Photographing Mini's

[betrayer41]

I was wondering how everyone photographs their minis and if the colors they capture on camera accurately represent how the mini looks.

 

I have been using my iphone to take pictures and majority of the time the color that i capture on camera is nowhere close to how the model actually looks.

 

Anyone else have this issue or have any tips/tricks?

[Brother Tyler]

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

[betrayer41]

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

Whelp this is amazing lol

[Firedrake Cordova]

I would add:

• If you're using a desk lamp for lighting, consider diffusing it (add a sheet of tracing paper over the open part of the "shade", or use a lightbox)
• Home-made lightboxes work great
• An iffy white-balance is your enemy (no idea how to sort that on a phone - sorry! [DSLR user here])

Edited April 1, 2021 by Firedrake Cordova

[Arkhanist]

That warhammer guide is solid. The key things I've found for taking photos with a smartphone:

 

1) more light. Seriously, you want lots, and diffuse so you don't get hard shadows. I take quick photos just under my painting light, for highest quality ones I use a light box with multiple lamps pointing through the translucent sides.

 

2) to avoid macro/focus issues, just take the picture from further back - my usual block of minis fills about half the frame. Don't use digital zoom, just crop it down afterwards. You'll still have ample pixels left to resize it down to 'web' photo resolution.

 

3) A plain background is good. I use a large plain mousemat curved upwards; the front half is flat on the desk for the minis to stand on, the back half curves up to vertical, propped on some water bottles etc.

 

4) white balance is worth checking if your light source is not a daylight bulb - you can end up with a yellow or blue overall tint to the photo. Auto whitebalance is quite good these days, but it needs sufficient background info to work with. I don't believe the iphone built in camera app has a manual white balance, but many 3rd party ones do. For a quick and dirty fix, put a piece of white paper under the light, and adjust til it looks, well, white, or use a preset appropriate to your lighting. If you're using a DSLR and taking in RAW, you can take a photo of a photo gray card and use it to fix white balance in editing, but I've not found it worth it with a smartphone.

 

This is a couple of example photos taken on my galaxy S9 with said mousemat and just my desk painting light, and cropped down, with white balance set to daylight (as that's the colour rating of the bulb). Nothing amazing, but looks like the minis do.

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Arkhanist

[betrayer41]

My lamps are trash, more or less what ive had laying ardound for a while.  I really need to get a better one not only for pics but more for painting.

[Firedrake Cordova]

1) more light. 

That's kinda the never-ending struggle with close-up photography

 

My lamps are trash, more or less what ive had laying ardound for a while.  I really need to get a better one not only for pics but more for painting.

If your lamps will take standard screw-in bulbs, Philips make some nice daylight (4000K) LEDs in ES27 format  (I have some 13W ones in Ikea Tertials - crikey, are they bright!)

Edited April 1, 2021 by Firedrake Cordova

[betrayer41]

 

1) more light. 

That's kinda the never-ending struggle with close-up photography

 

My lamps are trash, more or less what ive had laying ardound for a while.  I really need to get a better one not only for pics but more for painting.

If your lamps will take standard screw-in bulbs, Philips make some nice daylight (4000K) LEDs in ES27 format  (I have some 13W ones in Ikea Tertials - crikey, are they bright!)

 

 

Unfortunately my lights are not screw in but i am picking some up today along with some daylight bulbs