Bluke
New Member
Posts: 44 
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Post by Bluke on Jul 27, 2017 12:37:10 GMT
A few people at my local club have asked me to take some photos of my 80s chao army, and I would also like to do so for myself too.
Problem is...every time I've tried to take photos they really don't come out well.
Any tips for optimum results? I've got a fairly good digital camera (nothing professional or anything, one that cost perhaps £200 a few years ago) but all the modes, exposure, lighting etc confuse me considerably. Then there's whether I photograph them in the day with natural light, where the light source is located etc.
Usually I end up taking a horrible looking picture and try to build it back to reality posthumously in Photoshop.
Any easy tips for someone with fairly basic equipment to get best results?
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Post by Horace on Jul 27, 2017 13:22:36 GMT
Make sure your camera is set to macro mode (the flower symbol) I like to make a sort of light box (some people make really excellent proper ones). I kind of cobble one together by using glossy white paper if possible just stacked up against a box on it's side. Sometimes I use one of the backdrops I have linked to below, they help the colours to pop a bit more. As for lighting it depends really, I prefer natural light but since I live in the UK really bright days are not exactly super common. If it is not light enough I aim some LEDs at it and try and minimise the shadows Here is a link for an easy to build light box, this is too much effort for me personally but if you fancy building one  z8.invisionfree.com/herdstone/index.php?showtopic=22940    |
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Bluke
New Member
Posts: 44
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Post by Bluke on Jul 27, 2017 14:23:01 GMT
Very interesting- thanks. I think I'll try experimenting with the lightbox!
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Post by mottdon on Jul 27, 2017 14:28:52 GMT
I am by no means a good photographer, but if I just want a quick photo, then I try to at least set up two good desk lamps on either side of the model, facing toward it and slightly to the front so as to eliminate as many shadows as possible. This has been good and quick for me. I don't need anything close to professional.
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Post by TheREALricksalamone on Jul 27, 2017 14:56:31 GMT
I take al of my photos with an iPhone 6 and I've heard a few people tell me they like my pics. For me it's all about lighting, as has been mentioned earlier. I have good lighting in my gaming area but when I'm about to take photos I use this 5/bulb octopus looking fixture.
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Post by Bureaucrat of Chaos on Jul 27, 2017 22:15:35 GMT
In my experience with a proper digital camera, setting the "white balance" was at least as important as lighting. I recommed Macro mode as Horace says and lighting like mottdon describes, and then setting the white balance manually against a white paper in the same lighting setup. This is an example of that method that turned out almost exactly the way I wanted (click to enlarge).  Now I'm trying to figure out how to work my phone camera, because it's so simple to upload to the imgur app. A phone camera should be good enough, but I'm not yet happy with my results. |
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Post by dannytee on Jul 30, 2017 23:43:53 GMT
I take mine with an iphone camera as well and find that putting the minis in front of white paper (so that the white paper is the background) helps a good bit.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2017 16:16:21 GMT
I take mine with an iphone camera as well and find that putting the minis in front of white paper (so that the white paper is the background) helps a good bit. Mine is taken with an iPhone camera as well. I usually just take the photo of them right on my workbench though without trying to spruce it up. A white sheet of paper is a good backdrop though! I've also used the white lids from the totes that I keep my armies in as a backdrop for pictures in the past. Here's an example:  |
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