davidd’s A DOLL A DAY 2022

[davidd]

You know what I think about unboxing!  

Don't worry - they will escape from the brig soon!

Barbie and Ken pirates. I love that!

Yeah, it's a fun set! I'm enjoying it for a little while all cute and boxed, but I'm looking forward to opening up the carton and playing with them!

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15 February - A Doll A Day 2022:



Today we shall journey Behind the Scenes with The Star Patrol!

Here's a look at how to quickly put together a fairly convincing space ship interior. Well, I'm convinced. Your standards may be higher.

First, here are a couple of demo photos. All I did in "post-production" was adjust saturation and contrast and sharpness using basic software:

Here's how I assembled the set: a few random bits of cardboard and styrofoam (polystyrene) packing material salvaged from the trash and recycling bins and less than five minutes with spray paint. I use three colours of paint: flat black, flat grey primer, and flat rust primer.

Here's my fancy lighting setup - a desk lamp and a flashlight (electric torch). I turn off the main room lights, and dial back the ex-posure compensation on the camera by 1-1/3 f/stops. Otherwise, the camera is fully automatic. I move the desk lamp around, and sometimes hold it by hand, to continually change the lighting angles and create different shadows, while shooting a lot of images, most of which end up being discarded.

There ya go! Space ship interiors do not need to be fancy, especially for run-down smuggler and pirate space ships!

I have a few old canned food tins I still need to mist with paint, then I will add them to these scenes when I need to suggest a cargo hold or warehouse.

If I'm feeling ambitious, I will sometimes perform additional post-production image editing using inex-pensive or free iPad apps. The two apps I use most frequently are called PhotoToaster and Mextures. I did not use anything on the images seen here other than the basic image editing slider controls for contrast, highlights, saturation, and vignette (gotta keep those corners dark and spooky).