Let's Chat: Play Along Toys Eomer on Horseback

Here we have Eomer on Horseback from Play Along Toys Warriors and Battle Beasts series (2003). 

Here's one thing I noticed about Chat GPT. If you're familiar with Photoshop's ability to create a .PNG image where the central subject is saved as an image while the remainder is cut out and made transparent, then you know it can be a dicey affair at best. Granted, I have an older version but the ability to make .PNG images is very, very sketchy and often times ends in failure. Chat GPT doesn't appear to have that issue. No matter what I've thrown its way, the program has been able to surgically slice around every angle, and into every nook-&-cranny and save and utilize the core image all the while building backgrounds and textures based on my prompts. I like!

Ed

Space Art: Rocky Jones XV-2 - Pt 2 We Have Options

I posted the photo shown yesterday into one of my facebook groups and asked if they liked it with or without stars. To make a long story short there was no clear winner and one person even suggested adding a planet in the background sky. Okay. So now there's a version sans stars and with stars and Saturn thrown in for good measure - just cuz!

Ed

New Toy: K&F CONCEPT Photo Studio Light Box

Soooo, all summer long (and last summer, and the one before, and the one before....) I've been pitchin' a fit about how uncomfortable it is to go out in The Cave and work. And it is. Even trying to take a few photos is an unwelcome undertaking during the summer. So a week ago I decided to remedy the situation - at least a little bit - and bought myself a portable photo box from Amazon. Generally I use three primary photography setups:

-Small craft store sheets of foamcore

-Amazon MyStudio

-Very occasionally, I'll take two large sheets of foamcore out to the patio and use those for overly large boxes, toys, or toy setups.

I figured if I bought a small portable photo box, maybe I could at least take photos of my smaller toys in the house and not have to worry about braving The Cave. To that end I bought this portable folding 12"x12" photo box with built-in LED lighting. When it's all set up, it takes up little room and can be used on the kitchen table - or on a small set of drawers like what I have right next to my desk.  When all folded up and placed in its little carrying pouch, it takes up hardly any space at all. It also comes with six different colored PVC inserts and there's a swing-away cover on the top so that you can aim your camera straight over your subject. That's is one excellent feature, because with the Amazon MyStudio you have to finagle the camera inside the enclosure and guesstimate where to place it while over the subject. And then you hope that any photos you take will come out in focus. Too often, getting an overhead shot means taking the object over to the dryer where sits a small piece of foamcore! Anywho, I think this will be a welcome addition to my hobby tools. I believe my next tool will be a ring light - or two for use in The Cave (that is when it gets tolerable out there).

Ed

My Photo Setups

Foamcore

Much of my photography is done on a couple of small sheets of craft store foamcore set on the dryer out in The Cave. These smaller sheets come in a variety of colors and I've used them all at one time or another

For the oversize stuff I have two large sheets of foamcore that I take out to the patio

Amazon MyStudio

I bought this many years ago and Amazon still offers these cyclorama-type photo boxes, but good grief have they gone up in price!!

This rig takes up a fair amount of space and it has a permanent location out in The Cave.

K&F Photo Box

Amazon photo

Amazon photo

Shown with light blue background inserted.

It's a wee bit odd in that the photo box has carrying handles on it, yet it fits into a small pouch which, in turn, has carrying handles on it. Oh well, no biggie. The whole set is as light as a feather.

The LED lights change color hue and intensity

Let's Chat:Play Along Toys Sauron Before the Black Gate

Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy has been playing a lot lately and I started watching it again yesterday. I couldn't last through all three movies though before falling asleep LOL. Oh well. Here's a nice chat of Play Along Toys Soldiers and Scenes series, Fires of Mount Doom selection.

Ed

The prompt was simply to place Sauron in front of the black gate of Mordor.

Space Art: Rocky Jones XV-2 Orbit Jet - Pt 1

This photo was among the first batch of pictures I took after finishing the Moonscape diorama board. The XV-2 Orbit Jet has been posted here on the blog before but the rocket ship was easy to access out in The Cave and I thought this diorama base would do it justice, as nearly every episode of the TV show took place right here in our solar system. I have the set of DVD's and watched every episode and, quite frankly, the settings almost all looked like the moon. I'll post this photo today and a few more over the next days because, ummm, I have almost nothing else to post - no new series and certainly no big series.

Ed

I really like how this photo turned out but the odd thing is, although the photo clearly shows a light from the right, all the lights in the room were turned off!

Unlike some of my other Orbit Jet photos, this one was not a collage built up in Photoshop, but rather a 3D model on a 3D diorama base with only shadows, contrast, and other small adjustments made.