elder_basilisk
Sergeant
410 Posts
    
 | | 01/18/2006 8:00 PM |
| | I've started taking pictures of a couple of my projects (right now, basing and touch-up on a weretiger and abyssal eviscerator, a hobgoblin impaler to human in fullplate conversion, and a sting of Lolth to rapier-wielding surface elf repaint). I've found that they don't seem to come out nearly as well as a lot of the pictures I see here. What kind of lighting setup do you all use to clearly illuminate the mini without washing out one side and shadowing the other? | |
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smithmeg
Sergeant
508 Posts
| | 01/18/2006 9:01 PM |
| I take my photos outside, but out of direct sunlight (usually just on my front steps). This option is the cheapest (and for me, the easiest), but means I usually have to wait to take photos.
I'll let other people talk about the more high-tech solutions (lights running on electricity for example [:)]).
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elder_basilisk
Sergeant
410 Posts
| | 01/18/2006 9:04 PM |
| | I presume you take them without a flash too. I've found that the flash usually makes my pictures worse by creating glare or flattening the image. | |
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smithmeg
Sergeant
508 Posts
| | 01/18/2006 9:26 PM |
| Correct, flash is bad - it washes out any highlighting or shading you've done, and can create glare, and bad shadows. (If you have to use it, you can lessen the effect by covering the flash with some thin white material).
Even if it's a bit too dark, it's probably better to take the photo without flash (using a tripod if you can't hold the camera still enough), and then brighten it up in an image editing program. Most of them have some sort of automatic 'fix the brightness' type function that might help. There was an article on coolminiornot recently that went into detail about how to fix images - unfortunately I'm at work, so I can't find the link for you. | | | |
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Sean-Khan
Commander
2731 Posts
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ilarue
Underboss
1259 Posts
| | 01/19/2006 1:37 PM |
| | If you don't have a tripod, you can use the camera's timer and just set the camera on something (not as good of a solution, but it works) | |
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glumag
Warlord
5968 Posts
| | 01/19/2006 3:02 PM |
| yup, the timer trick is a good one.
Tripods are a must tho...9.99 @ www.geeks.com can't get any cheaper. No flash and micro setting is great. Zoom = bad. Rather use a high dpi setting (I have a 5MP) from a distance and then zoom it in in your editor. | |
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Don
Sneak
106 Posts
| | 01/22/2006 12:37 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by elder_basilisk
... What kind of lighting setup do you all use to clearly illuminate the mini without washing out one side and shadowing the other?
If you are currently lighting your images with flash or direct light you are definitely going to feel the pain of harsh directional light. This typically results in washed out glares and deep shadows with a net effect of lost detail and time spent with photo editing software.
What you really want to shoot for is consistent diffuse lighting. Most macro photographers achieve this through a "light box" or "soft box." Photo equipment catalogs usually offer a wide range of (expensive) soft boxes (for example: http://www.ezcube.com/ ).
Luckily, for the do-it-yourselfer, they are also easily constructed out of fairly cheap materials. Really, you just need a way to support its shape and some form of translucent material. (This can be as simple as a cardboard box and tracing paper/sheet).
Here is an online article that describes how the author made his soft box with PVC pipe and a sheet. I made mine (20" cube) with thick squared dowels and tissue paper (total cost <10$).
http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent
Lastly, here is a collection of photography articles for miniature painters:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/sid/6
Hope this helps,
Don
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Lurking member since: 10/03/2003 | |
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Sean-Khan
Commander
2731 Posts
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Luisjoey
Underboss
1704 Posts
Caracas Venezuela
| | 01/23/2006 12:50 AM |
| The best option is with sunlight not very direct but with the necesary. Most cameras uses the flower format to take pictures in first plane so flash won´t work.
Electric Lights doen´t work at all, they give to much color and reduces detail.
Everything depends on your camera too, the mine is a cheap one but i managed to take good pictures.
Use tripod or solid base to take the pictures, and don´t mess to use a program like photoshop (or kind) to increase or reduce brightness or contrast. is not so hard. | |
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glumag
Warlord
5968 Posts
| | 01/23/2006 10:43 AM |
| don't mess with photoshop? haw! photoshop is one of the best programs to improve the colors and gamma of your pictutes.
Taking pictures outside, specially with lots of white in the surroundings, will saturate with UV rays and without a filter it will show. Gotta be careful or use a picture editing program to get rid of that. | |
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elder_basilisk
Sergeant
410 Posts
| | 01/23/2006 2:31 PM |
| quote:
Originally posted by Sean-Khan
quote:
Originally posted by ilarue
If you don't have a tripod, you can use the camera's timer and just set the camera on something (not as good of a solution, but it works)
I also use often timer WITH the tripod. Pressing the button may move the camera a little, so especially if light is dark or I'm using zoom straight shooting may cause blurring.
I remember when I was in college, the photographers would attach the trigger to their cameras with a wire when they were doing cast or publicity shoots for theatre productions. Probably the same principle. But using the timer sounds like a good, cheap, and low effort alternative if I'm willing to take longer shooting my minis. | |
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