Photographing wagons
Entry posted by magmouse in photography
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A couple of people have asked how I photograph the wagons I've been posting about. The 'workbench' shots are done with my iPhone 12 Pro. The Pro version has a slightly telephoto lens, which gives a nicer perspective for close-ups, and means the phone is further away from the thing being photographed, making it easier to get some light in without casting a shadow of the phone or me.
The 'studio' photos of the finished result, against a white background, are a bit more sophisticated. They are taken with my Fujifilm X-T2 mirrorless camera, with a 60mm focal length lens. The key to getting the 'studio' look, though, is not so much the camera as the lighting. The following photos and commentary explain the set-up.
Here we see the overall set-up - the wagon is on the workbench on the piece of white A4 printer paper, which provides the background. The camera is on a tripod, adjusted to be just slightly higher than wagon, so it is looking almost horizontally but just a touch downwards.
The 60mm lens is a medium telephoto, giving a field of view equivalent to a 90mm lens on a 35mm SLR film camera, or 'full frame' digital SLR, for those who are familiar. A 'standard' lens would work fine as well, or a zoom that covers the standard or short telephoto zoom range. A wide angle lens is possible, but has two disadvantages - firstly, the perspective is (to me at least) less flattering, and secondly, a closer position means the camera sees past the ends of the wagon at a more acute angle, so you will need a bigger piece of paper for the background.
The flip-up screen on the camera is very useful, but not essential.
There are a few nuances with the setup of the background:
- The paper is curved, providing a seamless, shadowless transition between the 'ground' the wagon is on and the back. The paper is held in place by a book (Cyril J Freezer's Locomotives in Outline: GWR - other railway companies are available), and the book is supported by a heavy object - a large bottle of wood glue in this case. As well as supporting the paper, the book ensures no light can come through the paper from behind, which would create an uneven background.
- The paper curves downs slightly at the front, where it overhangs the edge of the bench. This ensures there is some white space below the wagon's wheels, as seen from the camera position.
Here is the overall context - my home office/modelling room/hi-fi room/general midden. The point of showing it here is the lighting. This and the previous two pictures were taken with the room lights on, but for the photography, the model is lit entirely with the daylight through the window. I don't want any direct light to hit the model - that's why I am shooting into the window with a solid background. The light on the wagon is that which is reflected around the room, ensuring it is very soft - ideal for model photography.
The venetian blinds are useful for controlling the light. Tipping the slats upwards means the light entering is mostly sky-light, which will be blueish on a sunny day, or whiter on a cloudy day. Tipping them down means the light is that which has reflected from the buildings and gardens opposite the window, which on a sunny day is warmer in colour than the sky-light.
The light can be made slight directional by opening the right-hand blinds, as seen in the picture above. The extra light on that side reflects off the wall to the right of this shot, and back onto the model from the right hand side. Experimenting with this can give a nice effect: a definite sense of directional light, but still without harsh shadows or excessive contrast.
The one disadvantage of this set-up is the wooden material of the slats. The warm colour sometimes shows in highlights on the top of the subject, and can be seen in the light reflecting from the top of the sheet in the straw-loaded wagon below.
The specific type of camera isn't important, But my X-T2 has some key capabilities. Firstly, the exposure settings can be controlled manually. In order to get reasonable depth of field when photographing something this small, a small aperture is required - I usually use around f/11 (for those unfamiliar with these terms, there are excellent online resources that explain the basics of how a camera works).
I set the ISO (the sensitivity of the camera to light) to the lowest value to maximise image quality - 200 ISO in the case of the X-T2. This, together with the small aperture, means the exposure is quite long, often 5 to 10 seconds. Because the camera is on a tripod, this is not a problem, but it does require a camera that allows long exposures.
I also often use the exposure overide. If you rely on the camera's light meter, it will typically under-expose the image, fooled by the amount of white background. Slightly increasing the exposure from what the meter says will fix this, but it is important not to over-expose. Under-exposure is fixable later when editing the image; over-exposure isn't.
As well as the exposure settings, the camera also allows the focus to be manually controlled. This isn't absolutely essential, but is makes things much easier. Focus is critical, because there is so little depth of field, and it is easier to control it manually, setting it once without worrying the camera is going to try and refocus at an inconvenient moment.
For this kind of photography, any digital SLR or mirrorless camera will be suitable, and many other types as well. Even a smartphone with a good quality camera could do it, provided you mount it on a tripod (special mounts are available for that) and you can control the settings manually. While the built-in camera controls in smartphones are often limited, there are usually third-party apps that can give the manual control of the phone's camera that you need.
Here is the outcome, straight from the camera. It is a little under-exposed overall, because I wanted to make sure I didn't overexpose the right-hand end which is more brightly lit.
And here is the finished photo, after a little bit of editing: I increased the exposure slightly, and cropped to the final size and shape. It is much easier to shoot a little 'wide' and crop later, rather than trying to get the framing exactly right in camera.
And that's about it - just one last thing to note: quite often, the light levels on the wagon are low. Looking at it, it seems very dark, but with the long exposure, it comes out fine. So don't worry too much about the amount of light - it is the quality of the light that counts.
I hope this is useful. Your situation will of course be different, in terms of the equipment you have and the space where you can do the photography, but as long as you can control exposure and focus, and the quality of light, you will be able to achieve good results.
Nick.
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