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This better? Sorry i just point n' shoot with the camera.

 Perkustin wrote:
This better? Sorry i just point n' shoot with the camera.

Much, much better. Very good work on that model.

So much better I Exalted it!

Much better!

Photography is a topic that I used to know more about back in high school (where I contributed to the yearbook, developed film in the dark room, and worked a mostly manual film camera). I’ve forgotten most of it. With modern cameras you don’t need to play with chemicals or wonder what a F-stop is. Not that you can’t mess with the settings to get some cool effects, but it’s not required.

Mostly when mini painters talk about photography, we just stick to the basics. Lots of diffuse light, make sure your camera is braced on something. But there is a TON more aspects that can be looked at. How to crop a pic to make sure the model is set up the best. Which is the best side? Best angle? If you are doing a collage, how do you want the eye to flow across it?

I’m no expert. It’s a whole field of study I just dabble in and think about as an amateur. But since we can’t all get together and put our entries on a table an walk around looking at all of them, it’s how we present our work.

Advice from folks on these challenges improved my mini photography by leaps and bounds.
I’ll second what Nevelon said. Light bouncing off your subject into your camera is fundamentally what creates your image so you need lots of it but it should be diffuse so that your image isn’t washed out or doesn’t get too much glare.
Camera on a stable surface is best too, if you are holding your camera or triggering it manually, it will shake and your image will be blurry. If you don’t have a remote of some sort, use a timer so that it has a few seconds to stabilize before the image gets taken.
And yes, for the love of all that is fine and good with this world, crop your image at least such that you don’t see the edges of the paper you’re using for your background.

Just to add to the conversation, I have an A-level in photography, some reasonably expensive equipment and software and I still just use my iPhone because putting it all together is just more hassle than using the diffused bathroom light and shower curtain for a background. My pics are adequate and allow me to take part and i’m content with that.

 theCrowe wrote:
Just to add to the conversation, I have an A-level in photography, some reasonably expensive equipment and software and I still just use my iPhone because putting it all together is just more hassle than using the diffused bathroom light and shower curtain for a background. My pics are adequate and allow me to take part and i’m content with that.

Sounds like my life atm, built a photostudio/lightbox from scratch, got two big lamps for it that have true-light bulbs..

And currently prefer to photograph through my loop with circle led, because it looks better.

Don't own a(ny kind of) phone so best I can do is photography with my Samsung Camera.

Just a quick reminder that we are running out of month. Get those last highlights down and break out the camera!

If anyone needs a little extra time, give a shout.

When a particularly dangerous foe (or a member of the elusive Fallen) is encountered by the Dark Angels Chapter, they send in their First Company, the Deathwing, to resolve the threat by any means necessary. Here are my final pics of a squad of Deathwing Terminators:



Nothing too impressive here, so I don't expect a ton of votes, but I'm satisfied with them and they'll look great on the tabletop. They'll look a bit stunted next to the upcoming 10th edition guys, but that can't be helped (these guys have more bling than the new guys for sure though!). I had fun working on them, and it's nice to be back to painting Dark Angels again in earnest.

Do we know what next month is? Did I miss the memo?

Next month is all DOOM no gloom!

Doomsday: The end is nigh! Whether a crazed cultist prophesising the end of the world, or a vicious warlock ready to commit such acts themselves, your entry should be themed around an apocalpytic event, either one to come, one that has already happened or one that will occur as soon as your entry opens fire!

Oh well. Given that Carnevale is a post apocalyptic fantasy and I have a MOUNTAIN of guild to paint that should work then

 Nevelon wrote:
Just a quick reminder that we are running out of month. Get those last highlights down and break out the camera!

If anyone needs a little extra time, give a shout.

I should get the models finished today, but could do with an extra day to get the photos done please!

Finally giving in and painting astartes for this challenge. Wanted to do some space gnoll gunmen, but just ran out of gas, and the Tyr hovertanks I did Tuesday I can't find hex bases for.

So, proof pic:

And finals:

I've finished a grand total of one solitary primaris infiltrator. There's no way I'm going to get any of his buddies done now, so that'll be the sum total of my painting effort this month... Just waiting for the basing stuff to dry, so I'll take pics later on today.

I had planned on doing five berserkers but only managed four this month. I'll be posting photos of the quartet later today.

A lot of sweet work going on here….

