Lighting Spaceship Miniatures

mrcarkeys42

Active Member
I've been trying my hand at kit bash spaceships, this is my most recent attempt (only grey primer at the moment) but i feel like i'm having trouble getting it looking large. Any tips on how to light it and photograph it to make it look like its the right scale?

i made this in my schools studio, using a hot light as the sun and some foam balls as planets (i plan on making detailed planets for my final project) and im pretty happy with how the planets turned out, just not the ship.

also this is two pics blended together in Photoshop, one with the ship in focus and one with the planets in focus

spaceship post work.png
 
Nice job on the placement. I would take a lesson from the Star Wars practical models. Paint it a lighter flat white or flat light grey and add at least 4 layers of weathering or color to give it depth. Even though the colors won't necessarily show up it will give you a sense of size. Remember the larger you want the model to look the smaller your details should be. Layers are your friend.
 
One thing that will help is windows.
When we look at something like a space ship we start trying to judge it's size using familiar references like windows and doors.
That's why the Imperial Star Destroyer looks large because we see little squares of light and assume they are windows.
Like Cameron said smaller details will help also. Break up larger areas with smaller areas of details with some inset etc.
Try using shading to break up large smooth or flat surfaces and that will help add detail also.
 
Another thing I would suggest is to use some form of filling compound to "marry" the greeble onto the hull. Though I like the design, right now your model looks like it just has a bunch of stuff glued to the surface. If you filled in behind that detail, and painted it all the same color, it could help enhance the realism.
 
I've been trying my hand at kit bash spaceships, this is my most recent attempt (only grey primer at the moment) but i feel like i'm having trouble getting it looking large. Any tips on how to light it and photograph it to make it look like its the right scale?

i made this in my schools studio, using a hot light as the sun and some foam balls as planets (i plan on making detailed planets for my final project) and im pretty happy with how the planets turned out, just not the ship.

also this is two pics blended together in Photoshop, one with the ship in focus and one with the planets in focus

View attachment 765149

I think one of the issues here is that it's quite under exposed. If you look at the SW movies (or any film set in space that takes itself seriously), you'll notice that the key light is a hard source, and then maybe there's a bounce on the other side of the model to give it a bit of fill on the other side. Otherwise it's a lot of hard, hard lighting and dark shadows. But once you get that sucker properly exposed, I think it'd look a lot better.

SB

EDIT: Also, check out this thread by star-art: https://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=155323

Lots of good info in there.
 
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Hard lighting and shoot from under it, looking up at the ship. Gives a better sense that it is BIG. Large ships are looong and narrow, add windows in Photoshop.
 
thanks for all the advice guys, i tried a few of the things you said (giving it a good detailed paint job, bounce light, etc.) but i think it may actually look faker haha

perhaps going for an orange color scheme instead of a grey was a mistake? i wanted something a bit more Chris Foss than star wars, but bright colors may not go well with models this small...


new attempt.png
 
i haven't had the chance to add lights, but to be clear its actually not supposed to be that big (perhaps the design itself especially with its lack of noticeable cockpit looks too much like a larger sized ship) its only supposed to be like 50/60 feet long


also in the lighting conditions the paint detail didn't show very well, here it is brightly lit outside

View attachment 765970
 
Another thing you can do is to photoshop something in that the mind recognizes as a certain size and place it int the he foreground. As with layering, adding windows, etc, meticulously scribing panel lines does enhance the size a bit. But you have to be careful of the depth you score the plastic. A deeper groove will make it look like a smaller ship.
Sometimes the only way to make something look bigger is to actually build it bigger. There is only so much detail you can add to a tiny model without a LOT of patience, and a microscope.

TazMan2000
 
If possible, use a wide angle lens to increase perspective. The effect of focal length is proportionate to scale. If you photograph your family car from the front with a 50mm lens from a distance of 5 or 6 feet, the car is big enough that the perspective will be noticeable, emphasising the size. To get the same effect with a model car you could try anything from an 8 to 28mm lens and a distance of 1 or 2 feet.
Trouble is, smaller focal length lenses will have shallower depth of field. To combat this will require smaller apertures and in turn this will need longer exposures or more light. You definitely want to avoid shallow depth of field as it will betray scale.

Avoid longer focal lengths if possible as they flatten perspective. Of course wide angle lenses (and the cameras that take them) can be very expensive if you don't have access to such equipment.

Perspective isn't the only thing that will "sell" the illusion of size but it's an important part of the combination.
 
...smaller focal length lenses will have shallower depth of field. To combat this will require smaller apertures and in turn this will need longer exposures or more light. You definitely want to avoid shallow depth of field as it will betray scale...

Actually smaller focal lengths have greater depth of field. The problem with model photography is that depth of field is shallower the closer the lens is to the subject, and even the greater DOF of a wide lens may not be enough.
 
Actually smaller focal lengths have greater depth of field.
Yeah that's true darn it. It would have been better had I said that often the result of photographing miniatures is reduced depth of field.
I'm sure one of the reasons why studio scale models are built as large as possible is to counter the effects of shallow focus.
Still if you're really trying to make miniatures look larger, I think using small focal lengths are worthwhile.
 
thanks for all the advice guys, i tried a few of the things you said (giving it a good detailed paint job, bounce light, etc.) but i think it may actually look faker haha

perhaps going for an orange color scheme instead of a grey was a mistake? i wanted something a bit more Chris Foss than star wars, but bright colors may not go well with models this small...


View attachment 765969

Orange is going to be a tough color for what you are trying to do. Also it looks like you may not have used flat but maybe a satin finish? You are getting a lot of light reflection adding to the fake look. Hit it with some flat clear coat.
 
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