The Star Patrol Needs YOU!

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Oh no! The airlock is full of hot coffee! Close it up again!

seriously...well done!

That’s a really cool airlock picture Dave. It really works in black and white.

Integrity Toys Beach Babe Poppy Parker as Galactic Comptroller Danielle Dare
Takara Cy Girls Aurora as Lt. Rochelle "Rocky" Jones

That’s a cool picture Dave.

Commander Keiko (Kobie) Kobayashi at the bridge command console of the Inside Straight. Clearly, the console is still a work in progress, requiring some control detail/

Excellent lighting, great colour ....and a good-looking "build" in progress.

It's what they used to do on the sets of Start Trek: TOS: Use coloured gels...usually magenta, red, green, sometimes blue to add interest to the bulkheads and so on in the conference room, crew quarters, many other parts of the ship.

Dammit, Jim, I'm going to have to upgrade my sets!

The bulkheads look fantastically futuristic! Nice chair and console, and you got the scale just right!

SCU_HQ wrote:

Dammit, Jim, I'm going to have to upgrade my sets!  


The bulkheads look fantastically futuristic! Nice chair and console, and you got the scale just right!

The bulkhead is simply the boxes and packaging material from two iPads.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

The bulkhead is simply the boxes and packaging material from two iPads.

That's a significant investment just to construct a 1/6 scale set!

My mom bought two new iPads at Xmas; one for her, one for me. I just thought the packaging might make good sci-fi Space 1999 like bulkheads.

Love that one shot Dave of the script being read, I seem to recall Nick doing a few of thee type behind he scenes shot .
Loving the command chair Gary! Looking forward too seeing more progress

Gary I’m really liking the picture of Commander Keiko (Kobie) Kobayashi at the bridge command console of the Inside Straight.

Awesome photo!

Night Navigation Watch aboard the Federation Scout Ship HFS-009 Edward D. Wood, Jr.:

Great photos. I love the contrasts. Makes me think of the film "Alien." In space, no-one can hear you scream."

Very cool Dave! Gary is correct, the low lighting really gives these pics an edge!

Dave these are incredible pictures.

Love what you are doing with lighting Dave!

LeStryge wrote:

Love what you are doing with lighting Dave!

Let me show you how the lighting works:

Here's a behind the scenes 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 scavenged from rubbish and recycle 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 exposure 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 blast 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 inexpensive 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).

Looks good Dave , I like how you included the lighting set up ......Where did you get that Torch ? How many Candles is it ?  

Chip wrote:

Where did you get that Torch ? How many Candles is it ?

Ray-o-Vac LED two AA cell torch from a regular retail store. Nothing special about it, other than it has an aluminum body rather than plastic. I really need a slightly larger light, two D cells, for photo work, but this one is what I have available right now.

Dave, can't tell you how delighted I was to see that somebody else uses just as primitive lighting setups as I do.
I know some people shell out on those fancy umbrella things that you see in professional studios, but my assortment of table lamps and torches that I use would be an embarrassment. Just about anything that gives out light can be pressed into service.
I'm often trying to hold a simple torch on a particular area I want to light AND take the picture.
Still, it's all about the end result isn't it! However you may get there!

LeStryge wrote:

I'm often trying to hold a simple torch on a particular area I want to light AND take the picture.

That's exactly what I do - which results in an extremely high discard to keep ratio. Good thing I'm not shooting film.