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Basic Digital Ship Model Photography
by Mike McCabe
Basic Digital Ship Model Photography
 
Many people now own a digital camera which can be either a basic point and shoot model up to sophisticated digital SLRs costing many thousands of pounds.  Most people will probably own something in the middle, a model with an automatic and a manual setting, the latter allowing some degree of control over the image.
 
The most important thing to remember about photography is that it is about light, if your subject is poorly lit you are very unlikely to produce a good photograph, so the first consideration is setting your model up for the photograph. 

Lighting
 
In the majority of cases you will want sufficient light to produce clear photos of your model not too strong to cast shadow and not too dim that your camera will struggle to pick up enough light to produce an image.  In some circumstances you might want to replicate dawn, dusk, and overcast day or strong sunlight, all of this can be achieved with a little thought.
 
The most obvious source of light is of course the sun, but there are obvious risks in taking delicate models outdoors although it may be possible to photograph them near a window.  This can give good results, especially if the weather is bright but not direct sunlight.  Strong sunlight will cast heavy shadows which can be effective but more often will lead to detail being hidden.  Overcast weather may be too dull to provide enough light especially indoors.  There is also the advantage that the sky can be used as a backdrop when taking photographs from a low angle (photo 1).
However natural light can be too strong and give very harsh shadows, the result that it is difficult to take good photographs using natural light only (Photo 2).

Most of us will find that we will be taking photos indoors with the aid of artificial light which comes in a variety of forms.
 
Tungsten lighting – casts an orange hue
Flourescent lighting – casts a blue hue
Daylight bulbs – close to natural light


Light naturally comes from one source and one direction (the sun) so it is important to try and replicate that and not cast multiple shadows. 
 
It is also important to use only one type of artificial light or the sensor in the camera which detects the white balance (link), will be confused, although when you gain more confidence in taking photographs, you may even want to do this deliberately as some nice effects can be gained, for example this photograph of HMS Campanula shot with two daylight bulbs and one tungsten to give a rosy glow to simulate the effects of sunset (Photo 3).
Setting up
 
Whatever type of lighting used the principals are the same, you need enough light to be able to give a clear photograph without the camera straining to pick up sufficient light to make a photograph.  If there is not enough light the camera will produce a photograph, but the image will not be clear and detail will be lost and colours distorted (photo 4). 
In most circumstances sufficient light will be gained from two close in sources of light, anglepoise or similar lamps are best as they allow movement around the subject, with one overhead source of light such as a room light.  If you have three all the better as this will be more than enough for photography.  The best bulb for the purpose are 18-20 watt low energy bulbs (equivalent to the now unavailable 100 watt)  Low energy bulbs do not emit the same amount of heat as tungsten so do not have this problem.  If you don’t have that many lamps then don’t forget that a trip to a car boot sale will fit you out for probably very little expense.
 
The choice of background and table top covering is important, make sure you do use a background as so often possibly good photographs are ruined by distractions such as paint cans and brushes, family cat, bottle of whisky etc.  Choose a background colour that is not too vibrant as this will distract, you could try a neutral coloured piece of card or paper, something with a subtle pattern or perhaps print off a photograph of the sky in A3 size and use that, this latter can be good for setting different scenes and types of weather.  Similarly your table top underneath the model will inevitably show, so don’t use something too strong a colour or covered in coffee cup rings and paint splatters (Photo 5).
To set up, place your chosen background behind the model, remembering to use something light enough to reflect back some illumination, place a lamp to each side and in front of the model (four and eight o’clock positions) and if you have it, one directly above.  It is generally easier to move the model than the lighting, so have your lights set up and make slight adjustments to them as you move the model around. I use a piece of hardboard cut into three sections and taped together as a simple background, the two edges mean it can stand freely and the white coating reflects light back on to the model.(photo 6).
Make sure the area around where you will be taking the photos is clear and the lamps securely placed once they are where you require them, having a lamp topple onto a completed model would not be a good idea.
 
If you have it a tripod is a big advantage as this means you can avoid the camera shaking and producing a blurred image, a small and inexpensive table top tripod is likely to be sufficient for our needs.
 
Once you have your ‘studio’ set up, you need to make sure your camera is properly set to your lighting.
Camera settings
 
1) Automatic or manual?
 
All digital cameras will have an automatic setting which will compensate by setting a white balance (more in a bit) for the type of light available, which for most circumstances will be fine, however for photographs of small scale ship models, it will not generally be possible to focus in closely enough to the model using this setting.  It may be fine for distance photos of the whole model but if you want to show close ups the camera will in most cases not be able to focus closely enough.  If your camera only has an automatic setting you can still take photos of your model but these will generally have to be longer shots.  Remember however that the photos can be cropped or zoomed into later so all may not be lost, if you can take a well lit photograph on high resolution then it may be possible to zoom closer in using digital manipulation software on the computer such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.
 
