Pendraken Painting Competition 2023!

[mollinary]

Federico, you are too kind. Your technique works beautifully, and your excellent painting is shown off to very good effect by it. My point was really that with a good bit of kit much of the work is done for you. My iPad  seems equally at home taking close up pictures of tiny figures, or panoramic holiday photos of ancient temples or battlefields. I wouldn't be without it. 

[Federico]

Thank you Mollinary. 
We indeed can take advantage of some technological wonders (devilries!) and with a little effort get some pretty good results. I agree with you and my point was really to encourage not to be intimidated by chunky manuals, it's easier than it seems.

[Federico]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/03/06/the-model-photo-how-to-photograph-models-for-display/

These are really good tips! 

[mollinary]

Thank you Mollinary. 
We indeed can take advantage of some technological wonders (devilries!) and with a little effort get some pretty good results. I agree with you and my point was really to encourage not to be intimidated by chunky manuals, it's easier than it seems.

Yes, we are violently agreeing!  The digital age makes it so much easier to experiment at no extra cost - we don't have to wait until our snaps have been developed before finding out if we need to do it again. We can take a few photographs, look at them, delete the ones we don't like, change the setup to try and improve things, and take a few more. And the iPad allows you to edit, if you need to, and change the lighting and colour balance.  No need this year, but it is fun and easy!  What's not to like! 

[fsn]

I'm not sure which is worse, my painting or my photography. 

I gave up using an SLR a while ago, and am just getting used to a new phone. I actually learned quite a bit taking the photos for the comp. 

I do have a problem in my games room. The colour balance is all off. I'm not sure if it's the colour of the walls that muck up the balance, the rather weird chemical-infused air of Runcorn, or just a malevolent spirit (by which I don't mean this low budget Scotch.) 

[pierre the shy]

I'm not sure which is worse, my painting or my photography. 

I gave up using an SLR a while ago, and am just getting used to a new phone. I actually learned quite a bit taking the photos for the comp. 

I do have a problem in my games room. The colour balance is all off. I'm not sure if it's the colour of the walls that muck up the balance, the rather weird chemical-infused air of Runcorn, or just a malevolent spirit (by which I don't mean this low budget Scotch.)

Did you go from the SLR to full auto settings on your phone cam, or do you play with the phone cam settings manually? 

[fred.]

I've found that my, admittedly ancient, iPad isn't up to getting the close ups sharp.  I do have a "proper" DSLR camera which I used for work but have never got to grips with the correct settings for macro work.  Sounds like I have to get on that learning curve

You won't need a true macro setting on a DSLR for taking pictures of wargames figures. Macro is used for things like pictures of coins or similar. You get very little depth of field, and really close up shots (and I mean really close up, which would just show you the head of a figure, and really blow that up to something far to big, given the size of the original.


With a DSLR the key thing to know is the minimum focal distance of the lens, IIRC for my zoom lens its near a metre, but for a 50mm lens its around 50cm. So you need to be at leat this far away. Generally you don't need to fill the frame with the figures - if you are a bit further away you get better depth of field, and can just crop in with the image editing software.

Light is key - decent levels of light to start with, and it helps to reflect some light up onto the figures - a piece of white card will work for this.

[fsn]

Did you go from the SLR to full auto settings on your phone cam, or do you play with the phone cam settings manually? 

I've just started playing with the phone settings. Like I say it's a new phone, and I've just worked out the basics.

I've also sorted out a set up where I can stand the phone against a box and take the photo using the timer.

It is a learning life! 

[mollinary]

For a painting competition online it is great for people to share photography tips, to help level the playing field, so we can all focus on the purpose of the competition. That is, celebrating folks' amazing painting skills  on these amazing little sculpts! 

[The Baron]

For a painting competition online it is great for people to share photography tips, to help level the playing field...

Plus those people who don't "engage" with the community might find themselves slightly disadvantaged (Evilly laughs...muhahahahahahaha).  

[Federico]

For a painting competition online it is great for people to share photography tips, to help level the playing field, so we can all focus on the purpose of the competition. That is, celebrating folks' amazing painting skills  on these amazing little sculpts!

This! 

[Leon]

It's incredibly close in some of the categories this year!  Two of them are a dead tie for 1st place currently, with another one only having 1 vote between 1st and 2nd place.  Only 2 days of voting left before we unveil the winners...

[Steve J]

Of you tease ! I like the tension of awaiting the final results, rather than previous years where you could see who had accrued votes or not as the case maybe. Somehow I don't feel my efforts are vying for the top spots .

[The Baron]

Of you tease ! I like the tension of awaiting the final results, rather than previous years where you could see who had accrued votes or not as the case maybe. Somehow I don't feel my efforts are vying for the top spots .

I really liked your Imaginations Brigade and your "big cats" in the vehicles so you never know

[Steve J]

Thanks Baron! I just hoped you registered multiple new accounts so you could vote multiple times to boost my numbers   .