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I’ve been painting vashtorr and really enjoying it and it’s partly because I’m getting better at painting and I think I’m going to really like the final result. So I’ve been photographing stages of the process for posterity and for a learning aid for later. But some of the stuff that looks great to my eyes doesn’t look as good in the photo and and some of the stuff I want to work on more looks great on the photo. Using my iPhone 13 max for photos.

So considering that a lot of people in the hobby share photos of their work on site like this is the camera the final judge of your work? Is it possible to get you eye and the camera to see the same thing?

Yes and no, but mostly yes.

We can only judge what we see. If you have bad photos, it doesn’t mater how good your paint is. And the zoom lens shows all the flaws

That said, you can use pictures to show off the mini. Does it have a bad side? Don’t share that picture.

There are definitely occasions where the camera won't quite catch what the eye is seeing. If you have a particularly intense colour scheme then your smartphone is going to try and auto adjust the colour. But these things can be worked around most of the time. Practice, good lighting and a little photo editing knowledge will make your photos look even better.

I'd say that, in our internet age, that photos are the most prevalent means to share your work. So yeah, good photography will certainly give you the advantage when seeking out that sweet sweet validation.

How you photograph does make a pretty huge difference. You need to control the light on the model most of all. It can’t be overwhelmingly bright light, it can’t be light from 100% just one direction, it can’t be too dark.

A plain clear background helps too.

I’ve found that my best pictures come from a light box with pretty low brightness, but I know that optimally you have a bit more light coming from the front vs the back and sides.

If you're sharing via pictures, then yes.
If you're sharing via showing the actual models in-person, then no.

And really, the important thing is you enjoy your hobby. Whatever that means to you.

There is no 'final' arbiter for me, as I'm always strive to improve, but it is a 'final' step to check your progress, from time to time I catch something I missed. Certain images don't age well as I improve, so I either sell or paint stripe them for redo.

Today's hi-res cameras capture more detail than the human brain can easily recognize, through the eyes. The eyes convert light to nerve impulses, but "seeing" takes place solely within the brain.

I've noticed that my mini's look like crap in the digital photos captured by my 12+ MP phone camera, but to my eyes, at arm's length, they look great.

I view my figures, 98% of the time, at arm's length, or farther. At that distance, they look great. When I hold them two inches from my eyes, they don't look so great.

For that reason, I paint for the 98%: it is fast, simple, and I get more joy out of gaming than I do out of painting.

I've got 1,200+ figures in my fantasy armies, 800+ of which were painted by me, using simple block painting, followed by The Dip Technique, brushed on. I wanted to get them painted, and table ready, ASAP. I knew what I was doing, and why. I chose my compromises, and I am happy with my decisions.

My last game had 10 players, with me ref'ing. I fielded 800 figures, while one of my friends supplied another 200. His figures are superbly painted, putting mine to shame, at two inches from the eye. On the tabletop, mine looked fine.

At the end of the game, all 10 players asked to be invited to the next game. Obviously, my painting did not scare anyone away!

The camera has its disadvantages over the Human eye. Just know what you want, and go for it. You have to please yourself, first, then worry about others. Cheers!

I don't own a smartphone and my best camera is a fujifilm finepix zoom type, but I did set up a double lighting rig (two big photography lighting setups, one a ring and the other adjustable rods) so have evolved my picture making a lot.

Then again, it will never look as good in a picture as it does for my eyes, because a picture is a static from an angle and our eyes not only bend slightly around but we're not entirely still standing so you'll always have a bit of a moving picture rather than a static one.
This is also why I've been recording and uploading rotational vids to my picture thread because static images never do my mini's justice.

Depends on the camera.

Phone camera with generic indoor lighting (or, god help you, your phone's flash)? Definitely not. Resolution is poor, image quality is sacrificed to compensate for your shaky hands, the lighting is going to distort the colors and shading, and then the phone's software algorithms are going to try to "help" you make a better picture by adjusting it even further. You can easily have a model that looks fine IRL but terrible in a phone picture.

Professional camera with a tripod and a light box at a uniform color temperature and high CRI, viewed at an appropriate size? Far more likely to be accurate. The camera can over-emphasize edges and transitions, especially if you blow up the image to larger than the real miniature, but with a good camera and lighting setup it's usually an accurate evaluation of how the model looks IRL. And the camera will usually err on the side of being over-critical. It may reveal flaws that don't stand out on the table but it rarely creates problems that don't exist at all or covers up flaws your eyes can see. A model that looks good in photos will almost always look good IRL.

Very relevant information on how important lighting quality is, and how poor quality lighting can sabotage your images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index