DISCLAIMER: This is not a tutorial.
Like proud car owners, we like to take pictures of our beloved diecast cars and showcase these tiny jewels - online especially. While DSLRs are getting more and more affordable, not everyone would have the space dedicated for a miniature studio. Neither do I, but I'm not going to let that get in the way of my favorite pastime.
A good thing about being an art student is that I have an abundant supplies from previous previous projects and assignments. The money is already spent and it's waste to just toss them into the dumpster. With a few trail and errors, I am currently at this setup.
The criteria was to have it easy to assemble and dismantle since I have only have one table. The camera is needed for school work but not very often, instead of collecting dust, why not make more use of it?
There's nothing to direct and diffuse the light, fortunately I have a surplus of materials from my previous exploits. I used art block at the back and a piece of tracing paper to diffuse the light, held together with cloth pegs and a pen. lol
I have a short stool and a chair when shooting at different camera angles. Then it's time to make these diecast cars look like supermodels! Snap away. Then dismantle so I can use my laptop for post-production.
This is the raw still. My files are also in RAW format, I enjoy the flexibility.
After a bit of color-correction and cropping, and here is the finished picture. Sorting dozens of picture is less fun than taking them but I digress. I don't have much space to display all of my diecast cars so I rely on photography to be my 'display area'.
So far this method has been working well for me, the main goal is to spend as little money as possible. Though I'd love to have more lights, that will have to wait until I have a place where I can actually call it my own. I hope you have enjoyed this walk-through; don't be afraid to ask questions too!