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[Video] 5 tips to improve your miniature photography  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in us
Dakka Veteran






Western Massachusetts



   
Made in us
The Marine Standing Behind Marneus Calgar





Upstate, New York

Good, solid, basic advice.

   
Made in us
Newbie Black Templar Neophyte




Rio Rancho, NM

Good ideas, thank you! Appreciate the effort!!

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Bill

Bill

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Blog = http://billsravingrant.blogspot.com/ 
   
Made in gr
Basecoated Black





Athens, Greece

Clean you lens ..... Yes of course very cleaver! The most common problem that almost all forget!
Thanks for the video

You can always visit my blog - http://greekminiatures.blogspot.com - Epic miniatures, terrain, tutorials
Also Youtube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/TheKostasiii 
   
Made in us
Yeoman Warden with a Longbow




Italy

thanks for the tips. I always seem to have one of those 5 things against me while I'm trying to take pictures. I think this will help improve my shots. Thanks for sharing!

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Made in au
Grizzled Space Wolves Great Wolf





Cool video, I did skip through it so maybe you covered it and I missed it, but I think an important thing is to NOT use either a very dark (like black) or very light (like white) background as it almost always buggers up the auto exposure of phone or point and shoot cameras. Almost all photos I see where someone has used a white background the model ends up under exposed, and over exposed if they used a black (or very dark) background.

Also the colour of the background affecting the model. If you want the model to look most like it does in real life, a colourless (like mottled grey) background works best. That's something I always mess up with my photos because I'm too lazy to get a proper background and my desk is yellowish so most my pictures the model itself ends up looking like it has a yellowish tinge when in reality it doesn't.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran






Western Massachusetts

I did mention the problems with using white and black but didn't get into specific details (just suggesting a nice blue). Backgrounds are a subject that I want to cover in detail.

Of course, I normally use either white or black...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/03/29 15:41:23


   
Made in au
Grizzled Space Wolves Great Wolf





How do you deal with the exposure? Any time I try and use either black or white backgrounds, it just messes up the exposure. The model ends up too bright if there's a black background and too dark if there's a white background, you see tons of images online where people have done the same thing, used a white background to make the background consistent but you can't see the model because it's under-exposed.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/03/31 04:26:05


 
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran






Western Massachusetts

Well, the easy answer is "don't use white or black backgrounds if you don't have manual controls for your camera."

The problem is that your camera's light sensor is usually reading the entire area that your photographing and making a best guess as to what exposure to use. Some cameras are better at guessing than others, but you make it harder for them to make that guess when half of your image is either way darker or lighter than the miniature itself.

My old phone's software would give me the option to adjust the exposure by a couple of stops to offset the problems that this would cause, but this wouldn't always be enough. My new phone doesn't even give me that much control.

Of course, I tend to only use my phone for shooting quick WIP shots. It's fine for that. For set up shots with a background I use my DSLR. When I use that then I will use a grey card (http://amzn.to/1gl6VIQ) to help me determine what exposure to set.

if you don't have that luxury, then use a background that isn't white or black. You can have kind of the best of both worlds by using a mottled background like this guy uses in his photos - http://g714.wix.com/painted-by-g-2?ref=nf#!40k/albumphotos4=0

You can find images of these kinds of backgrounds that you can just print yourself. Do a search for Muslin Photo Backdrops and you'll get an idea of what I mean. Find one you like (use the higher-res images) and print it out on a 11x17 piece of paper (you might be able to get away with 8.5x11 but do the larger if you can).

Avoid the backgrounds with the light hotspot in the middle. You end up creating problems for yourself again if you do.

   
Made in se
Regular Dakkanaut





Some very good, solid tips in that video. Great work!

   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran






Western Massachusetts

Thanks. I'm planning to do another video like this one soon and then, hopefully, dive into some more detailed tutorials.

   
Made in us
Death-Dealing Dark Angels Devastator





Western Massachusetts

Thanks for this video, Looking forward to seeing more on this subject. I think a lot of us have pretty nicely painted miniatures, and then we photograph them and it just doesn't translate.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran






Western Massachusetts

 frozenmilk wrote:
Thanks for this video, Looking forward to seeing more on this subject. I think a lot of us have pretty nicely painted miniatures, and then we photograph them and it just doesn't translate.


I'm going to try to shoot another video tomorrow.

   
 
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