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

[photonrider]

That . . is a sight to see. Amazing work. If you have the time, please do post some of the working details - materials you used and so on. Thanks for the contribution - it gives new life to this discussion, and is quite inspiring. 👍

 

[AOS-]

I've always wanted to just buy some trees to make my life easier, but they don't make them in 1:64 scale, and I can sort of tell the ones you've used aren't either. They're not, right? I'm pretty sure HO Train companies don't make them at that scale.

Doesn't look bad per se, I personally wouldn't have invested into it.

I do like how there is no backdrop, because this means you can easily make your own. At that size, you could easily get away with scenery like I do with a screen in the back viewing a photograph.

 

[photonrider]

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[carfanatic45]

@AOS-
These are the trees I used, they aren't 1/64 but they're close enough in my opinion. Like I said in my original post, it wasn't intended to be a scale model, it was just a school project. So when I wanted to post here, I bought some more trees to make it look nicer (bottom picture). Eventually ill see if I could get a good background for it, but for know, it just makes it easier to take photos.

 

[AOS-]

Yeah I understand it is a reused diorama, it's only a personal gripe for me that they aren't in matching scale is all.

@photonrider, pretty good effort with the spinning Nascar 👍

Very nice try on the Mars Rover though. I see you deployed the same method I did with the screen. If your camera has a filter to crank up the blues, that may possibly help with the post-processing. As it stands, the light on the ground and vehicle are a whole different colour than the earth! Sometimes, you just don't have the equipment to make it all accurate and now forced to find ways around it. I have to deal with that too with my overly-warm lamp.

 

[carfanatic45]

Ford Torino Talladega 1969 and Lamborghini Aventador:

 

[GreatServant]

a ferrari at my front door

 

[photonrider]

That . . . might be just too real for this thread.

Reminds me of the first post Cano made in here.

Now . . . I guess the challenge is to duplicate that scene using models?

 

[HoodCR]

Hi everybody,

I just added to the forum by following your trend, as from what I have seen and read, I'm convinced this is a great community and I would like to share my work and passion with you.

As you can see, I use a simple wood base in order to accomodate background and flooring printouts, so I can create the best environment for my 1/64 collection cars.

For camera, I am actually using my cellphone's, as my 35mm camera is too old and got damaged, so until I get it fixed or buy a new one, this is the best quality I can get so far... Hope you like them.

Thanks for reading and greetings from Costa Rica...

 

[HoodCR]

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Nice Rover's picture... It reminds me of a couple of shots I took once I went in an external photoshoot trip...

 

[GreatServant]

 

[AOS-]

These look great. It's pretty convincing overall! I can totally see improvements in the Exige, and the Porsche if you really want to make it flawless.

 

[GreatServant]

Thanks AOS. Yea, the scale is not perfect. Biggest problem is that the model cannot put any closer to my camera due to the minimum focus range. and the drive way is pretty tight too, so I got no space to step back. not ideal env for these kind of photos. Good thing is that not much photoshop works needed, 99% of what you see is in the original photo, including the person looking at the car. I just need to work on the connection point where my fake ground and the real ground meet, and that is it. I love the Exige tho, such a cool model.here is another one, you can see the connection point where my fake ground (a wooden plane I spray print and make it like a 1/18 ground to fit the model) meeting the real ground.

 

[AOS-]

Wait, the driveway we see there is actually part of the model?


I thought this whole time you took a picture of an empty driveway, another of the car in the environment and shopping the car onto the first photo!

 

[GreatServant]

yes, the drive way is a small wooden plane I spray print and put debris and soil on it so it looks like a 1/18 ground to fit with the car. It is part of the model in the most foreground, so they look big.
I do take another photo of the bg without the model and 1/18 ground to help me cover up the connection point of the fake ground and real ground. Not totally necessary if the fake ground is properly position so the connection lines fit the real drive way, but its way far easier doing it in photoshop, and I get more freedom when positioning the model.

attached an original file with no PS

 

[Sonygamer455]

Well I think I finally have something worthwhile to post here! We recently had snow where I live and while I was walking up to my grandmothers house today, I just happened to randomly see a place I thought I would be perfect for a photo shoot, so I decided to make these shots.

Here are a few of my Suzuki Quadracer:

Here are some of the Hare Splitter:

Theses shots are actually taken "on location" on an old tree stump that got snowed over. All of which are unedited and taken with my new 64GB 5th generation Ipod Touch camera. Probably not as good as what ya'll do on here and they may not necessarily be dioramas ether, but I felt like posting them anyway.

Let me know if the pictures are not loading right.

Happy Valentines day everybody!

