Edit your pictures.

[Squid]

Natural daylight is the best light available if you do not have home floodlights with the only real problem being shadows, so having a white A4 card standing near but just off camera to redirect the light back onto the model is ideal.

I hadn't considered that. Perhaps I will cut my poster-board in half and see if that helps mitigate those pesky shadows.

Ghosthunter's post also explains the vagaries of computer, phone, and tablet displays pretty well. Individuals' color perception can also play a supporting role. I would add that some colors, such as the blue used on the 12C Safari Land Rover, are very difficult to photograph.

I primarily use my phone's camera. Its main drawback is that I have not found a setting that allows me to resize images directly, so I must use a photo-hosting service to do that. I have an old Nikon point-and-shoot, but it often produces images that are grainy and muddy; my old Canon was much better. My fingers are crossed that I will one day be able to purchase a Canon DSLR.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

''I primarily use my phone's camera. Its main drawback is that I have not found a setting that allows me to resize images directly''

Depeding on how old the phone is, most modern phones, in particular 'Smartphones', will have an adjustment to change images to VGA format with a 640x480 (4:3 aspect ratio) size.

A VGA picture is 640 pixels wide and 480 pixels high, for a total of 307,200 pixels. This is approximately 0.3 megapixels, and results in a file size of about 1.17MB. A VGA picture will often look fine on a monitor, as monitor resolutions are low compared to those of printed documents. When printing pictures, the minimum recommended resolution is 300 pixels per inch. At this output resolution, the VGA picture would be 2.13" x 1.6." The picture could be printed larger by reducing the resolution, but the individual pixels will become visible as boxes as the picture size increases.

The biggest advantage of the VGA setting is the small file size. This allows for taking more pictures, and faster transfers using less bandwidth. For pictures intended to be viewed online, VGA resolution is usually sufficient. Desktop monitors display resolution is usually less than 100 pixels per inch, so at a 4" x 6" size, a high resolution picture will not appear any sharper than a VGA picture. Some mobile devices have higher resolution screens, but as the screen is smaller the end result is the same.

Ghosthunter.

[Rob]

For years I have found daylight bulbs do the job perfectly and give as true a representation of colour as one could wish for, example below of one and they are readily available at many places.

https://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/produ ... ls-60w-es/

[Squid]

Depeding on how old the phone is, most modern phones, in particular 'Smartphones', will have an adjustment to change images to VGA format with a 640x480 (4:3 aspect ratio) size.

I can change the aspect ratio, but not the image size. Unless and until I find out how to do that, I'm stuck with resizing using a photo-hosting site's tool.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

You may find that by changing the aspect ratio (from 16:9 to 4:3), it will by default change the file size (fewer pixels to make up the image).

Ghosthunter.

[red-thumb]

Many Lesney models can vary in shade. Yellows seem especially variable. I'm not sure why that is...my best guess is that, in those days before computers, paint was a lot more likely to have some variance between lots. It's also possible that the paint came from different suppliers. Or maybe Lesney painted batches of models at one time, and a residual amount of paint from previous batches carried over.

When shooting photos, I have heard that shooting outdoors in direct sunlight gives the most accurate representation of shade. I haven't yet had the wherewithal to try that. When I want to photograph my collection, I wait for a sunny day, open the blinds, and place the subject on a piece of white poster-board in front of the window. One day I might upgrade to a plain white bucket with a hole cut in it and a lamp with a natural-looking bulb over the top.

G'day Squid, Thanks so much for your input and I would agree that daylight is the best but I have tried (Very good camera) and I still find a problem getting the same as seen by the eye. like the Blue 46a Morris it looks really blue in sunlight but having trouble duplicating that on photo.
I will keep trying. This pic was taken when I purchased the blue Zodiac but as you can see from my previous pic that I have not got it YET
Cheers
Down Under Red.

[red-thumb]

Trying to represent colour shades with todays electronic equipment is difficult at best. Most of us here do not have access to professional photographic equipment and even if we did, the results are lost on the computer screens, tablets and smartphones many forum members use to view the forum.

If every member was forced to use the same camera, the same picture editing software and the same computer to see the results, we might be in a position to control what we see and how we define the colours and shades of them.

Using the technique decribed by ''Squid'' is fine and is clearly working for him, but direct Sunlight will produce pictures with too much 'Contrast' I.E. the colours will be too bright, too rich and too vivid so not very representative of the models in the picture!

Natural daylight is the best light available if you do not have home floodlights with the only real problem being shadows, so having a white A4 card standing near but just off camera to redirect the light back onto the model is ideal.

If using indoor lights (indoors!), the modern digital camera will require adjustment to balance the type of light going through the lens so the pictures do not come out all Greeny-Blue!!

If you have proper photographic floodlights they should be balanced already for producing the correct type of light so the camera does not require adjustment.

Tablets and smartphones are a whole new ballgame regards using them for taking pictures of models. They are convenient but very limited for the enthusiastic model photographer and offer very little in the way of adjustment of those little technical things we like on proper cameras...

Ghosthunter.

G'day Ghosthunter,
Thanks for all you advice and tips and it looks like I will have to try try & try again.
I have just got my hands on a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ18 (used but in great cond.) so I will have to learn how to use it.
I don't have floodlights and all and I don't think I have the patience even though I have the time.
Once again thanks for making me welcome.

Down Under Red.

[red-thumb]

For years I have found daylight bulbs do the job perfectly and give as true a representation of colour as one could wish for, example below of one and they are readily available at many places.

https://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/produ ... ls-60w-es/

G'day Rob. Thanks for your input, the more the merrier and great to hear from you.
Thanks for your advice and I will have to look into trying it out.
Cheers
Down Under Red.

[DrJeep]

Trying to represent colour shades with todays electronic equipment is difficult at best.

Ghosthunter is right, of course, but modern cameras and computers do give us lots of options. Diffuse light is certainly better than bright sunlight - in the northern hemisphere an area lit by a north facing window makes that easier. We're not short of cloudy days in the UK! On most cameras auto-white balance is very good but can still leave colour casts. I get round this by photographing on a white background and then adjusting the white balance of the resulting picture. Most photo editing software gives you an option to pick an area that should be neutral in colour - choosing the white background will automatically take the colour cast off the whole picture.

Whatever the camera, a tripod will really help to keep it still.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

An old photographic trick for setting white balance in cameras is to have a piece of A4 card in Grey as that is a nuetral colour, and take a picture of that before the models you want to take.

The grey we see in the quote box on this forum is a bit light but aim for a grey close to that and try it.


Ghosthunter.