[Photo] I Love Dark Photos, Except...

...when I don't have handy diffusing material at hand. Sometimes I just want to buy go and buy a tripod just so I can make a stand that will hold up a large sheet of tissue to diffuse my light source.

I was taking photos of my newly purchased mainline Hot Wheels and I wanted to try the backlit acrylic again. With that as my only light source, I couldn't get any light on the wheels which I wanted detail on. I ditched the dark room setting because the curved background picked up an unavoidable reflection of my light source. Being too lazy to tear up tissue paper, I had simply held exposed LED flashlights above the car and put up that same translucent acrylic and lit up the back side:

 

I got some wheels but now I have overly-reflective parts which I don't like to see, even if it makes a car look shiny.... not for a scale this small anyway. But wait. Then I thought to myself, what if I pretend this was a showroom display?

Great! Got something to shoot for now.

Went for a new car angle, and played with the location of 2 flashlights while the backlight remained the same. The best one I got was this:

Does it look like a showroom display?

I think I went through about 8 to 10 shots for this, which isn't a lot for a pro but pretty good for me, considering how I had to flip the screen around on my Canon T3i (yes that's what I use), set a 10-second timer, click on that, and then have that amount of time to move over to the display and suspend 2 flashlights at the right angles.

Lastly, I wanted to share what my setup looked like:

So what used to be a homemade tracing box is now being used as a backlight diffuser. I also threw some flashlights on top to create the impression of stage lights. It surprisingly works pretty well. The tripod is actually that far back because I was using my 250mm lens since the tripod's lowest height setting as way higher than that little table so I pulled the camera back so I could use the lowest angle possible, but then the 18-55mm zoom lens couldn't zoom in enough.

Turn the lights off and that's what we get.

So yes, beside the F12 Berlinetta and Gallardo SL, I also finally got my hands on that horrendous green Carrera GT, white Gran Torino, blue VW Golf, and two '92 M3s.

Will post proper pics once I finish cut open metal bases on my customs and donors.