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How to make pictures – using phone

Background

1. Use plain background (white, grey, blue, black)

2. Size of the background has to be bigger than your model, the bigger the background the more flexibility you will have picturing it and less movement of the model needed

3. To avoid visible edges on the picture (for example between two sheets of paper) the best is to use one big background and bend.

4. Remember to place it steady, use tape, clips or heavy objects to keep it on one place, you don’t want to destroy the model especially before showing it.

5. For bigger models (50-70cm) try to use at least A1/B1 paper size.

6. If you don’t have and can’t buy a big paper you can still use a white wall. Just be sure the model is far enough so you don’t catch the wall texture, the goal is to have the viewer focusing on your model, not the surroundings.

Lighting

1. As a modeller you probably have a good lamp, or a set of lamps so use them for the pictures.

2. The more light – the better it will give you more room to set up the camera with better settings.

3. If the light is too hard, creating strong shadows with visible edge it’s good to diffuse the light. You can use: 80g printing paper, a kitchen paper towel (for 3 layered papers remove at least one layer). Don’t worry if you need to tape a few towels to each other this will not create unnecessary shadows on the model

4. Do not use different light source with different temperature (for example it’s usually not good to mix natural sunlight with a lamp, or two different lamps with different bulb type) This is to prevent having warm and cold light in one picture. It’s easier to have warm light so the camera can compensate the temperature on it’s own

5. Put the light on top and slightly in the front of the model (If you have two lamps, put them on 45 degrees on each side in the top front of the model)

6. If you don’t have good lighting, you can still use natural light. The main rule is try not to use direct sunlight (unless you go for hard shadows). Cloudy sky is a great natural light source.

Phone settings, this is just general advice, you can use auto mode but if your phone has manual mode – play with it. This will not only help you make a good picture but will help you take better pictures from your vacation and family meetings.

Photo editing

1. The most important is to make a good picture, the better picture the less touch it will need in editing software, editing is a task for rather experienced users so first try to focus on setting up the “studio”

2. You can use any software (Adobe, Gimp, etc.) to edit pictures (if necessary)

3. If you are editing the picture, the goal is to make it as close as possible to the real model. Please try not to style the picture, try not to change the contrast, saturation, tint, etc. The pictures might seem cool but it will make it more difficult to judge the model properly.

4. Main settings that will help you achieve the best and realistic results:

a) temperature (if your camera is not set on auto mode or you get to warm or cold pictures)
b) exposure (this will allow you to compensate the light to make it bright enough, try not to blow out whites, if you use white background it can be grey on the picture, that’s fine,
the light on the model is more important)
c) crop, it is essential to frame the model correctly, it’s better to get the right picture in one go but framing in post production is totally fine
d) contrast, this is rather for advanced users but you can play a little with it, just try no to make shadows black and light areas too bright