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

So I went on a good road trip to find the perfect location to snap a pic of a model car I recently purchased to participate in the last competition's model car photo comp here on GTP.

sunset_phone_1.jpg


Turns out I didn't actually leave the house:

Sunset%2Bsetup.jpg


Many hours were spent making this photo possible, but since there's a limit on how many pictures can be linked in one post, I'll do my best to summarize:

IMG_0562.JPG

Start of with the base, giving it a curve for the sake of opening up more angles which I can shoot pictures from.

IMG_0564.JPG

See how much of the ground I can capture without seeing the board's edge?

IMG_0569.JPG

Grab some gravel, because I'd feel bad for taking the sand from the local jungle gym park.

IMG_0574.JPG

Get sprinkling.

IMG_0580.JPG

On a separate board, stick 180-grit sandpaper to get asphalt texture, and then paint it black with lines, topping it with some of that gravel for added details.

That's it for this photo. I did also plan for a modular piece of turf but that alone took over 10 hours to complete, not enough time to make it for the due date.

mAMXrAHl.jpg


That cheap lawn tile stuff doesn't look convincing, no matter how much you blur it out in photos, so I went the extra mile. I pulled out the strands of the dollar store's bush balls:

IMG_0584.JPG

... and separated each branch, and later gluing them in the fake turf to get grass strands.

VPbW5EKl.jpg

Extremely repetitive, but now I have lawn!


For the full coverage of each part, you can read about it on my blog
 
Last edited:
@Robin, Thanks, but ya missed all the progress photos!

Here's a soon-to-be project car I've planned for a repaint. Took the chance to photograph the lawn as well.

001.jpg


002.jpg


003.jpg


004.jpg


005.jpg


006.jpg


007.jpg


These didn't turn out as good because I used the exact same warm lightbulb to simulate the lighting when the photograph's sky is in a completely different temperature.

Did the best I could with Channel Mixer to get everything to make sense.
 
I have a model airport but it's still a work in progress. I have buildings for it but I cannot glue them down because mum won't let me. I need to get some newer photos of it.
 
@Robin, Thanks, but ya missed all the progress photos!

Here's a soon-to-be project car I've planned for a repaint. Took the chance to photograph the lawn as well.

001.jpg


002.jpg


003.jpg


004.jpg


005.jpg


006.jpg


007.jpg


These didn't turn out as good because I used the exact same warm lightbulb to simulate the lighting when the photograph's sky is in a completely different temperature.

Did the best I could with Channel Mixer to get everything to make sense.

Looks great but you're right - you could definitely do with a blueish filter over that bulb, the background's quite blue-heavy so you could do with better skylight. Also look at the shadows on the mountains behind and try to get your "sun" from the same direction ;)

Blue wash on the foreground (30s in Photoshop so still a bit crap :D )
lightingcontrast.jpg
 
Back