Model's photography
	I often see nice modeltrucks made by skill modellers badly illustrated with mediocre photos. I believe it is worth the time to make some efforts improving the images quality: after several weeks or months working on a truck model, a well done picture could show nicely the result to all the others modellers around. Being a Professional photographer, I apply on model pictures some techniques wich are well know to any still-life photographer: in case this could be interesting for Truckmodellers I try to make a few examples in the following images.
			This BRUDER Mercedes Unimog will serve like an example. What you are seeing on this first picture is the average model picture we can find on eBay auctions, with a text like:"Don't miss this fantastic opportunity: I sell my wonderful Unimog for only 1500 Dm...." The poor Unimog looks very bad: high grass all around, unreal colors and this classic awfull 'airplane' view wich let you seeing only the truck roof.. In addition the model is so small that you can't see any detail. To win the award for the worst model picture, we only miss the feets of some fellow modeller in the image background :-)
			OK, let's see if we can do something better...I just made a couple of steps forward and...yes, now we can see it's only a cheap Bruder toy! The eBay auction is loosing some potential buyers, but the picture is somewhat better. I'm applying another trick: with small subjects like scale models, color saturation are often too high. With an image processing software like Photoshop® it's easy to reduce saturation, even with some corrections on the color range. In this case, our image was too yellow. Now, if you consider the model scale (1:16 of course..) this point of view is like climbing on some 5th floor building..For dramatically improve our pictures, we could apply the "Knees on the ground" rule: the camera must be as low as possible! It's maybe not really comfortable position but we will eventually have a realistic view! Just be aware of the things in the foreground (like high grass,etc) wich can disturb easyly on such low views.
		Don't you believe the Unimog looks better now? Lower point of view, more natural colors...I also used a wide diaphragm opening to reduce the deep of field. This way, your attention is captured by the model and not by the threes on the background..As you can see, one must be not scared to take very close pictures using wide-angle objectives.	We are entering here in a different world: image processing softwares allow very deep modification. I use this technique when I want to see how will look a model after future modifications. In this case, it could help me to decide if the cheap Bruder toy could become a good base for building a R/C truck. But this is another story....
		Another good solution: far backgrounds are a must: it is easy to put them out of your deep of field range and the model is well detached without anything out of scale in sight. A cloudy day like this one is better than direct sunlight with such hard shadows. What a shame we never have clouds in the summer here in Italy..	In this last picture, many Photoshop® techniques are applied: color setting,lights on, lowered proportions, cabin glasses and wipers, etc. Now, the poor Bruder Unimog can be selled at a higher price..:-))

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