Photographing toys like Chris McVeigh

[Cartoonsmart]

Hi,
I am looking for some help and guidance.
Now some months ago I bought a EOS 450D (the 18-55 kit).
And I have used it, but the camera scares me. I have a basic understanding of ISO, shutterspeed and exposure values.

What I wanna do
Check out the Flickr page of Chris 'Powerpig' Mcveigh.
I wanna make pictures of my toys. And really nice ones. Now the EOS has a preset for macro pictures I think.
But I wanna use the best possible settings. So first I wanna shoot some Lego on a white background with shadow -- see if I can pull it of.
Like in this image.
How can I achieve a clean white background? Can I use a white folded paper?
And would one desk lamp suffice to create a nice shadow? What setting would I use for ISO, exposure and shutter?
Should I shoot in RAW? Any suggestions, tips or advice are very welcome.

[Cartoonsmart]

Here is my first attempt. I did a little tweaking in PS -- only auto levels, auto color and contrast, plus a two pixel high pass. The original was a bit dark. I am not happy with this one but it's a start.



Here are the camera settings. Basically I used the macro (close up) preset. The ISO value is way to high I think.

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by Cartoonsmart

How can I achieve a clean white background?

I would suggest a huge piece of white backdrop paper, although you might get away with a white sheet if it's heavy enough or folded double-thick.

The big thing is lighting. You need to get even lighting on your backdrop—a single lamp isn't going to do the job. The backdrop lighting also needs to be different from the lighting for your subject, which will be more of a spot. I'm no expert on this, so you might want to check over in the Lighting forum here at DPS: http://digital-photography-school.co...splay.php?f=49

Finally, post-processing. Use the Curves tool to blanche out all of the almost-whites to pure white. Note: if the subject has some almost-whites that you want to retain, you'll need to use selections to separate out the background so that the background is all that's affected.

An alternative post-processing approach is to make a duplicate layer, put it into Lighten mode, then apply a Threshold filter to select the point at which everything brighter turns completely white. Again, selections might be needed.

[Cartoonsmart]

Originally Posted by Doug Pardee

(...) The big thing is lighting.

Yeah you are absolutely right. I got a sun light coming in from the front (through a window obviously) and I have one desk lamp positioned at the side, but I throw a weird shadow if I aim it on the Lego subject. At the moment that's all I have got to work with. But can't I overexpose the picture with my camera settings? Or would that not be a good idea?

Also if I only use the desk lamp as a light source would I be able to recreate this shot?

[Cartoonsmart]

I took some more, same settings as before. However the camera deemped it necessary to use a flash. So now the body of one the characters has a flash reflection -- ruined.

[markjdos]

Build a light tent: http://digital-photography-school.co...ive-light-tent

Avoid folding the background (unless you want the fold to show up in the photo). To make the background "clean white," put a light on the background otherwise the white paper will look grey.

[Cartoonsmart]

Originally Posted by markjdos

Build a light tent: http://digital-photography-school.co...ive-light-tent

Avoid folding the background (unless you want the fold to show up in the photo). To make the background "clean white," put a light on the background otherwise the white paper will look grey.

Whoa that's amazing! I can built that! I am gonna built me a light tent first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks heaps.

[markjdos]

Happy to help. It would be great if you post the pictures after you build the tent so we can see the difference.