Photo studio

[cteno4]

for those that are lazy and want a quick little photo studio to shoot model stuff in, here is a quick and pretty cheap little kit

 

http://www.meritline.com/one-shot-photo-studio---p-25410.aspx?source=nl100324&hq_e=el&hq_m=1931213&hq_l=12&hq_v=be11090a8d

 

i think its a knock off of the one sold many places (like micromark) for around $80-100.

 

simile little kit of camera stand, two lights, a backdrop, and diffuser panels. makes taking photos of cars and such a bit more consistent than trying to shoot them on the table top and not wash out details with flash. backdrop also gives you a blue screen if you want to drop it out in photoshop to just have your item.

 

of course you can roll your own of a little object studio like this easily (ive done this many times in the past), but this is a quick, and pretty cheap solution to those who dont want to fiddle and just want a bit nicer control of their lighting for object shoots.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[David]

That's actually quite good and very reasonably priced (have been thinking of some pillow-case-strung-up lighting apparatus for photographing models). Now I just have to figure out if they ship international (Canada) on that item - FAQ says anything with a Globe picture is ok, but I can't find anything with the globe.

[cteno4]

i must admit i got lazy and ordered one and it came in last week. have not had a chance to set it up for a full shoot, but the overall quality seems very good and should do the trick to shoot small items quickly and easily. i had the remnants of the last box i made for a photo stage, but it was a quicky out of cardboard and in pretty beat up shape. did not want to do another round of that or take the time to do something nicer, hoping this will fill the gap well. eventually i would like to get set up better with some lights and larger staging to take nice pictures of ttrak and jrm modules.

 

ill try to get some picts done this weekend of a few new trains to try it out and post some picts.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

ps mertline is an interesting company. nice as many things are free shipping (us at least) so buying a single $2 item is a no brainer. lots of pretty cheap crap, but some jewels in there, have gotten some great deals on interesting items of good quality. usually takes a couple of weeks for stuff to show up. sign up for the newsletter and every other day like 30 items come by and a few at real discounts. jr

[David]

Well, I found the list of items that they ship internationally. The photo studio is not one of them.

[cteno4]

hugh, thats odd as they ship from china i think!

 

if you want could order one here then ship it up to you, but i expect that would add like $20 or so for the shipping up to you from the US.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

I have one of these and they are junk, utter crap and nearly a waste of money. They do not throw enough light, not even close. I had to swap out the 40w bulbs, but the problem is that the new 60w bulbs get so hot that I have to power down after 2m of use or they will burn up the casing. (I think they were 40w --> 60w, thought it may be 60w -> 100w, I can't recall anymore)

 

Also a point to note the original bulbs throw a really funky color cast that one of the pre-set WB on any digcam will take. you will need to take a custom WB off a good card first even if you shoot in raw as CS4 and LR have trouble with correction of RAW files shot under these lights. these things are basically decent for eBayer's using cheap digicams for auctions but for anything beyond that, they're worthless, and I jsut set up my Alien Bees.

[cteno4]

Yeah, this is definitely not a pro set up at all, its only meant to help the simple home digicam person do something a tad nicer and controlled. i have done product shoots with pros and its a totally different story. only intended this for the total amateurs with a simple camera who want to do something with lighting and not the strobe and perhaps a blue screen to drop out the background easily. sorry should have put the label not intended for aaron!

 

i was actually at ikea the other day and grabbed two $4 desk lamps with a standard projection bulb socket to potentially use as more background lighting and the little guys as more key lighting.

 

cheers

 

jeff