Best lens for shots of model cars

I am the 'official' photography for the scale model club that I belong to. My job is to take photos of all of the models that people bring to the club night. I currently have a Tamron18-200 which works very well. I use it on a tripod with the Canon 700D set to manual. I then crank the aperture down to its smallest at f25. The shutter speed normally needs to be around 1/6th sec. This way I get all of the model in focus. Most of the models that I photograph have a size of about 6" - 8" square.

Flash is no good because of the shadows and the highlighting of parts of the model - worse on highly polished model cars.
I have a small amount of money to spare and was wondering if there was a better lens that I could use or, maybe, a better technique?

These are typical images:

1. Get a tripod so you can use the lowest iso (so you don't end up with all of the noise you have going on there).
2. find the sweet spot (range) of your lens as far as sharpness, don't stop up or down beyond that. Shooting at f25 is going to give you much slower shutterspeeds than you want (without a tripod) or will require the use of high iso settings which make it look pretty bad. It also introduces softness from diffraction. You really want to keep it under f16 typically. If you need more DOF then back up and crop or stack focus.
3. Flash would be very beneficial. Just don't use your on camera flash. If you are worried about hard shadows then just place a diffuser between the flash and the subject. Getting the flash off the camera will also give you alot more flexibility.

Heya,

Don't buy a new lens. It will do nothing for you. You just need light modifiers & lighting, and some new technique.

Lighting is crucial. It makes all the difference. Try and use natural light, if you don't want to buy a speedlite and stuff. Get a reflector or two, they're dirt cheap. Use natural light as a key light and the reflectors to reflect/shine some light in the shadow places to help even out the light as rims and fill. So you can go that route, and spend maybe $20 on some reflectors and use natural light near a window. Or you can just build a DIY light box or softbox, and use lamps with daylight bulbs at close range. I'll give a link for this.

Other than lighting, which is really important, the new technique that will help you a lot is to focus stack. You can get free software to focus stack, just google "focus stacking" and look at tutorials and look for some free or cheap software. Unless you already have photoshop or something like that, you can do it there too. But basically you take a few images with different parts of the model in focus, so that you're not stopping aperture down to it's minimum size, and then combine the images and stack the focused areas, resulting in a much cleaner, sharper, nicer image with everything in focus, without resorting to trying to get enough depth of field (which then cuts out all your light).

Zerene is software you can try for 30 days for focus stacking. Worth checking out. If you already have photoshop, you're set. Let us know what you have.

*****

Reflectors (cheap, $10, 24" with white, silver, black that you would need; get two or three of these)

Again, use the reflectors to basically reflect natural or flash light back at the model from areas to help fill light and soften shadows. Look up the differences between white, black and silver, or experiment, as it changes how it looks.

Combine that with natural light from a window, and focus stacking technique, and you're set for cheap.

*****

Alternatively, you can make a DIY softbox. And use continuous bulbs at close range (lamps).

Google up DIY softbox for macro/product. It's basically just white paper or felt cloth on a cardboard frame or wood frame, depending on what you want to do. You then put lamps with daylight bulbs real close to each side and the box diffuses the light. Put your model inside and you're set for lighting. You'd want 2~3 lamps to do this. Again, use focus stacking to do the rest.

Here's a video tutorial on making one for $10.

*****

Don't buy a lens. It will not change anything, literally nothing, for what you're trying to do.

Take a day and just look into how to do inexpensive 2~3 light source lighting to do key & fill light. Get/borrow some lamps. Get some day bulbs. Set white balance appropriately. And practice some focus stacking. You'll output much better results.

Very best,

Wow. Thanks for such a great comprehensive reply. Changing the lighting isn't easy and as for a light box, well some people are a bit precious about their models and don't like them being moved about - the models tend to have lots of little bits sticking out!

I will try the stack method. I am a software geek so that solution sounds interesting.

Thanks so much

David

I have a copy of Photoshop CS6 that I use all the time. I took 6 images using the live view on my 700D and using my finger to choose the focus points. Have a look at what I got at the end. It is a bit long winded when I may have 15 models to photo but it is the best result that I have got without messing about with long exposures, etc. The other issue is that I do need to use the tele bit of the lens to get full screen images and this methods helps with that as well. Here we are. This is a 1/24th Revell Ferrari GTO that I built a couple of months ago. The model is just 7 inches long and 4 1/2" wide when angled towards the camera even though, physically, it is only 2 3/4" in actual depth. The whole thing is in focus. I like it!

yeah, i'd look at focus stacking and a light box...you can have the light box set up in a corner, your camera on a tripod near by, and the people can just come up, and place their model in the lightbox...and then you can move in with your camera

Invest in a good tripod. Invest in a good light board and a desk lamp for diffused overhead or angled constant lighting source.

