Iron Warriors Warpsmith

[Magos Takatus]

Hi all. I'm still building a portfolio for my Etsy store, it's still not up and running yet, but I thought I'd show off my latest lil' grumpy boy.

 

Please let me know what you think. Are the pictures too dark? 

[Firedrake Cordova]

He looks really nice

 

If I'm being critical, the images could do with being a bit brighter (the white backdrop is a bit dark for white), and a light unsharp mask to offset the softening causing by the resizing.

[Magos Takatus]

12 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

He looks really nice

 

If I'm being critical, the images could do with being a bit brighter (the white backdrop is a bit dark for white), and a light unsharp mask to offset the softening causing by the resizing.

Thanks for the advice about the "light unsharp mask", I've never heard of that so I'll need to look into it. I have four separate LED lights on this chap so I was amazed that they turned out rather muted, I was half expecting him to emerge from the photoshoot with a suntan! 

 

I suppose I could artificially brighten them in GIMP but I was trying not to mess with them too much if I could help it. I am only just learning to use my camera though, to be fair.

 

By contrast, this is how it turned out on my phone with an led painting lamp lighting it. There is an extra layer of varnish toning it down in the final pics but it does look a lot more lively here.

Edited April 17 by Magos Takatus

[Alby the Slayer]

A really solid work. I like especially the plasma pistol and the grey metal on the armour.

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you. I'm glad that I repainted the plasma pistol coils. There wasn't enough yellow in the orange before and it looked a little lifeless.

[Firedrake Cordova]

15 hours ago, Magos Takatus said:

Thanks for the advice about the "light unsharp mask", I've never heard of that so I'll need to look into it.

It's an old photographer's technique to enhance edges and small details (the other option is a high-pass filter).  As you're using GIMP, try radius = 0.5, amount = 1 as a starting point, and have a play with the sliders. One technique is to intentionally over-sharpen a duplicated layer, and then play with the opacity of that layer until it looks right.

 

15 hours ago, Magos Takatus said:

I have four separate LED lights on this chap so I was amazed that they turned out rather muted ... I suppose I could artificially brighten them in GIMP but I was trying not to mess with them too much if I could help it. I am only just learning to use my camera though, to be fair.

My first guess is that the image is under-exposed - camera metering systems can be very clever, but they can get confused (and the less clever metering modes like spot- & centre-weighted metering target medium tone and rely on exposure compensation to move away from that). Something in front of a white background is (in my experience) one of the setups that can lead to either an underexposed background (exposed for the background), or (if the subject is backlit) a blown-out background (exposed for the subject). Also, did you use anything to soften the light, like a soft-box or piece of tracing paper? That can reduce the contrast in the image.

 

On the iPhone image, it's possible the iPhone is doing some extra processing to make the image "look good" (to a human), and the camera is producing a more neutral image and relying on post-processing (digital development).

Edited April 18 by Firedrake Cordova

[Magos Takatus]

Thanks for more detail. My phone does seem to have some unpleasant auto-sharpen feature that typically makes my photos look unnatural but it looks reasonable in that picture. I can show my lighting and yes, some of my lights do have diffusion covers on them. My photo won't  upload so I'll have to reduce the quality before I upload it.

Edited April 18 by Magos Takatus

[W.A.Rorie]

Very nice IW Warpsmith

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you kindly. :)

[Nicholas_the_Renegade]

This is a fantastic paintjob, and very inspiring. I just bought the Iron Warriors combat patrol last week, and built this guy first. I'm looking forward to painting mine, but also nervous because I've told everyone at my local game store that I'm going to take the opportunity to do my best work on this army instead of just rushing to get them battle-ready. These images remind me of all the little things I need to remember. 

[Magos Takatus]

Thank you. I hope you have as much fun as I did with mine. I put textured paint on my base and stuck his backpack cables on afterward, and the raised texture lifted the cables slightly, leaving a slight gap on the model where the backpack fits together, so be careful of that if you left that part separate.

 

This also reminded me, I still need to follow up Firedrake Cordova's advice.  My memory is like a sieve, I swear!