Portrait Studio?

[cheddarmonger]

So... as many of you know, I've been obsessing on photography lately.  My wife got me an amazing camera and an incredible macro lens for my birthday this year, and I've been working on refining my techniques since.  I'm working with studio lighting to come up with just the right setup for vivid, clear, true pictures of miniatures.

I expect to spend about $1000 for lighting fairly soon.

A thought occured -- would it be a valuable service to offer professional photos of miniatures for folks?  They could ship me their mini, I'd take pics for a fee, and ship them back.

Thoughts?

[Perv]

$1000 for lighting?  Are you serious?  put some plants under them to recoup your losses mate :icon_w00t:

I really dont think you need to spend that much to get a decent lighting area.

Also I cant see many if any people wanting profesional photos of their minis. People who produce quality paintjobs usually can take good quality shots to show them off, how else would people know they are good quality paintjobs?

Not a cost efective idea IMHO

[Medved]

i can understand how you can spend that much david.  i think that if it is to be the case that you should be attempting to use the studio for much more than mini photography.

maybe you could offer an ebay photography service or online archiving via photography and widen your base for earning.

is the $1000 just for the lights, or are we talking guns, umbrellas , reflectors and cranes in that price?

[Bungle]

You should offer human portrait photography, with all that kit.

[Perv]

porn studio methinks...............  :icon_w00t:

[alrith72]

cue dodgy 70's music and bad dubbing (so i've been told)

[Perv]

lol  Cheddar enters rooom in a Mouse suit with nipple holes and the crotch cut out  !!!

[cheddarmonger]

 :icon_eek:

Yeah, okay, I'm in the wrong business!

The budget was for studio strobes, controllers, stands, reflectors, diffusers, and a table.  Might be able to come up with something interrim, with an SB-800 flash, a studio strobe, and a cable, or even 2 sb-800 flashes and stands (my camera can control them wirelessly) but we're still talking $600 or so.

People portraits?  with my 90mm macro, I should be able to get really good pictures of your nose!

[Dr.Evil]

I just tweaked two bits on my camera and move my lights more away from the target and My pic's improved, all I did for the last one was trim and shrink.
I didn't need to adjust anything else and it came out about spot on for looking just like it does in real life.

http://www.customhobby.com/forum/index.php?topic=1748.msg26584#new

[Keeper]

I think if it makes you happy, CM, go for it, and make some money on the side if you can :)

There might be lots of small things need photographing, though, not just miniatures.  Can't think of anything except miniatures, to be honest, but I'm sure other people somewhere must do something else with their free time ....  :icon_scratch:

[Dr.Evil]

Have a setup that you can also use for family pictures as well, incase they drop in  or you could do it for friends and such.

[cheddarmonger]

Well, I found a deal on ebay, so I'm going to give these a try.  If nothing else, the stands, diffusers, and cords are well worth the price!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=360045523381

way cheaper than the $600 I was estimating.  The power range of these is probably better suited to miniatures anyway.

I'll let you know how it goes!

[Custom_Hobby]

Nice find Cheddar. Please keep us posted. I might try to get one as well if all goes well for you.

[Baldemyr]

http://www.flickr.com/


  My friends all belong to this site(photographic types)-  they love the "community".

[dargrin]

Well I just blew through an hour looking at the top 500 pics on the flickr site.  Really cool time waster.  And I mean that in a good way.