Picture Taking Problems Solved (I Hope…)

June 5, 2013

If you’ve been reading the posts in this blog, first of all, thanks very much!  However, you have probably noticed, and recall from what I’ve written, that I’ve been having a bit of a problem providing decent pictures of my works-in-progress and the finished products.  Well, I think I’ve solved that problem. 

I wanted to continue to use my iPhone 3GS’s camera, as it’s far simpler to just plug my iPhone into my laptop to transfer photos, and it’s on my laptop that I do the vast majority of my work.  However, the lighting at my FLGS where I do all of my assembling, converting and painting work doesn’t lend itself to taking great pictures with the iPhone.  I tried an old digital camera that my wife dug out for me, but I’ve found that the pictures tend to be over-exposed from the flash, and there’s the added problem of getting the pictures from the camera’s SD card onto my laptop.  (I know that this can be solved by purchasing a USB multi-card reader, but I was trying to avoid taking that step when I already have a multi-card reader on the desktop upstairs; problem there was, getting the photos from the upstairs desktop to my laptop.)

Then I had an epiphany.  I recalled seeing LED flashlights that one can wear on one’s head, sort of like a “miner’s light”, by way of an elastic strap that goes around your head.  I found a suitable option at my local Home Depot.

I tried it out last night, and I think it’s going to solve this problem for me, for the most part.  It’s not a perfect solution, but for quick-and-dirty picture taking as I’m completing each step in a process, I think it will work out so that I can keep the process moving along and get posts up on this blog as quickly as possible.

To give you an idea of the difference between “before” and “after” getting the head lamp, here’s a picture I took with just the FLGS’s lighting:

And here’s a picture using the head lamp.

There’s a bit of glare on the Heldrake’s head, but otherwise, I think you can see that having the headlamp greatly improves my chances for getting a decent picture of whatever it is I’m currently working on.

I took a bunch of pictures of how I’m painting my second Heldrake so that I record most steps so I can put up a future post that shows the process and results.  Look for that post in a few days; hopefully I’ll be done with the second body before the weekend.

Let me know what you think of the picture using the head lamp!