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Im at the stage where i want to photograph my army and post it for my fellow dakka's to see. But bad news for me is that my digital camera is having a bit of trouble focusing on my army on display. Anyone got some tips on how i might be able to get a few good pics. Anything such as lighting tips, distance/zoom ratio backdrops that might help.

Does your camera have a macro mode? If not, buy a new camera.

Any other recomendations?

That is pretty much all you can do, if you can't get a good close up on your camera, (either with or without Macro) there probably isn't anything you can do about it....

You may or may not have tried just sitting it on the table or something, and pressing the button, rather than holding it...But when i tired doing that once, it didn't help (although my camera was replaced after that, it wasn't very good )

A single picture of an whole army display is difficult anyway because the relative distance between the closest and the furthest models is very large. I've never been successful in making a good army photo, though single models/squads are no problem.

If you have a camera stand then use that, the last thing you want to happen is your hand to shake and to get a blurry picture, you can also set a timer in the camera as well so you can press the button and 5 seconds later (again no shaking)

Macro mode is also important as it allows the camera to focus on your mini

Flash: don't use it, natural light is much much better. Take your pictures during the day in a well lit room. Might be worth investing in a natural light lamp or getting some natural light bulbs from your local hardware store if you want to get really good pictures

OK Cool. Thanks for the tips.

I have found that with a middle of the road digital, I get better pictures when I pull back from the subject then use the zoom to fill the image space, I have better luck focusing and the definition seems better.

For Dakkaites with point and shoot cameras: Switch to manual mode (or adjust settings as needed).

ISO 100 (or the lowest you can go, this will reduce noise in the image)
Flash: Off
F stop (or depth of field): f/22 or what ever the max your camera will go to
^^For photographing an army^^
Now, break out your tripod, or at ghetto rig one with books or something and press the shutter release button. Depending on your lighting / camera, there is a very good chance this image will be 5 seconds plus. You can't hand hold a camera shooting that slow! Use a tripod.

As far as photographing an individual model:
ISO: 100
F stop: f/2.8 (or what ever the lowest number you can go to at a given focal length)
Get as close as you can to the model while its still in focus, and rig up your tripod. The exposure (light dependant) will be somewhere around 1/250 or 1/400. You can hand hold at this speeds, but if your going for perfection, don't. Also, at f/2.8, your going to have an extremely shallow depth of field. Be sure to have a neutral background behind the model, so it will 'pop'.

I'd also highly recommend an entry level DSLR, they are cheap enough now a days.

Just my 2 cents.

-Adam

Read vent's tutorial - it really helped me

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/317430.page

Chances are your digi cam does have a macro setting, it can be a bit tricky to find though.

Does your camera have an optical zoom? Another camera I had didn't and I couldn't get it to focus.

Hmm i too have alot of trouble with taking photos. I would suggest trying everything with your camera first. Out of twenty or so pictures i can normally get one or two worth keeping. I would recommend using the lcd rather than the dvf, i find it helps alot not having to peer into the vf.

The macro setting looks like a little flower. If you can't get the macro to work stand the camera abot two/three metres away and use the zoom, the camera focuses better i find, of course the detail is gonna be less but thats okay for the web.

sk82712 wrote:For Dakkaites with point and shoot cameras: Switch to manual mode (or adjust settings as needed).

ISO 100 (or the lowest you can go, this will reduce noise in the image)
Flash: Off
F stop (or depth of field): f/22 or what ever the max your camera will go to
^^For photographing an army^^
Now, break out your tripod, or at ghetto rig one with books or something and press the shutter release button. Depending on your lighting / camera, there is a very good chance this image will be 5 seconds plus. You can't hand hold a camera shooting that slow! Use a tripod.

As far as photographing an individual model:
ISO: 100
F stop: f/2.8 (or what ever the lowest number you can go to at a given focal length)
Get as close as you can to the model while its still in focus, and rig up your tripod. The exposure (light dependant) will be somewhere around 1/250 or 1/400. You can hand hold at this speeds, but if your going for perfection, don't. Also, at f/2.8, your going to have an extremely shallow depth of field. Be sure to have a neutral background behind the model, so it will 'pop'.

I'd also highly recommend an entry level DSLR, they are cheap enough now a days.

Just my 2 cents.

-Adam

That is some of the best, precise and to-the-point help anybody can ask for.

Kids, take note. This is the information you need once you move beyond taking pictures in your window sill when the weather is good. This is what you need once you build a light-box because you want to be able to consistently take good pictures.

Thanks again.

PS. The only thing missing is something about shutter-speed (or is that the exposure bit?). Any chance?

Sk8, thanks for posting those tips. I'll be sure to take note of these settings and give them a shot next time I take shots of my models. Steelmage brings up a good point too with a lightbox. You can find some great tutorials via google search on creating a lightbox.

Steelmage99 wrote:

sk82712 wrote:For Dakkaites with point and shoot cameras: Switch to manual mode (or adjust settings as needed).

ISO 100 (or the lowest you can go, this will reduce noise in the image)
Flash: Off
F stop (or depth of field): f/22 or what ever the max your camera will go to
^^For photographing an army^^
Now, break out your tripod, or at ghetto rig one with books or something and press the shutter release button. Depending on your lighting / camera, there is a very good chance this image will be 5 seconds plus. You can't hand hold a camera shooting that slow! Use a tripod.

As far as photographing an individual model:
ISO: 100
F stop: f/2.8 (or what ever the lowest number you can go to at a given focal length)
Get as close as you can to the model while its still in focus, and rig up your tripod. The exposure (light dependant) will be somewhere around 1/250 or 1/400. You can hand hold at this speeds, but if your going for perfection, don't. Also, at f/2.8, your going to have an extremely shallow depth of field. Be sure to have a neutral background behind the model, so it will 'pop'.

I'd also highly recommend an entry level DSLR, they are cheap enough now a days.

Just my 2 cents.

-Adam

That is some of the best, precise and to-the-point help anybody can ask for.

Kids, take note. This is the information you need once you move beyond taking pictures in your window sill when the weather is good. This is what you need once you build a light-box because you want to be able to consistently take good pictures.

Thanks again.

PS. The only thing missing is something about shutter-speed (or is that the exposure bit?). Any chance?

Thanks

As far as shutter speeds, it's literally going to come down to playing with it until it's properly exposed..Unless you can send me light metered off the model in Lux. Haha.

I actually forgot to include that, but a lot of newer cameras might have options to set it into 'aperture priority' or AV (on Canons), in which case, the camera will measure the light and adjust the shutter speed automatically.

Below is a picture i shot using the individual model rules above. Granted, I have a softbox camera right and quite a bit of experience with photography..But, similar results are easily attainable. Please forgive my horrible painting and the JPEG compression :-/

EXIF:

1/160 @ f/6.3 5D mk II and 70-200 f/2.8 L IS (I think I had ISO set to auto for some strange reason, but super low noise on the Mk II, so it doesn't matter. Also, f/6.3 still wasn't quite enough as the whip is still out of focus, but I had to do it to compensate for too much light)
580exII camera right @ 1/16th through a 28" softbox

-Adam

EDIT: As far as building your own softbox, if it's something your going to use a lot...Just pony up the $30 or $40 and buy a cheap chinese knock off with stand off Amazon. My lightbox has performed exactly how I want it, and it's a cheap Chinese knock off...Same goes for my beauty dish, but that's besides the point and another topic entirely.