A Tale of Four Gamers - the Sequel

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Waterfall of snot! 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Loverly 

[fred.]

I'm working on 10mm armies for Irregular Wars around the Indian Ocean.

Earlier thread discussing proxies

The Portuguese force is almost complete:
Pike, shot and native allies complete -  rodolero troops and a cannon nearing completion.

I'm making a start on Indian forces:
Elephants (for the southern empire) and Cavalry (for the Northern Sultanates) and some artillery all in progress.

After that it'll be foot soldiers - thaasans of em.


This is the point where I appeal for advice (any handy links) about photographing small minis.
Thanks for any advice.

that is a great list Steve - I'd forgotten about the idea to use LoA figures for the Gentlemen units - so it's very timely that you posted this as I was just pondering which figures to use for these. 


As to photography of figures, light is key. I get pretty good results with a fairly recent iPhone. I do have a video light that I sometimes use to add more light - around £30 from Amazon. A good simple option for WIP shots is to tilt the figures up so that the overhead light falls more on their faces/fronts. One way to do this is simply insert a small box under the mat the figures are on.  

[steve_holmes_11]

Thanks for the tip Fred.

So far I've tried shooting on "auto" with and without flash.
Sometimes flash is good, picking out colour and detail.
Sometimes flash is bad, showing the messy edges of my colour and detail.
(Shrugs)..

I will try introducing my painting light to proceedings and see whether it provides a happy medium.

The only other tip I've seen so far is to avoid a sharp edge between floor and rear wall.
Pro photographers have these things like skateboard ramps for that purpose.
I'm contemplating propping up the mat with a couple of book-ends.

[Leon]

As Fred says, lighting it the key thing for any miniature photography.  We've got a basic light box from Amazon and I play around with the camera settings depending on what I'm photo'ing. 

- For blackwashed figures I find it better to use custom settings, so I alter the white balance and then turn up the exposure to a suitable level. 
- For painted figures I've found the camera's Auto settings to be pretty good.

For both options you'll want your Macro setting turned on.  And I still have to do a bit of work in Photoshop with them afterwards, usually a bit of brightness and sometimes a bit of colour tweaking to make them pop.

Also, don't get too close to the figures either.  The image quality on most modern cameras/phones means that you can photo from 30cm-40cm away and your image shouldn't suffer from any depth issues and things being out of focus.

[fred.]

Light boxes are good - give a nice even level of light - you need to pick a size for the amount of things your are photographing. 

I'd avoid flash - it will tend to overpower due to proximity to the figures

The skateboard ramp to avoid the join between the background and table, can be easily created with a piece of paper bent at a slight angle. Also with miniatures you can put terrain behind them to hide this. 

A white background can confuse the camera's auto settings - it will tend to see too much light and therefore make the figures too dark. 

You can print out (or buy) graduated backgrounds which can be the skateboard ramp - then you get the no background join and the less harsh background colour. 

[Raider4]

There's a guide from GW, presumably written by people who do this for a living.

Phil (Techno) used to do this as well. If he's still around he might have some insights?

[Phil2]

The GW guide you've linked to, Martyn, is almost identical the method I used to use at home.(Over 30 years ago, now.)

Only real difference is that I used to use three lights.....One either side..one over the top...To try and cut any shadows down to virtually nothing.

The Studio's set up was basically the same.....Except that it was a lot more sophisticated.....And a LOT more expensive.
(£10ks worth...and that was back in 88/89.)

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Standards affixed to poles and edged. Just finials to fix and highlight.
Cavalry making progress.
Managing 45 mins before I need to go splat at the mo...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Just need to tuft 3 units of cavalry and then photograph. Then make a list for competition entries...

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

18 bases of 15mm cavalry finished apart from flags, which are on order.
Pendraken painting comp decided on.
Bits ordered from many sources to finish off things. Must be payday.
28mm mounted Knight assembled from random painting pile.
6mm Saxons for Dru about to be assembled.

Oh, and I painted a barrel..
 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

You must be feeling better then Will 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Overall, yes, but my throat is now killing...   
However, I hae undercoated, base coated and inked several hundren 6mm Napoleonic Saxons today, along with a unit of 10mm cavalry and another 10mm unit of Pike and Shotte era foot. Also 28mm knighty-knight is base coated and inked.
So, only a quiet day really.
Can't do any more tonight, a) ink still wet, b) bedroom light not suitable for picking up details.

[Steve J]

Some Shermans and M10 Achilles base coated and washed tonight.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

288 Saxon Infantry done, bits and pieces done on other bits...