

I shot this a while ago (I think about 4-5 years back!) when I had my D80, I wanted to create a flat white background which was pretty hard considering that I didn't have any lighting gear, so I had to dodge a lot of the background in post. I kinda want to rent a tilt shift lens and some lighting gear to really do this model justice:

 

[AMG.]

Without good lights it's indeed difficult to 'blow out' the background. You'll need at least two stops difference to get it white. I would suggest to use off camera flash preferably two. One on each side pointing towards the background and limiting flash spill on your subject by putting some black paper / cardboard in between. With an apt of 18 or 22 you should get some good results and may not even need to hire a T&S lens. Although always nice to try one out.


Obviously not to scale but to clarify what I mean.

Courtesy of http://www.lightingdiagrams.com

 

[AOS-]

I'm eating up my sleep time to post this. This is what my Blank Space Garage diorama looks like:

The floor is a 13 square-inch piece of white acrylic, the walls are styrene.
They're not attached together for collapsible storage.

The diorama pieces include a 2-floodlight stand, an engine jack, a workbench, drill press, mechanic's toolbox, battery booster, pylon, 4 wheels, an exhaust fan, a lift, 2 broken cars, and 2 car jacks and wheels that have yet to be painted.

Sample photo:

And the scale illusion in-effect:

 

[AMG.]

Looks good but I was hoping you would expand a bit more on the 'behind the scene' part. What are you using for lights, how do you set them up and what do you do post processing. That kind of stuff.
Looking forward to it!

Do you have any plans on taking this one further or is this your intended end result?
Like the minimalistic colours you applied!

Not to criticise but isn't that cone the wrong scale?

 

[AOS-]

The cone is the wrong scale I think I took it off of Tomica's playset which is a scale larger than 1:64.

The lightning is nothing more than fluorescent tubes... previous photos are the one in my computer room. This one is a desk lamp. sometimes I use cheap little LED flashlights from the dollarstore, but those have garnered me unsatisfactory results so I didn't use them this time.

As for post-process (photoshop), back then when I had a P&S, I would have to first adjust the levels, then I would hit Auto-color balance. If the colours were still not satisfying I'd manually adjust it then. Usually I set the Magenta levels higher in the shadows and turn up the red in the highlights since fluorescent tubes gives off a murky yellow. Afterwards I'd it Unsharp Mask to make edges stand out more.

Now with a camera that I can manually adjust focus on, all I really ever have to do is adjust color balance. If I screw up exposure time, Levels gets touched too. I know what Curves are but I have barely ever relied on it for something Levels can't do for me. For the most part, I tamper with Levels, Color Balance, and Sharpness. At times I'll play with Exposure and Curves.


As for your question whether or not this is it... this is it. I'm done with it, for now. Making this diorama was originally meant to be the backdrop I'd use to photograph new cars I'd buy since I document each and very car I own. However, I ended up falling back on a large plain backdrop for the sake of a new camera angle I'm going to be using throughout the entire collection as well as a custom-made prop that signs my photos so that this "album" of pictures have identification.

 

[AMG.]

Thanks for that. 👍

This is how I did my recent shots:



The actual paper is placed inside two 'boxes' purchased from IKEA. These: SKUBBS boxes

The boxes have a zippered bottom and an additional fold down bottom inside the box.
I took a knife to one of them and removed the zippered bottom but left in the fold down one. Then placed them behind each other and taped the paper inside of these 2 boxes against the bottom of the second box. The bottom of box 2 now serves as the rear wall of the 'light tent". It was a bit difficult to add these to the pic shown above. So here follows a crappy drawing (I left out the desk on which it is placed.



I placed 3 strobes, two at 45 degrees and shining down a bit and one on top shining down close to the translucent sides of the SKUBBS. Took a light meter and metered for f22 @ 1/125 second and adjusted the output of the strobes. Camera on tripod at same level as the desk I put the boxes on. Then added the cars and shot various photos.

Loaded the results in to Lightroom and adjusted shadows/whites/Clarity and tone curve where needed. Sometimes had to crop a little.