If your camera has a manual setting you have more control over the resulting image but you need to do a bit more work to make sure the camera is properly set up.  In this setting you should have a macro option, the symbol is usually a flower, which allows closer focus on the subject.  Set your camera to this and focus on something close and you should see that you are able to get an object up close in focus which you cannot do on the fully automatic setting.  In some cameras there is a macro option under the automatic setting, if so experiment with that to see which gives the best results, in some cameras the focus is not as good when using macro in automatic.  (photo 7).  Once you have set your camera to your chosen option, automatic, manual or macro (or the best combination for your camera), check that you have the light setting correct on the camera menu for the type of light you are using.  		 

2) Light setting
 
In the days of 35mm film cameras, it was common to use a variety of coloured filters to compensate for light conditions.  A digital camera does much the same thing using something called white balance, basically this means the camera compensates for the colour of light by finding a middle value of white and automatically taking all other colour values from that.  For our purposes it means that if you have the right setting on your camera according to the type of light the photo is taken in, all photographs should basically look the same regardless of light conditions.
 
If the camera is not set properly, you will see colour variations affected by the light conditions –

 
Photograph taken in daylight or with daylight bulbs using tungsten setting (photo 8)
Photograph taken in tungsten with daylight setting (photo 9)
Light settings on a typical camera (photo 10)
 
You should set your camera to the type of light you are using, there should be a menu button or similar where you will have these options.  There should be an automatic setting so the simplest thing is to use that.  If not the settings will be called something like outdoors (for daylight) and indoors (tungsten) with possibly a number of other options as well for fluorescent light, flash etc. 
 
A word on flash -  don’t use it.  It washes out the colour of the model and produces a poor image for this purpose.
 
Once you have the lighting set we just need to set the image size
3) Image size
 
You will see digital cameras advertised by the size of image that can be produced, the larger the size the more detail can be produced and the finer the resulting photograph.  This is only apparent though when setting the camera for the largest image size.  Again there should be a menu for selecting image size either by actual size of the image produced or by the amount of space it takes up on the storage card in the camera.  It is better to get an idea of the size of photograph you want to produce, on finewaterline.com our standard image size is a width of 970 pixcels.  You need to set your camera to produce an image at least that size, if in doubt put it to the largest size setting.  If set smaller the image could be enlarged but will lose quality, it becomes more fuzzy and shows less detail. (photo 11)
Set your camera to the nearest size above 970, probably 1600 x 1200, this will give a good sized image but won’t result in very large file sizes which are slower to work with and to email. (photo 12)
To get the best image you can, set the camera to the highest quality setting, these will say something like normal, fine and superfine.  Set in this case to superfine as we want to get the most detail possible. (photo 13)

4) Recap on setting your camera


Set to the most appropriate setting –
1.   Automatic (least useful but you may have no other choice)
2.   automatic with macro,
3.   manual 
4.   manual with macro  (best)
 
Set to the correct setting for the type of lighting you are using,
daylight
tungsten bulbs
daylight bulbs.
 
If your camera has an automatic setting for this, then it is easier to use that.
 
Set the correct image size and quality
At least 970 wide
Use the highest quality setting
 
Now we are ready to take photos!
Photographing your model
 
Small scale ship models are probably the most difficult of all models to photograph well, they are small, long and thin and have lots of small details on them.  Often the most dramatic photograph is the one from bow or stern at low level, looking along the length of the ship, but this is the hardest to achieve well.  The simplest way around this is not to do it, and photograph the ship from other angles until you are happy that you have the basics of taking a good photograph in hand. 
 
If you have set your lighting up well you should have no problems with taking a good, clear photograph from any point directly either side of beam up to about 45 degrees either side of that, from directly above, and focussing in on details or sections of the ship.  Make sure you keep the camera steady when pressing the shutter, rest your wrist on the table to help with this.  You can take photos from almost waterline level if you hold the camera right at the edge of the table and zoom in.  If you have followed everything up to this point these sorts of photograph should be quite easy to take and in many cases will be enough to show your work.  Remember the great thing with digital photographs is that there is no cost to take as many photos as you want, just take lots of photos and work out later which ones you can discard.
 
For the more ambitious ‘quarter’ shots from the 10 and 2 0’clock positions, a little more thought is needed.  The basic problem here is what photographers call depth of field, this is the portion of the subject that is in focus in the photograph.  As we already know ships are long and thin, what tends to happen, especially when using macro settings and focussing close in, is that the lens cannot pick up all the subject and bring it into focus, so the bow will be in focus only, the mid section in focus but bow and stern not etc.  With a compact digital camera this is hard to rectify, but there are tricks which will help. {Photo 14).
The most useful way around this problem is to pull the camera back from the model, to about 18 inches away, then zoom in, this helps the camera to focus over a longer length and create greater depth of field.  Two things need to be considered here though, that you do not go too far away as then the camera will probably start to lose definition as you zoom in, also there is more chance that the camera will shake as you press the shutter and give a blurred image. (Photo 15)
 
So that is pretty much it in terms of taking basic photographs, of course the subject can be another hobby in itself but for those just wanting to take clear, well lit and interesting photographs showing off their modelling skills, this short guide will hopefully be enough.
 
Perhaps the most important thing is to keep trying, digital photography has no extra cost once you have bought the camera so keep taking photographs to develop your skills and you will find the method that suits your own needs best, it is all down to trial and error but once you have a basic understanding of how digital photography - and your camera - works, then you should be able to produce good photographs quickly and easily.