Also currently looking at this, it’s gonna be my special present after cashing out my MakerWorld Bux soon
I’m using an old Nikon D90 at the moment and it’s leagues above my iPhone 15 Pro for some reason
As soon as I point my iPhone into the light box it just makes the subject dark and miserable
Unless there’s an app or something to give me more granularity over the phone settings but even then I’d rather just have a dedicated camera
Really? The photo in my earlier post is from an iPhone 15 Pro also shooting in a photo box just in HEIF with the default camera app, shot at “2x” with exposure compensated +1.0 with only vibrance edited in post in the default editing app and it’s not dark and miserable (imo), and it looks even better after a bit more work in post. I did want everything in focus though, as there is nothing in the background, so the phone is great at this.
My a6700 purchase was also my cash-out celebration haha, this is my progress so far with the main things I did/changed. So far, the iPhone can match this easily (but I’m not doing anything special and there is tonnes of light. Regular shots outside of the photo box with stuff in the background look far better on the camera-camera)
Damn I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with the phone then, i’ll take some comparison shots this evening hopefully and see if it’s just a me problem
Oh for the people asking about Affinity Suite, their full suite goes like 50% off every year around June
I’ve been on them since very early days and still use the v2 suite, and the canva acquisition has promised that affinity will always have an outright purchase option
Barely missed Black Friday, so that’s good to know! My trial might end by them though 
Congrats!!! Man, I lived in Australia for a few years pre-covid and that’s one thing I miss - consumer goods are cheap (I guess except for groceries and rent now).
Sneak peak at my upcoming clicky burger as a first set of test images
Apparently I can’t upload it here due to resolution
Ugh… I’ll sort out image hosting later…
Screenshot it and then upload the screenshot (upload with the upload button, don’t copy-paste it in here)
Dusted off my 16 year old Nikon D60 to see if the pictures compete against the cameras on smart phones and I’m pretty impressed with the detail it can capture up close (with a macro lens I had laying around). I quite like displaying these layer lines upclose like this. Goes to show you don’t need to break the bank (2nd hand the camera is like 50€) to capture some nice images, now to dial in the settings and I got myself a nice little camera to use 
Lens used: Tamron AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di LD Macro 1:2, depth of field is definitely a little hard to get right with it 
If you want to do something on the cheap - sometimes all it takes is a $1.50 sheet of white cardboard from the dollar store and an open window
That is exactly what I do.
Sometimes the construction board is the backdrop and I lay the piece on glass for a reflection.
nooooooo don’t tell me
Yea I do this too. Got 12 different coloured sheets of A3 cardboard paper for €3,- for this exact reason setup. Makes for a quick setup if the sun is out (which is never here in NL 
)
Wooooah that’s awesome!!
Awesome guide and tips! Thank you!
I had shared the following in MakerWorld Community as an article but wanted to post it here as well in case it’s helpful to anyone.
This is a breakdown of the process I used when taking photos for a recent project and includes information on the equipment used, how it was set up & the processing steps I used. I was happy with the results but there’s always room for improvement - I’m open to feedback!
When planning the photos, there were a few challenges that I knew I’d need to solve for:
Because of these challenges, I decided to photograph the model in two lighting setups. This made for more work but ensured that I’d be able to highlight the features and would also provide some differentiation between the versions.
I believe that lighting can have the most significant impact on photos so I’ll be focusing on that equipment although I’ll note that these photos were taken with a 24-105mm lens on a Canon R6 Mk. II body.
Taking the photos outdoors added some atmosphere but also introduced a challenge: trying to make sure that the model didn’t blend into the busy background. Much of the placement and lighting were chosen in attempt to solve for this.
So that that lights in the interior of the model would be more visible, I used a longer exposure for these photos with the camera on a tripod. Taking the photos indoors allowed for me to bounce light onto a wall which provided a background color gradient.
The photos were all taken in RAW format which provided the most flexibility and range when editing. I processed the photos first in Lightroom, then in Photoshop and finally in Affinity Designer.
Overall, in Lightroom I’m adjusting to ensure that highlights and shadows aren’t clipping (being solid white or black) while correcting colors, sharpening, reducing noise and removing and dust spots or unintended elements such as light stands.
Images are exported as JPGs without any cropping applied as this will be completed at a later stage.
Having completed the image edits in Lightroom, I use Photoshop to combine multiple exposures. This can be helpful for moving elements like smoke but also when using non-fixed (or handheld) lights. Also, I did some basic dodging, burning and final color correction.
So that I can keep all of my model images and assembly instructions organized, I contain them all within a single Affinity Designer file. This allows me to apply cropping and add any overlays such as text.
Through Affinity, you can choose the Export persona and export all of your images at once at the end of the process.
As stated at the beginning, I always have room to learn and hope to hear any feedback you might have. Likewise, I hope that some of this information might give some ideas for your next photo shoot!
Something I’m playing with at the moment is having a bunch of scatterable props around my model to give the surroundings texture
Here I’ve printed a bunch of pastel mini eggs that I can scatter around anything for Easter themed thumbnails
I also plan to give it a try with other themes like little clover thingies for the green day, or pumpkins for Halloween etc
They can be scattered around or on any model to add some pop on a plain background
I think that was really effective - looks great!
