Photography: Professional Pics of your Minis..

[Kanazuchi]

I've been meaning to get to this for a while. I searchy-ed this, but didn't find anything. I've seen too many great minis completely ruined due to horrendous pictures of said mini. So, with that in mind, this will be a two-part tutorial. First, I'll offer some tips on taking great pics. Second, I'll show you how to clean up those pics in Photoshop.

Tips & Tricks to taking Good Pics

• Some people have the misconception that just turning on your Macro function will make better pictures. While it will help, the Macro function is only half the battle. Just because you have that on, doesn't mean you should hold your camera 1/8 inch away from the mini. Hold your camera between 12-18 inches from your model and take your shot.
  
• Set up a cheap photo studio in your own room. Get a box (six-sided), and tape a white sheet of paper to the side opposite of the open end. On the other four interior sides, glue/tape aluminum foil (try not to wrinkle it too much). This will help reflect natural light from around the room. You can also pick up a set-up at places like Wal-Mart, (such as this) but they are sometimes expensive. UPDATE: When you make your own version of the Wal-Mart studio thing, use white paper where there is blue (in the enlarged image of the studio) and use foil where there is white (on the interior of the box).
  
• Try to take profile shots of your minis, rather than just straight on shots. Try aiming the camera from up under the mini to capture it in a dramatic pose.
  
• Don't use a flash. Hang up lighting (portable fluorescent lights work wonders!) around our custom made box. You can turn off your flash (usually, on most cameras) by pressing the lightning bolt symbol and cycling through your flash options until you get to the one that allows you to turn it off.
  
• Use a tripod. Or, at least, sit the camera down and use the automatic timer. The less you touch the camera, the better.
  

(Maybe more to follow as I think of them)

Photoshopping your Mini

Now that you have a pic of your mini, it is time to Photoshop the little devil.

We're going to start with Killy's UM Apothecary. Why? Because I just fixed it earlier for him. :-)

Next, I'm going to use one of my favorite Photoshop tools: Color Balance. Now, I could play with the different levels until I get what I want...but Photoshop allows me to be lazy and will color balance the photo for me. You may not always get the results you want, but doing an AutoColorBalance will help you see where you need to go and then you can go in manually and adjust the image:

Alternatively, you can just hit Shift+Ctrl+B

We now have something like this:

Next, I'm going to use my Levels to adjust the Highlights, Midtones, and Shading of the mini (Image > Adjustment > Levels or Ctrl+L). You really just need to play with each slider to get where you want. Uncheck/check the preview box to see your original:

Finally, let's crop the image to really draw focus to the mini. Grab your marquee selection tool (pictured) or just hit M and draw your selection. Then click Image > Crop.

Now, if you want, you can add a tag or text to the image. And........we're done!!

Above is the before/after shot.

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Got a blurry photo? Camera isn't doing so well? Try these quick fixes:

I've compiled a few different ways to enhance your beloved mini-picture with photoshop. They are not foolproof and do take some tinkering to perfect, but it is better than nothing!

I hope this helps people. Post your suggestions below and I will add them to this post. Let me know if anyone needs any help!

Edited July 13, 2009 by The Angelus Sanctus

[Terminatorinhell]

How can i send a pic of my Char for you to fix up like that? O.o

[Tpatchers]

A great help

Thx

[Wolf Lord Beowulf]

excellent post! thanks much, I'll be setting up my picture box soon. heh.

[munkey]

thanks man, this should be a huge help!

[Ganuus]

This is quite a tutorial. I can tell you this is not what I was expecting when I went in. Very nice. Once I get a comp that can support more than the internet, I think that I will look into this.

 

:pirate:

 

I'm a pirate, are you?

[Techmarine Harkus]

Hot damn! I wish Id looked for something like this. It took me about an hour of solid experimenting to work out for myself the best way to take pics... Some sound advice.

 

I just thought Id also add something that I've found...

 

If you cant find any better lighting sources, and have to use the flash, then it should be done from about 36" away, with a surface behind it that is not reflective in any way (any of you who remember my 'necron vs marine' duel will remember the flash incident...). If you have to do this, then it will work better if the camera is resting on a flat surface, because that that distance a wobble will ruin the picture 9 times out of 10. It does however limit how 'dramatic' your camera angles are. Using the flash usually gives a brighter finish though, so you often dont need to edit the images after to set the colors straight.

 

Hopefully that helps anyone who is looking for a quick method of taking half decent photos.

[ArbitesAugmented]

Kanazuchi, I salute you! Great tutorial, Il use this to great effect:)

[Prefect]

If you want to get rid of a lot of that yellow, set up your "white balance" on your camera for incandescant light.

 

Most cameras think that they're outside and so filter out a lot of the blue light. Artificial lighting however doesn't have as much blue... so the pics turn out yellow.

 

Cheers on the Pshop tutorial!

[KYR GKIKAS]

Kanazuchi you are my hero.Thank you

[Infestus]

I use a similiar method:

 

Take pic.

Crop in Photoshop

Auto Level

Auto Contrast

Auto Color

 

Fast, good and idiot proof :)

Edited June 8, 2007 by Infestus

[Kanazuchi]

Similar? I would say that is identical other than the contrast step and the order in which you do yours. But yeah, it is pretty foolproof.

 

I should write an action for people so they can do this automatically. Just a press of the button and it will go through all the steps for you. Anyone interested?

[AlteriusMotive]

Thanks for a very simple but effective guide to taking and producing great photo's, a must for the would be coolminiornot goer. In the image I cleaned I found that there is also a very simple and effective way to make the image pop, just by adding a gradient to the background layer and using the bucket tool to (clear) the background in level 1 made for a nice image. Good work there buddy. Edited June 8, 2007 by AlteriusMotive

[Kanazuchi]

When you say "used the bucket" to clear the layer, what do you mean? If you are talking about cutting out a miniature to put on a new background, the most effective way is definitely the use of the pen tool. Baring that, a quick mask works wanders. Perhaps I should make a tutorial on that.

[SCC]

This excellent tutorial has also been added to the Librarium. Thanks to Kanazuchi for the submission and look for his second Photoshop tutorial article coming soon!