Today I bought a 50/100 cm 3mm thick Polycarbonate sheet to play around with and I need to get one in gloss black too. Just need to find a way how to bend it permanently so it looks like the letter J but on it's side.

 

[AOS-]

I've always imagined it'd be easiest to have a large curved sheet of metal, like a section of a pipe which has the radius you're looking for. From there you heat the plastic and let it warp on its own from gravity. That however is really expensive and imo if you wanted felxible plastic, probably should have went with a LDPE sheet. If you needed it to be gloss black, paint it black and put a sheet of acetate on top. I have no idea if you can buy large sheets of these, but I have a bunch thanks to the printing factory my parents.

 

[SVX]

Not up to the quality of the others that have been posted here, but here's my latest shoot:


















Comments and criticism are welcome. ​

 

[AMG.]

At first glance it reminds me of a concrete walled parking place where you were late night to take these photographs. Well done!

Going with that concept the "street" light used is a bit too bright.
So tell us what you did exactly, what did you plan to achieve, and we may be able to help you out a bit more.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Some of you will already know this, but I feel the need to mention it because it eludes a lot of photographers and it hasn't been mentioned.

Don't forget to play with focal lengths. It's too easy to use a zoom (or different lenses) as nothing more than a way to frame your subject how you want from where you're standing. You can change the whole look of a picture by using a longer or shorter focal length, though, and it's especially important with diorama photography because when you step back and use a longer lens, you'll capture a much smaller "slice" of the background even though your subject will be the same size in the frame. That way you won't have to worry as much about getting the room around the diorama or the sides of the lightbox.

 

[SVX]

At first glance it reminds me of a concrete walled parking place where you were late night to take these photographs. Well done!

Going with that concept the "street" light used is a bit too bright.
So tell us what you did exactly, what did you plan to achieve, and we may be able to help you out a bit more.

Thanks!

I was trying to achieve a 'late night at a warehouse' feeling, with a bit of inspiration from Stancenation's 'style'.

Bare in mind, I was only using a basic point and shoot camera (Panasonic DMC-LS5), that for some reason hates to get close to the subject (blurs out if you're too close). Doesn't have a macro either.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

See what happens if you get as far back as you can and then zoom in, you might be able to get a good tight shot without focus issues. For the light, try putting some wax paper or tracing paper between the light and the subject, that'll soften and spread it out so it's not quite as harsh.

By the way, with the cinematic-style crops, check this article out. http://scottkelby.com/2010/try-cinematic-style-cropping-in-photoshop-for-a-wide-screen-look/ Doing it with the proportions he specifies gives it that perfect shape that makes it look just like a real movie still.

 

[SVX]

See what happens if you get as far back as you can and then zoom in, you might be able to get a good tight shot without focus issues.

I think the same still happens, but I'll give it a shot (buddum tsh ). Thanks. 👍

For the light, try putting some wax paper or tracing paper between the light and the subject, that'll soften and spread it out so it's not quite as harsh.

Will look into that, thanks. 👍

By the way, with the cinematic-style crops, check this article out. http://scottkelby.com/2010/try-cinematic-style-cropping-in-photoshop-for-a-wide-screen-look/ Doing it with the proportions he specifies gives it that perfect shape that makes it look just like a real movie still.

Cheers, will check that out. May make use of it for my GT5 photography too!

 

[AOS-]

You had me at the concrete impression until I saw the curved edge.

 

[SVX]

You had me at the concrete impression until I saw the curved edge.

That's cardboard for ya!

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

I did some messing around. Here's the setup:


IMG_0465.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr

Amazon box with a hole cut in the top and a YongNuo YN160s video LED light on top. This light costs less than $50. The "floor" of the box is just a piece of glossy photo paper. Camera is a Panasonic GF2 with kit lens, and it's on a gorillapod micro.


P1020477.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr


P1020496.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr


P1020501.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr


P1020510.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr


P1020513.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr


P1020519.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr

Most of these are shot with the kit lens zoomed in as far as possible. (45mm in this case, which is equivalent to 90mm on a full-frame camera.) I shot most of them with too large an aperture, but other than that they're not bad. A box that was less tall would work even better, since the closer the light is to the subject the better the quality of light is.

