Miniature Photography

Here is a link that taught me all about digital photography

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/101

can you repost here for the "workingman"?

I finally paint something and I can't get a decent pic grrrrrr.

Heya, kid.

How are you setting up for your shots?

Borrowed from the photo tutorial at the link above....hope the author of this awesome article doesnt mind.

Hello Everybody. I've seen a lot of good pictures on here, but even more bad ones. Based on the Forums, most people have, or are about to have, a digital camera. This article will go over the basics of taking good pictures. We'll start with the setup, then with lighting. After that, we'll go over post production work, with things like brightness/contrast and sharpening. This article assumes you have a digital camera, and have read the manual. Please don't email me asking how to set your auto timer, as I don't know for every single digicam out there.

First off, use a camera. Scanned miniatures look HORRIBLE. You can get a decent camera for only $100 US, which isn't a lot of money. Your pictures will look a LOT better, trust me.


The Setup






This is what I use to take my pictures, nothing fancy. I place a piece of posterboard up against a shelf, and curve it so it comes down to the table top. This is called a sweep. I do it with white posterboard, but any color can be used. I've got some lights to either side, and most importantly, a tripod.

You *can* take good pictures with regular household lights. They don't HAVE to look all yellowy and ugly. We'll just balance the color properly after we take the picture. The tripod is important for this. With regular lights, you'll have long shutter speeds. Don't use the camera's flash, that will make for some hideous pix. My shutter speeds are normally about 1 to 1/2 seconds. It's impossible to hold the camera perfectly still by hand, for that long, so you need a tripod. That tripod in the pic cost only 27.99 US at Wal-Mart, so it's not an expensive proposition.


Setting Camera For the Scene


All cameras try to "read" a scene and determine how much light it has. However, the camera's system is easily fooled, especially with a white background. So, instead of auto mode, we're going to use the camera's manual mode. All cameras have a metering system, that it uses to read the correct amount of light. Set the camera up, on the tripod, so that the white background fills the viewfinder or LCD screen. If the camera has a real-time LCD, use it. With the camera set on Manual, adjust the settings so that it reads TWO STOPS over exposed. Read your manual to find out how to do this. Most cameras have three things to adjust : ISO, Aperture, and Shutter. Set the ISO at the lowest possible number, normally 100. This will make your images clean and noisefree. Set aperture at the highest you can, like 16 or 22. This will make your image sharp thru-out. We've all seen those pix where the guys sword is in focus, but the rest of the mini is blurred, high aperture will prevent that. With most of the digicams out there, you might not even need to go that high. Experiment to see what you get. Finally, adjust your shutter speed up or down to get the exposure to read 2 stops over. Some cameras will only let you set it so high, like say 5 seconds, and not any longer. If that's the case, add more lights, or try lowering the aperture.

Speaking of lights, how should they be set up? I try to have at least two; an overhead light and a light to the side of the camera. If you can set up your shot near a window, do that. A north facing window will give you perfect lighting. We want to avoid shadows. Even a small shadow on the mini will come out harsh and black in the picture. Try to avoid having any shadows cast onto the backgroun.

Ok, now it's time to take the picture. Set the mini in front of the camera, and make sure it's in focus. Manual focus, if you've got it, is your best bet. I make sure the eyes are in focus, as the face is what ppl will notice. Instead of just mashing the button, set your camera on auto timer. Almost all cameras have this option, so you can set it up, run around in front, and try to take a picture of yourself. We're going to use it for something different. With our long shutter speed, any kind of vibration is going to make the pic come out blurry. By using the timer, we're not touching the camera when it goes off, so no blurriness. Just press the button, step back, and wait till it's done.

View the picture on the LCD screen, and determine if it's bright enough, or too bright. The mini is what we're concerned about, not the background. If it's too dark, make your shutter speed longer by a click, and try again. If it's too bright, shorten the shutter speed. Adjust as needed till you get a decent result. If you read the meter properly, you shouldn't have to make too many adjustments. If you can't make it perfect, it's better to be too dark then too light.

Yuck . . . ugly yellow pictures! How can we fix it? The best way is to do it IN The camera. Almost all cameras have a white balance setting. The human eye adapts to different light sources almost immediately. A greenish flourescent light looks normal, just like a yellow incandescent bulb, or the blue sunlight. Cameras don't adapt, they assume everything is sunlight unless you tell it otherwise. So, we'll tell it otherwise.

My camera lets me take a picture of something that's pure white, then set the white balance to match that. So, I just take a picture of the background, and set that as my white balance. This is called Custom White Balance. Or, adjust the dial on the camera to read "Incandescent" for regular household bulbs. The other settings should be self explanatory, like flourescent, etc. Custom works best, but it's not available on every single camera. The other options should work on almost every camera.

Digital cameras also let you set things like sharpness, contrast, and saturation. Keep sharpness turned as low as possible (or off), and contrast as low as possible. Saturation is a personal thing. Saturation refers to how colorful your colors look. Is it "blah red" or RED. I like mine pretty high, but again, it's up to you. I like to keep contrast and sharpness low, and adjust it as needed later.



This is as far as i take the pics...the next steps involve difficult software like Photoshop so i stop here. :)

Pinky Narfanek wrote:

Heya, kid.

How are you setting up for your shots?

macro mode
~18" from mini
white background
flash off (abient room lighting w/ direct light from reading lamp)
result:


one thing I don't have is a tripod... I put the camera on a book. I think I'll use the timer next time and that should help.

You can find a half-way decent tripod at stores like Target and Wal*Mart for about $20. I picked up one that has telescoping legs that go from ~4" to ~8". Unfortunately, they don't adjust inbetween those lenghts, but I can tweak that wilh books, etc.

You also might find that if you tweak the ISO speed (say boosting it up to 400 or even 800). That will cut down on the amount of fine detail, but it gives the advantage as far as fighting the shakes goes.

I'd also look to see if you can adjust your white balance. That will help the way the colors look.

I hope some of that helps.