Grans Falklands Figures etc

[Gran76]

Thought i might have my own place for posting my pics and then i can compare how my camera work is progressing







SORRY FOR ANY MISTAKES WITH MY PIC UPLOADS 

[Techno]

Hi Gran..

Are you 'shooting' against a white background ?

If you have your camera set to 'auto exposure'....It will try and compensate for the white by underexposing the entire picture, because it 'wants' to see everything as a  neutral 'grey' shade......With a predominately white background underexposure will almost always be the case.

You can either cheat (like I do) by changing either the white and black point on your PC's photo program, to lighten everything...OR...If your camera has the facility....Fool it by 'telling it' that you're taking a shot with a snowy background....In which case it should compensate exposure wise.

Hope that might help !

Cheers - Phil (From what I can see....they look damn fine !)

[fred.]

The figures look promising, but as Phil says the white background is causing problems.

if you can't force the camera to compensate for the white background - then its often easier to avoid the problem by shooting against something else. A graduate blue background is quite popular - and there are several available on the web that you can print off. Or put them on a gaming table.

Or go for my idea - find an appropriate background on the internet, display full sized on your computer. Position the figures infront of the screen - probably using some sort of stand. Then photograph against that background.

Here's my rickety looking setup.


A bit of flock on the bit of wood improves things hugely


Shot from the right angle

[Techno]

A damn fine answer and idea Fred !

The other thing you might be able to try (and here I AM guessing that the background IS white).....Is to use your camera on a manual setting.....
For this you're almost certainly going to need a tripod to stop 'camera shake' as the exposure will be relatively long.

Set up your camera (on manual) and lighting, with the camera's depth of field set as high as it will go.
Now, take a light reading from the camera on your hand which should be positioned at the point where you're going to place the models.
Believe it or not the flesh colour of your 'skin' is a fairly neutral shade.
Just as an example....Let's imagine your camera gives you the figures 2 seconds at f.stop 22.
Now lock those figures into the camera, so it takes your shot as specified.

When you take away your hand and put the figures in place, your camera will possibly (probably) tell you that the shot will be well overexposed.....Ignore it, and take the picture.....As I say, use a tripod for this...There's no way you'll hand hold the camera steady enough to stop camera shake for anything over (perhaps) a thirtieth of a second....Use the camera's self timer for the photo, and leave it to take the shot 'on its own'.

I'll admit I don't go to the trouble of doing this, because I'm trying to be as fast as possible, which is why I 'fiddle about' with the white and black points almost every time.

I hope the above makes some sort of sense....I know what I'm trying to say...But I'm not sure if I've explained it clearly enough.

Cheers - Phil.

[Gran76]

Thanks for the advice guys much appreciated