 

[AOS-]

You totally could've used something other than a cardboard wall as a backdrop. If there was no wall and you put the box near the edge of the table no where near the wall, we'd get a clean black backdrop.

 

[AMG.]

@ Takumi, I really like the setup & materials used + the 'how to' pic. 👍

I think I too would have cut out the rear and get a piece of non glossy white paper gently curving upwards to get a seamless background.
There's two things that let the pictures down IMO and that is the brown cardboard + the gap between white and brown and the fact that that your cars are cut in half because of the 'horizon'.

So what aperture were you using for these shots. You mention large but some folks don't know what is meant by that, please expand.

Edit: the LED you mention costs a whopping USD 120 in NL.
Edit 2: Ah just saw on your flickr page you were using f22. That is actually a very small aperture.
See post 68. 1/22 is small.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

@ Takumi, I really like the setup & materials used + the 'how to' pic. 👍

I think I too would have cut out the rear and get a piece of non glossy white paper gently curving upwards to get a seamless background.
There's two things that let the pictures down IMO and that is the brown cardboard + the gap between white and brown and the fact that that your cars are cut in half because of the 'horizon'.

So what aperture were you using for these shots. You mention large but some folks don't know what is meant by that, please expand.

Edit: the LED you mention costs a whopping USD 120 in NL.
Edit 2: Ah just saw on your flickr page you were using f22. That is actually a very small aperture.
See post 68. 1/22 is small.

The group shot is at f/22 and that worked fine. Others are at f/8 f/11 and f/18, neither of which were small enough. (Note the softness at the rear of the FD in the rear 3/4 shot, which is f/11) F/8 worked fine for the straight side shot, and f/18 was ok for the rest but I think they could have benefited from a little more depth of field.

Also don't forget that since I'm using a mirrorless camera with a 4/3 sensor, the depth of field at a given aperture is much narrower than with a point & shoot. f/22 with this camera is probably equivalent to f/8 on a high-end P&S or even f/5.6 on a cheaper one. That's a major part of why I didn't use my full-frame Nikon setup, by the way, since I would've had to shoot at f/45 to get equivalent depth of field, and I don't think I even own any lenses that stop down that far.

And yeah, I definitely could have done something different with the back of the box, but I was really doing these as a proof of concept for the lighting setup and not final photos.

 

[AMG.]

Yep, DoF is always a problem when you get up close.
Yeah I noticed it was a mirrorless camera. I've never used these or P&S cameras.
Given that I bought myself in to SLRs I have no reason to buy something else.
The way around it is to use photostacking but that's going a bit too far to discuss here.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

My real SLR setup is actually kind of useless for this kind of thing unless I crop really heavily, since I don't have a macro lens or even a close-focusing kit lens. Plus I'd have to drag out the real tripod and everything else to do it, haha.

I've ended up having basically every possible kind of camera at this point. "Enthusiast" P&S for when I don't want to be weighed down at all, mirrorless for when I'm already carrying a small bag I can put it in or when I expect to take pictures but don't need the whole SLR rig, and then my D3 and lenses for serious use. Even a "light" setup with the D3 is so big and heavy that I basically never use it when I'm not working, though.

 

[photonrider]

Nice work, Josh! Welcome to the discussion Takumi!

 

[AOS-]

Took away my reading time to do a photo shoot to make up for the lackluster documentary photo.

I don't quite know what narratives photographers have when doing this style, I'm just an imitator.

 

[a6m5]

Is it just me, or Harry really stepped up his game in here.

 

[photonrider]

Better keep an eye on him.

As for me . . . rather busy.


Well, I've been fighting with Photobucket for awhile now - hundreds of photos to upload/share but their new 'beta' is thrashed.
Admitting defeat (after over ten years of being with Photobucket,) I signed up with Flickr. Another mess.
Oh! for an efficient image-hosting site. Do well, and with the emphasis today on rapid communication via social media, you would own the world.

BBL.