I'd planned on finishing 10 terminators this month


but only managed three




Had some trouble with a final contrast wash (lots of medium with skeleton horde and a little brown) ending up very shiny, not sure why, though I think I recall this happening before when not shaking the pot enough before use? Anyone else find this happens? So I tried fixing it using a pot of GW varnish (Stormshield) that their website describes as matt - made the finish even shinier! Again, not sure what I did wrong - applied too thick maybe? Or does it just take a long time to properly cure (though it was left over a day)? Finally sort of fixed it with a coat of Lahmian medium but not ideal

Here's my entry:



One primaris infiltrator of the Raven Guard chapter, sneaking through the stark white snow in broad daylight, yet still somehow managing to remain unseen...

I had a load of other Raven Guard to paint for a kill team (old kill team), but didn't get anywhere near most of them. Still, I'm quite happy I got this one done, as I only started him four days ago...

Good luck to everyone! The space marine month certainly seems to have brought an additional load of highly talented painters out of the woodwork!

We’ve had a request for extra time, so I’ll leave this open for an extra day, closing it up Sunday morning, eastern time. Next month will still open tomorrow.

Human Renegades

I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this freehand, but it's good to go outside of one's comfort zone, right?











This next one isn't part of my entry, just a size comparison for everyone's amusement. A Horus Heresy Mk7 Marine next to a C100 Space Marine like JoshInJapan entered. Scale creep is real, folks!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Having been knocked out with Covid AGAIN
.

Hope you are feeling better now

Heres my finished models and photos, managed to get pretty much done in time for once.

Knights Sanguine Assault Marines

 Pariah Press wrote:
Human Renegades

I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this freehand, but it's good to go outside of one's comfort zone, right?











This next one isn't part of my entry, just a size comparison for everyone's amusement. A Horus Heresy Mk7 Marine next to a C100 Space Marine like JoshInJapan entered. Scale creep is real, folks!

It looks like we're having a Renegade-off!

Angels of Redemption

Here's my entry

Maharg wrote:
Had some trouble with a final contrast wash (lots of medium with skeleton horde and a little brown) ending up very shiny, not sure why, though I think I recall this happening before when not shaking the pot enough before use? Anyone else find this happens? So I tried fixing it using a pot of GW varnish (Stormshield) that their website describes as matt - made the finish even shinier! Again, not sure what I did wrong - applied too thick maybe? Or does it just take a long time to properly cure (though it was left over a day)? Finally sort of fixed it with a coat of Lahmian medium but not ideal

I can't say if you had the same problem as I did, but my entry also came out shiny after I broke open a new bottle of matte varnish. I'm fairly confident that I didn't shake it well enough,even though I thought I did, and fixed it with the remains of what was left in my old bottle (which I thought wasn't enough, but I got lucky). Matte varnish definitely can separate to the point where if there's not enough matte agent in the medium, it can turn out shiny.

I have no experience with GW varnish, so I can't say if this will work, but I intend to give mine repeated two or three minute shakes. Do that four or five times over the course of an hour and I should be good. You may find the same to be true of your varnish. In my experience (which I totally didn't remember myself this time around...) it's a problem if the varnish sits unused for too long, either because it's new or you took a break of several months.

Thickness shouldn't be an issue. Matte varnish should appear matter and cloudier with thickness, not shinier.

No idea about the original problem, though. I only use Contrast straight from the pot or diluted with water, and I've never seen it come out shiny.

The end is neigh! Prepare to meet your Doom!!!

...In next month’s exciting challenge.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/809523.page

We have an extension on this one, so going to leave it open for about another 24 hours from this post. So finish the old and start the new. If not the Pile of Shame will crush us all.

 Nevelon wrote:
The end is neigh! Prepare to meet your Doom!!!

Is that a four horsemen quip?

 CancelledApocalypse wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
The end is neigh! Prepare to meet your Doom!!!

Is that a four horsemen quip?

If it made you laugh it was.

But a more probable reason was me trying to do this while the coffee was still brewing and not having enough energy/motivation to figure out the correct spelling of nigh.

 Nevelon wrote:

 CancelledApocalypse wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
The end is neigh! Prepare to meet your Doom!!!

Is that a four horsemen quip?

If it made you laugh it was.

But a more probable reason was me trying to do this while the coffee was still brewing and not having enough energy/motivation to figure out the correct spelling of nigh.

It did, so yes.