 

[photonrider]

@photonrider, pretty good effort with the spinning Nascar 👍

Thanks. The action shots fascinate me - I can spend hours trying to figure out how to capture the effect I want. Obviously with 'shopping any effect can be obtained but I love it when I'm looking at RAW and it's . . . raw.

Very nice try on the Mars Rover though. I see you deployed the same method I did with the screen. If your camera has a filter to crank up the blues, that may possibly help with the post-processing. As it stands, the light on the ground and vehicle are a whole different colour than the earth! Sometimes, you just don't have the equipment to make it all accurate and now forced to find ways around it. I have to deal with that too with my overly-warm lamp.

The Rover shot was an impulse shoot - happened to throw it on some Orchid-growing potting material, threw a sheet of blue Bristol board up as background, cut a hole in the blue board and taped my iPhone to the back of it showing the wallpaper on the screen (Planet Earth ) and kept shooting. I have many other angles of that shoot - different light sources, etc - I'll toss them in here sometime.

Nice Rover's picture... It reminds me of a couple of shots I took once I went in an external photoshoot trip...

Thanks. I think your shots are much better. very professional looking with the NASA logos and all. A fgew miniature rocks scattered around is all I would have added - the lighting is very intriguing.

@GreatServant - Absolutely stunning work - the mixture of RL props and models can only be handled by someone with a precise eye for the proportions of reality - and, dang me if you don't have it. I see a lot of passion behind your work, too - which of course can be a driving force in getting things perfect. Thanks for the great shots - however - more shots of the actual constructions, how you made them, materials used, and so on would be totally grist for our creative mills. Read up on the whole thread for some great tricks and tips in here from others, too.

Some time ago, Suzie threw this in - and it seems like he does the same stuff you do.

I figured I'd throw this up here.. Right up your alley

http://io9.com/welcome-to-elgin-park-an-old-fashioned-town-with-a-gia-1447740960/1448671007/@pgeorge

Unless you are the same guy. Maybe not.



@Sonygamer455 - Good efforts, and nice lighting, but the scaling needs to be worked on. Not to split hairs - but you just happened to have a Quadracer in your pocket, right?



General Note:
My apologies on not updating the OP with some of the latest contributions - shall do so soon.

 

[GreatServant]

thanks photonrider for the kind words and the link. Michael is the master of diecast model force perspective photos, his works are absolutely amazing. I just started collecting 1:18 models and doing this kind of photos, still learning and trying things out, yet its a lot of fun. Here is a link to my flickr if anyone interested. I will post some original files or take some set up shots in the future, always forgot to do it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/113193582@N04/sets/72157639996793886/

 

[Sonygamer455]

@Sonygamer455 - Good efforts, and nice lighting, but the scaling needs to be worked on.

Thank you Photonrider! I am most happy with how the lighting turned out as well. Can you explain what you mean by "scaling"? I am not completely sure I understand. If it is what I am thinking of, I do agree, it does need some work.

Not to split hairs - but you just happened to have a Quadracer in your pocket, right?

Not entirely sure where you are going on this one, but yes I did have Suzuki Quadracer in my coat pocket. I have a bit of an attachment to that thing.

Funny you should mention "split hairs", I had a "Hare Splitter" with me when I made those shots.

 

[HoodCR]

Thanks. The action shots fascinate me - I can spend hours trying to figure out how to capture the effect I want. Obviously with 'shopping any effect can be obtained but I love it when I'm looking at RAW and it's . . . raw.


The Rover shot was an impulse shoot - happened to throw it on some Orchid-growing potting material, threw a sheet of blue Bristol board up as background, cut a hole in the blue board and taped my iPhone to the back of it showing the wallpaper on the screen (Planet Earth ) and kept shooting. I have many other angles of that shoot - different light sources, etc - I'll toss them in here sometime.



Thanks. I think your shots are much better. very professional looking with the NASA logos and all. A fgew miniature rocks scattered around is all I would have added - the lighting is very intriguing.

@GreatServant - Absolutely stunning work - the mixture of RL props and models can only be handled by someone with a precise eye for the proportions of reality - and, dang me if you don't have it. I see a lot of passion behind your work, too - which of course can be a driving force in getting things perfect. Thanks for the great shots - however - more shots of the actual constructions, how you made them, materials used, and so on would be totally grist for our creative mills. Read up on the whole thread for some great tricks and tips in here from others, too.

Some time ago, Suzie threw this in - and it seems like he does the same stuff you do.



Unless you are the same guy. Maybe not.



@Sonygamer455 - Good efforts, and nice lighting, but the scaling needs to be worked on. Not to split hairs - but you just happened to have a Quadracer in your pocket, right?



General Note:
My apologies on not updating the OP with some of the latest contributions - shall do so soon.

