Custom Photography: Tips and Tricks

[Arcsylver]

I figured with all the other Tips and Tricks posts here I would try and contribute in my own was as a Photographer.
(Written slightly tongue in cheek in places for the younger among us who enjoy these wonderful building sets both for play and as modelers)

1. Good Lighting: Making sure your customs are well lit from all angles goes a long way to bringing out those tiny little details you sweated over in the long hours of creating that masterpiece you want to show off so make sure you have good lighting. This can be as simple as using a table lamp to each side just out of camera shot to give it good front lighting to going that extra mile and taking your custom outside into the beautiful lightbox nature provides called the outdoors.

2. Compostition: Take your time to plan a little when taking your pictures. Think about what you are wanting to show to everyone. Make that the focus of the picture you are taking. This is your project. Show it to us how YOU want it to be seen.
Especially here on the Mega Construx site were we are limited to only 5 pictures per gallery post. Make sure those 5 pictures show what you want to show off!

3. Focus: It goes without saying that being able to clearly see what your picture is trying to show everyone is kinda important. So making sure to get what you are trying to show in focus is really important. In this day and age of everyone has a smartphone camera it is pretty simple to just whip out that phone and click away. but take the time when uploading those pictures to make sure what you wanted to show everyone is actually clearly in focus. Otherwise your audience is left squinting at that blurry bit trying to figure out what you meant for them to see.

4. Background: A lot of us out there finish up our creations and then think "I gotta show the guys and gals (hey I am an old fogey and this is a PG website) over at Mega Constux what I just made!" . We grab the camera and click away and rush off to the gallery to upload things. What we often forget about is what is BEHIND the creation. Is that a nice clean white wall? A view out your window perhaps? Or is it the week old undies your mom has been yelling at you all week to pick up and put in the laundry? Take a moment to look around where you are snapping those pics to make sure there isn't anything you DON'T want in those pictures. (This also includes things like anything that might be used to identify you on the internet like boxes with your name and address on them visible in the shot.)

5. Whenever possible, put your camera on something solid. This helps eliminate any blurriness due to shaky hands. This can be a proper tripod, a chair back, a stack of books, any solid object will do. You little brother does not count as a solid object no matter how much of a blockhead you think he may be.

Well, That's all I got for now. This is all based on having browsed through the entire current gallery here on the site and the common mistakes I see from a Photographers point of view. You guys and girls here make some truly amazing and incredibly creative builds. Hopefully this will help you show them off to the best of your creative ability! Enjoy!

[Admiral-Sabree]

I figured with all the other Tips and Tricks posts here I would try and contribute in my own was as a Photographer. (Written slightly tongue in cheek in places for the younger among us who enjoy these wonderful building sets both for play and as modelers) 1. Good Lighting: Making sure your customs are well lit from all angles goes a long way to bringing out those tiny little details you sweated over in the long hours of creating that masterpiece you want to show off so make sure you have good lighting. This can be as simple as using a table lamp to each side just out of camera shot to give it good front lighting to going that extra mile and taking your custom outside into the beautiful lightbox nature provides called the outdoors. 2. Compostition: Take your time to plan a little when taking your pictures. Think about what you are wanting to show to everyone. Make that the focus of the picture you are taking. This is your project. Show it to us how YOU want it to be seen. Especially here on the Mega Construx site were we are limited to only 5 pictures per gallery post. Make sure those 5 pictures show what you want to show off! 3. Focus: It goes without saying that being able to clearly see what your picture is trying to show everyone is kinda important. So making sure to get what you are trying to show in focus is really important. In this day and age of everyone has a smartphone camera it is pretty simple to just whip out that phone and click away. but take the time when uploading those pictures to make sure what you wanted to show everyone is actually clearly in focus. Otherwise your audience is left squinting at that blurry bit trying to figure out what you meant for them to see. 4. Background: A lot of us out there finish up our creations and then think "I gotta show the guys and gals (hey I am an old fogey and this is a PG website) over at Mega Constux what I just made!" . We grab the camera and click away and rush off to the gallery to upload things. What we often forget about is what is BEHIND the creation. Is that a nice clean white wall? A view out your window perhaps? Or is it the week old undies your mom has been yelling at you all week to pick up and put in the laundry? Take a moment to look around where you are snapping those pics to make sure there isn't anything you DON'T want in those pictures. (This also includes things like anything that might be used to identify you on the internet like boxes with your name and address on them visible in the shot.) 5. Whenever possible, put your camera on something solid. This helps eliminate any blurriness due to shaky hands. This can be a proper tripod, a chair back, a stack of books, any solid object will do. You little brother does not count as a solid object no matter how much of a blockhead you think he may be. Well, That's all I got for now. This is all based on having browsed through the entire current gallery here on the site and the common mistakes I see from a Photographers point of view. You guys and girls here make some truly amazing and incredibly creative builds. Hopefully this will help you show them off to the best of your creative ability! Enjoy!

thanks for all the advice, really good info. I need to do more customs but mega is hard to do customs for unless your willing to blow up sets. whenever ya see a good buy nab her up for parts num num num.

[Arcsylver]

One very important thing I forgot about, Software!


Make sure to have a good software program for editing your pictures. I personally use Adobe Lightroom.

You can get the Creative Cloud Photo package for $9.99 a month which includes Photoshop and Lightroom in one package and both are great for editing photos.

[MCX_Team]

These are all wonderful tips!

Thank you for making this thread. I'm sure it helped a lot of creators here :)