Thursday, July 22, 2021

The Process Part Eight: Photography

I am not a photography expert at all, but I have come up with a decent process for photographing completed miniatures. I try to get as accurate an image as I can: no tricks, no hiding flaws. I don't want any of my clients to get a nasty surprise when they unpack their figures, and I don't want any blog viewers to have an inaccurate idea of what is possible with 15mm (or smaller!) miniatures.


My photography lighting is the same Ott Light I use for painting. A single sheet of folded printer paper is my only backdrop. I bought a Nikon Coolpix L120 back in 2012. It's simple enough for me to figure out, and it takes excellent photos. I set the white balance manually, and I keep the ISO at 100. This results in very slow shutter speed, so I use the timer feature along with a small tripod to keep the camera steady.







I use a free photo editor, IrfanView, to crop and resize the raw images. I keep a copy of each image on my hard drive, sorted into folders by commission. This, along with my written notes, allows me to match colors if a client wants additions to their forces.





I upload the cropped images into another editor, Picasa 3, for fine tuning. I adjust the fill light, highlights, and shadows until the image matches the colors I see on my desk.


 

Once the photography is complete, I make my blog post and alert my client. Hey John, there are more pictures of your troops!

2 comments:

  1. So concludes this most interesting series of posts Scott. It's always good to see other people's technique, the similarities and differences. You achieve a fine result with yours.
    You seem to have the photography worked out really well too. As I have been told by photographers, lighting is the key.
    Regards, James

    ReplyDelete
  2. This has been a great series. Thank you for showing how you produce your amazing figures.

    Are you still taking commissions?

    Regards,
    Dave

    ReplyDelete