Thank you guys for the comments, I entered this forum looking for knowledge from the masters, and did not expect getting my work actually admired, that's makes me feel great, but I still think there is a lot to learn for me.

About my rover's shots, I did not prepare a special scene or anything, just went out to the city and found this park with nice concrete bents with lots of small rocks in the mixture, and having the rover with me was just coincidence as I was buying it that day. It was a real lucky shot, full improvisation. I don't have the shots now, but I promise I will recreate the session and show you guys how and where I did it in another post.

Thank's again... ;-)

 

[photonrider]

thanks photonrider for the kind words and the link. Michael is the master of diecast model force perspective photos, his works are absolutely amazing.

You're familiar with the guy? Small world.

I just started collecting 1:18 models and doing this kind of photos, still learning and trying things out, yet its a lot of fun.

1:18s are a lot easier to work with because of the larger scale. The 1:64s can be really tricky. I find myself working more and more with 1:32s as well as 1:43s now, since they are much easier to set up and shoot realistically than 1:64s. Hoever, it's always time that is of essense, and I must confess that most of my hobbies of late are being sorely neglected.
Hopefully with retirement (and therefore plenty of time) I'll have more time to be a schoolboy on holidays, and enjoy whittling away at my time in more leisurely ways . . . instead of having to keep adding to my bankroll and ignoring all the lovely toys I have to play with.

My model cities are all a mess right now, walls broken, the skies have fallen, and the tracks look like an auto graveyard, and yet every time I lay eyes on it I want to get right on it and start constructing and shooting - but something else always comes up to take me away from the kind of fun you are talking about.

Summer is only going to add outdoor work to my schedules - which will probably leave me with even less time. In fact if time was money, I am probably one of the paupers of this world.

Will try to do some shoots soon . . . .

 

[GreatServant]

You're familiar with the guy? Small world.



1:18s are a lot easier to work with because of the larger scale. The 1:64s can be really tricky. I find myself working more and more with 1:32s as well as 1:43s now, since they are much easier to set up and shoot realistically than 1:64s. Hoever, it's always time that is of essense, and I must confess that most of my hobbies of late are being sorely neglected.
Hopefully with retirement (and therefore plenty of time) I'll have more time to be a schoolboy on holidays, and enjoy whittling away at my time in more leisurely ways . . . instead of having to keep adding to my bankroll and ignoring all the lovely toys I have to play with.

My model cities are all a mess right now, walls broken, the skies have fallen, and the tracks look like an auto graveyard, and yet every time I lay eyes on it I want to get right on it and start constructing and shooting - but something else always comes up to take me away from the kind of fun you are talking about.

Summer is only going to add outdoor work to my schedules - which will probably leave me with even less time. In fact if time was money, I am probably one of the paupers of this world.

Will try to do some shoots soon . . . .

I found Michael on flikr, and have contacted him through emails couple of times sharing thoughts. A supper talented and nice guy. Yea, its tough to find time to do these after I have two kids. Totally understand that. Long to see your new photos though~

 

[ManRT]

My last fake-exterior session looks like this:

I don't have pictures of the process but it's very very simple, the secret is on the light (from 3 hand fluorescent lamps constantly moving). The previous session was like this:

The light is filtered through the paper tablecloth where I painted some simple trees. Sandpaper asphalt and some dry moss... Results are great:

The sky is printed on three DIN-A3 sheets.

 

[GreatServant]

That is awesome! nice stuff, manRT.

 

[AOS-]

3 lamp constantly moving? You got 3 hands?

I like you went to the trouble of even crafting a background and sky. the waving light thing probably got you the reflection that look like trees. 👍

 

[ManRT]

x-D

I started using only one lamp, but 3 lamps put together give me the power I need! The trees of the reflection are the trees I painted on the paper tablecloth.

 

[AOS-]

Oh so I take you've diffused your lamps?

 

[AMG.]

@AOS- The sky acts like the diffusor - I would assume given his comments above.


@ManRT What scale cars are you using. 1:43/64?

 

[ManRT]

I put three lamps* together with a cord / tape and I move the "block" during the 6 - 8 seconds exposition. The light is diffused without the tablecloth because it's constantly moving. The tablecloth is just for the reflections.

Here an example of a picture with moving fluorescent light without any "sky" in between.

Results are "render-3D-model-ish" x-)









*lamps are like this (x3)

@AMG. My scale is 1:18.

 

[GreatServant]

render-3D-model huh? seems like you are a CG guy? I am a lighter working in the SFX industry, working with digital lighting all day long but never try to implement those ideas into real life this way. shame on me. haha
Instead, I mostly rely on the Creator to provide.

some times messing around with more simple set ups