This looks funny...

[waaytoomuchintothis]

[dge467]

It doesn't look too terrible. Maybe try a lighter background? Looking forward to see what you are selling.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Try getting your lens close enough for the MACRO mode to kick in.

With that said....it looks ok to me. Better than what I do!

[MoparGreg]

looks good to me. I always use macro mode

[moparjenny]

Try macro mode and possibly lowering the angle just a tad bit?

[Ember]

I'm with Jenny. Bring your camera angle down a bit. Actually, quite a bit. You'd probably want the camera at a bit more than HO eye-level given you're trying to photograph the car to show it's condition, but the angle you've got is almost like a 45 degree isometric projection... Or a seagull about to drop a bomb. You can probably safely decrease the angle by around 5-10 degrees.

Maybe try turning the car a bit too. Either a little more nose or a little more side. Evenness never looks right. A 90 degree angle divided into 60 & 30 looks more visually pleasing than 45 & 45.

It's definitely a difficult thing showing the car to its fullest while still producing a pleasing photo. But buying something can often be an emotional decision, so a pleasing photo is important.

Also look at using a single colour background, if you can. Just a sheet of white paper would do for most colours.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Well, the lack of detail on those nice wheels is disappointing, and the windshield is much more clear and flawless than that looks. The driver isn't blinding white and the metalflake paint isn't that sparkly. I chose that car to start with because it looked like it might be tough to get right.

I can raise the platform the car is on, but the camera is as low as it can go. Cheap tripod. I thought the black felt would be best, but it clearly catches the light too much. I'll try all the suggestions (keep 'em comin'), and report back. There's a little over 800 photos to be done, so I need a good method. I have some things that are just unknown, like an original pack of 100 open rivet chassis, one of 5 known to exist in the world. My fingers are too big to work on HO anymore, and with arthritis and cataracts... well, I need the money more than the memories. This should bring in enough to do something really nice with my long-suffering wife.

[moparjenny]

Also remember: flash is evil. Natural lighting is the way to go.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yeah. That camera's flash sucks, and I will have to use a lot more light to make it work without it which can only be good. That's the very fussy Nikon. Tomorrow the rough and tough Canon is on deck, and if that doesn't do right, I'll use the damned phone. But the Canon will probably be the "A" ticket for this thing. This is big. I have to get started.

If someone doesn't come along with a "wish list" that calls for a couple of hundred cars at once, I'll be selling these things one at a time (there's just short of 300 cars alone). There are four big cartons of track, most of which is nearly new, some of which are kinda hard to find (or they were when I was collecting them for a big layout with trains, cars, scenery, trestles, an oval race track, railroad classification yard and a seaport). What can I say, it was going to be a retirement project.

[Ember]

[Reslotted]

Yep No Flash x 3.
My pics always suck with a flash,
The best ones of slotcars that I take are always outside.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I could set up a table each day outdoors and shoot all day. I suppose I could just set a piece of track out to pose them on.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

[moparjenny]

MUCH better angle, Rob.

As for the background, maybe try a white sheet of paper/poster board, or even a white bed sheet.

[dge467]

Those V Dubs are sweet looking!