Privacy Policy

We will never, EVER give, sell, or transfer your personal information to anyone other than the people who maintain this Web Site.  Your information will never be used by us to make money, or for any purpose other than modeling related issues.

Taking the photos:

Up until the end of 2003, the Photographs taken for this site were taken with an Olympus C-2020 Z digital camera.  I used the highest resolution (1600 X 1200) when taking the photos, then reduce them for posting here.  I usually reduce them to 550 pixels on the longer side.

Then for a while I used a Fuji FinePix S7000.  This camera was a 6.3Meg image capacity (12Meg RAW), and much better flash and image control.  I have also added a Macro Ring-Flash for better lighting.  I also use up to 2 Slave flashes -- one with a silver umbrella and one for background light.

Currently I am using a Fuji FinePix S9000 with 9.1Meg capacity (18Meg RAW).

We take most photos of models at 9Meg, reserving the 18Meg for greater detail, and photos taken specifically for modelers.

I had been using a piece of frosted plastic in front of the flash to soften the shadows in close-ups, but the Ring-Flash does a better job.  Sometimes I take the photos without using the flash... this seems to make the contrast better, and the colors cleaner.  And it is better to use a slight telephoto setting than wide-angle.  Wide-angle will distort straight lines more... and cause them to appear curved.

Also I make sure to use the correct White Balance setting.  It's easy to leave it on Automatic, but this often will leave you having to adjust the color of the photos.  This is especially true if you take the photos under florescent light.  So set the White Balance to Indoor, Tungsten (including Halogen), or Florescent lighting as appropriate.

The Fuji S9000 has a custom White Balance as well... allowing us to set the WB specifically for the lighting conditions at the site.

Saving & Editing:

I ALWAYS keep unedited copies of my photos on DVD before editing any of them... just in case I mess something up.  Also if you save in jpeg, you reduce the quality when editing the photo, so keep an unedited copy.

Good photo software is important... I use Paint Shop Pro Photo for most things related to the site.

If they need adjusting, I first usually adjust the gamma and brightness of the photos.  Gamma adjustment seems to generally have a better affect than adjusting the contrast.  This is usually not necessary with our new camera set up.

I also crop the photos, but not too closely!  Leave enough room around the model to give the right look... I usually like to get the model to be about 2/3 of the photo's size. 

Also watch for other models around the edges.  Especially at model shows, you will usually get other models slightly in your photos.  It's best to either crop them out entirely, or leave enough so you can tell what it is... little pieces of unidentifiable model can distract from the object you want to show.

Original digital photos are usually too large to post — a 1.5Meg photo may look nice, but someone with a dial-up Internet connection will not want to wait for it to load.  I reduce them so the long side is 550 pixels (usually).  This makes the finished photo somewhere between 30k and 70k... further reduction can be done too.

These are just some of my ideas... and what I have found that works well for me.