Hello. My Screen name is "Buch" and I'm new to this forum. I've been building off and on since I was in elementary school - just after the invention of plastic. My interest stays pretty constant now not because I build (I've developed a tremor which also messes around with my painting and photography as well) but because I'm friends with a very good builder by the name of Randy Derr who some of you may know of or his Penske Camero which is still impressive after ten years. His projects are always most fascinating to me and I really enjoy his ingenuity and creative problem solving - "how am I going to scratch build this miniature steering box and achieve the correct 1:1 scale ratio?" Randy's work is incredible.
But, my real reason for writing is a little observation and constructive criticism - ie. some hopefully helpful pointers. As I browsed the picture galleries I noticed several simple things that the builders could do to improve their presentations. Builders who would never consider painting a dusty car body, photograph models with fantastic paint jobs that look badly because they're all dusty. Use a soft brush or whatever you use to clean your models with to VERY CAREFULLY and COMPLETELY dust off your creation before you photograph it. Getting rid of dust is a real pain, but doing so really showcases your hard work. Also, examine the photographs carefully BEFORE you submit them for publication to be sure the exposure is correct and most of all the pictures are sharp. You don't spend hours trying to reproduce the smallest of details only to have them sink into a murky haze of blur when your chance comes to impress your audience.? Lastly, at least for the time being, when you take extreme close-ups from in front of the model that show some of the side and the back end, it is difficult to get the the front of the model and the rear both in sharp focus. It is a problem with physics/optics photographers call "depth of field" and can be at least partially conquered by putting your camera on a tripod and shooting manually using the largest f-number available (ie. f-11 or f-16) assuming you can set your camera's exposure manually. A simpler way of getting a sharp photograph of your model is to position the model so it's side is primarily what you see with a bit of the front showing also - kind of a 3/4 angle. That way no one part of the car is much farther away than any other part. I hope you are able to decipher what I have written. Sometimes its just little things that make all the difference. I hope sharing what little knowledge I have helps some of you.
Buch