My new 'mini studio'

[chris watton]

Because I have to take hundreds of pictures of assembly steps for my work (designing and developing new model kits - also, taking photographs is a hell of a lot quicker and easier than drawing assembly stages in CAD...), I thought I'd buy some new equipment now that I have moved back from Italy to the UK.

I bought a soft box, tungsten light, boom, background and a Nikon Coolpix P510 camera.

I set it up (temporarily in our lounge - we have just moved in..) and gave it a go:



I discovered that just using auto everything wouldn't work....:



So I had a fiddle with manual settings, especially white balance, and bingo! (Although I know it doesn't look like anything too exciting...)



This was always set up for me, so it's my first time doing it all myself. I do wish I had bought the 100x100cm soft box, instead of the 60x60cm

Just thought I'd share my first foray into photography that I have had to set up myself......

[Simpo Two]

Not bad - but with such a plain subject I find the blue b/g a little distracting - I look at that and not the piece of wood. Have you tried white?

Just an idea!

[chris watton]

Simpo Two said:

Not bad - but with such a plain subject I find the blue b/g a little distracting - I look at that and not the piece of wood. Have you tried white?

Just an idea!

Cheers.

The background is the 'Signature' colour for for the assembly instruction pictures for the coompany I work for, so it has to be as close to the shots taken in Italy as possible, like these:






Although the photo looks very boring in my initial post, it is essential for the modeller who will be building a huge model of a 64th scale HMS Victory - the pic shows one of the first steps - as the build progresses, the pics will be a lot more interesting...

[Simpo Two]

OK (though your blue looks darker)


Anyway, it should be fairly easy to take better photos than theirs - the first two are OK but the second two pretty poor.

[Bacardi]

chris watton said:

The background is the 'Signature' colour for for the assembly instruction pictures for the coompany I work for, so it has to be as close to the shots taken in Italy as possible,

Aqua or Sky blue http://www.morco.uk.com/coloramabackground.htm

I imagine sky blue as aqua has a touch more green. Your camera will also beef up the colour.