I have a friend that uses a large on constantly for plastic figure models here in Japan, makes website resale 10000x better with great photos.

While your lens is fine fo rthe work, you may wish to consider an EF-S 60mm macro or the 100mm USM
Either one used would be under $350 and they make a good portrait lens of your family and friends.

Maybe you could do some work with the hobbyist portraits and the models.

I would not shoot past F8.0 because of diffraction.

InfiniteDivide wrote in post #17590782
I would not shoot past F8.0 because of direction.

Diffraction. Easier for you to google.

Agree, but I'd say F8 to F11 is the range you should try. Immediate improvement over F25.
Good job on the focus stack, looks better already.

Also agree lightbox / reflectors are a good idea. You should be able to make some form of simple lightbox with no bottom that could be placed over and around models so you don't have to touch the them. eg white polystyrene box.

A clamp light with a bright bulb (or an ETTL capable speedlight + trigger/cable), a diffusion panel, and a reflector should be all you need to get the light right. Just learn how to work them.

A sturdy tripod will allow for the needed sharpness. If you really want to get complicated you can get a tilt shift lens to better control the plane of focus. . . . . .

While not directly related to the model car subjects...
Here is a photo I took handheld with diffused light
Click for full res and EXIF data.

This will give you an idea of the fine details a 100mm macro lens can do for your work.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pAdK​sz

Like others have said, there's a lot of improvement to be had with your current lens if you simply use quality lighting, non-diffraction limited apertures, and focus stacking. If then you're still not satisfied, the lens you get is simple, 100mm f/2.8 macro. It's stupid sharp and will let you do more than simply fill the frame you'll be able to shoot detail shots as well.

Thanks for all the help. I tried Zerena and StarStax. I didn't think that the StarStax image was as good as the one I got using Photoshop whilst I couldn't compare the Zerena one as I was unable to export the JPG due to trial software constraints. I doubt that I would pay $89 for this anyway. Photoshop gave a great result but was a bit time consuming when I, sometimes, have up to 20 images to process.

I will have a look at the replacement lens idea but, again, I would be unable to gauge the benefit without spending lots. As a pensioner, I have to be a bit careful how I spend my pensions unfortunately.

I will have a go at next month's model run and come back to you to tell how I got on.

long_haired_david wrote in post #17591139
Thanks for all the help. I tried Zerena and StarStax. I didn't think that the StarStax image was as good as the one I got using Photoshop whilst I couldn't compare the Zerena one as I was unable to export the JPG due to trial software constraints. I doubt that I would pay $89 for this anyway. Photoshop gave a great result but was a bit time consuming when I, sometimes, have up to 20 images to process.

I will have a look at the replacement lens idea but, again, I would be unable to gauge the benefit without spending lots. As a pensioner, I have to be a bit careful how I spend my pensions unfortunately.

I will have a go at next month's model run and come back to you to tell how I got on.

Heya,

Glad to see stacking works for you. It's actually easy. On a tripod you simply compose (leave some margins so it can be cropped after stacking), take a few images at difference points of focus, but at the same exposure values, and then in CS6, you simply Auto Merge -> (no blend) -> Select all layers -> Edit -> Blend - Focus stack and it's automatic. You probably don't need 20 images, but more like 3~5 should cover most of what you need. Just experiment with F8 to F11 at whatever distance works for you and see how many images it takes to get the depth of field you're wanting and just go from there.

In the mean time, if you can't handle the models, I get that, so just having a light and a diffuser reflector will change things drastically, see the linked reflectors. They will help loads at lifting shadows and getting some light on your models. Just put the light source behind the reflect and it's an instant "softbox" of sorts. Cheap and easy.

And I wouldn't get a new lens for this. It's not necessary. As you improve your technique, it'll look loads better. Sharpness is not the most important thing here. I would argue that lighting is more crucial if you really want the images to pop.

Very best,

OP: Don't forget to post some pics!
Let see how it's going.