Taking pics

[Akrim]

Im trying to take pics of my figs with a digital camera (Samsung 8 MP Digimax V800)

but I cant seem to get any good ones, its blurry and little detail shows up.

Ive experimented with different light and both flash and no flash.

 

What can I do?

[juckto]

1 - Find out if your camera has a 'macro' setting. If it does, then use it. If it doesn't, then find out its minimum focal length and place the camera at that distance from the model.

2 - Place your camera on a tripod or some other steady structure so it doesn't shake.

3 - Do not zoom in anymore than you have to, when you zoom it increases the amount of blur from any shaking.

4 - If your camera has a timer ability, use that.

5 - Place a piece of white paper under the model and lean the paper against the wall to form a smooth curve, so that you don't get a 'horizon' line.

6 - Zoom in enough that so that you can't see the edges of the paper. (only thing camera will have to focus on is the model)

7 - Make sure the model is well lit, but make sure its the same kind of light source (ie don't mix 40W bulbs with 150W bulbs.

8 - Use a piece of white card at an angle to 'reflect' some of the light back onto the model, and hence 'soften' its look.

[Konrad2709]

To extend on juxto's points..

 

1 - The minimum focus distance should be on the lens itself... Look at the frame around the lens and you should see letters and numbering around it. It will have brand, focal lengths, apeture, etc. What you want is the number which is after the greek letter phi, or a O with a vertical line through it. It should be in milimeters or inches. It will tell you the minimum distance from the lens that it will focus on an object.

 

2 - Using a tripod is good, cheaper alternative is to just use a book or something to hold the camera in place and use the cameras timer setting. Oh.. this was point 4... :wink:

 

3 - Zooming is only an issue if you are holding the camera. Blur is not just from zoom, its related to zoom and shutter speed.

 

Natural light is better then flash from the camera as it elimiates shadows better. If you increase the ISO setting on the camera, you will get a faster shutter speed and will get less blur. The downside is increasing the ISO will increase the amount of noise on the photo (it looks grainy). Experiment with the camera to find a good ISO (200 or 400 maybe) which doesn't give any visible graininess.

 

Too many people photograph minis inside their cameras minimum focus distance or blur it from slow shutter speeds.

 

There are other advanced tricks, like playing with the manual settings such as Av and Tv. Which allow you to manually set the apeture and shutter speed respectively. I love my digital SLR :devil:

[-Q-]

Konrad, those are great tips everyone should know. More VooDoo dispelled and less praying to Photo Spirit. The minimum distance and ISO stuff seems very helpful. Eager to try it out!

[DanielTheGreat]

Here is my experience in the matter (with some wisdom imparted upon me by the professional photographer sis that I have):

 

1: Whenever possible use the tripod. There are cheap ones you can buy that are less than 12" long. A good general rule (in my opinion) is that the heavier a tripod is the more stable it will be. So if none of them are up to muster you can always make your own. I must admit that I have never actually had to do this so I am not quite sure what exactly the screw is that the tripods use. But if you are willing to go to the trouble I would suggest calling a camera shop and having them look it up for you, or get a cheap one and take it to a hardware store for help. The wider the base and heavier the unit the more stable it will be.

 

2: Light- The flash is not what you want in this circumstance. I am going to assume that you do not want to create any visual artifacts that are not actually on the mini, so you will want as diffused light as possible. This will lessen/help eliminate the shadows that naturally occur under hard light. Light boxes are the best to achieve this, however, there are a number of other things that can be instituted to help. If you have powerful enough lights you can use anything white that is opaque. That includes bed-sheets and pillowcases. You are going to want to get a few good lights. Because this is a miniature they don't have to be the huge photographers lights, but they should at least be able to use clear 100W bulbs without heating up unbearably. Just remember that the closer the light is to the miniature, the brighter it will be. You might want to experiment with the intensity of the light on the various faces of the mini by moving certain lights closer or farther back. Another thing to keep in mind is that if the light is much to bright, put another layer of the sheet/diffusion stuff in front of that light. Just keep in mind that this tends to drastically reduce the light.

 

Something that I think nobody actually ever thinks of: It helps if you don't mix light. Do not use fluorescent light with tungsten light. the actual colors of the light vary incredibly and programs like photoshop can only account for one of them in a pic.

 

3: Zoom- I have not used this all that much, however, with miniatures I would suggest using Optical and only Optical zoom if you are going to use it. Digital zoom is a stupid concept to have on the camera and is completely pointless. I would also suggest only use the zoom if the camera is on a tripod, or there is an incredible amount of light on the miniature. Be careful with zoom thought, I have found on multiple occasions that it confuses the focus points of the digital camera that I use.

 

4: Background- Even with a professional diffusion box use a background. Most of what I have seen centers around an all white background, but people also like the gradient backgrounds as well. One thing to keep in mind, is that if it is a solid color it is easy to change in Photoshop. Just remember that the background should go both under and behind your mini. The best way to do this is to bend a sheet of paper (not crease- gentle bend) and attach the top to the diffusion box/panel/bedsheet.

 

5: Macro- Use this setting if you have it, what is even better is an actual macro lens. Like mentioned above you need to find out what the focal length of the macro mode is and be a little bit farther than that. Because I just don't trust my camera all that much I try to stay around 3" outside of it's focal length.

 

6: Data Format- If the camera can support it use RAW picture format. On a 6 mega-pixel camera this makes the photos around 20 megs (if I recall correctly) but it can be worth it. It makes it so that you can get a slightly better quality which helps if you need to digitally zoom the pic.

 

7: Manual Mode- If you know how your camera works use this mode. Use something as close to neutral grey as possible (you can always find something online to print out) to use as your light gauge. Just remember that you want the largest Depth of View possible, so stop up as much as the camera and light allow. Then work your way down to the point where the light gauge shows green/is in the middle/ ect...

 

Disclaimer- I am not an expert... My word is not law it is merely compilations of what I have used and seen and what my sister has taught me. So if someone says I am wrong I very well may be, please point this out to me and give me your reasoning. It is always nice to learn something new.

 

 

EDIT: Your camera does indeed have the macro mode. Page 32 of your manual tries to explain how to use it and the focal length of it. I am not quite sure what they mean by TELE focus... but, in wide mode you can take macro pics at 4-80cm and in automacro you can take pics from 4-infinity cm. Just heed the warning, at fewer than 20cm do not use the flash.

[Infestus]

This is how I take pictures. I use a Canon Powershot A410 camera, nothing fancy, it costs about 120 euro's. I take a piece of white paper and fold it in the middle. I then lay it against some books or something on my table in my backyard, where there is lots of sun. I switch to Macro mode, place the model on the sheet of paper and put the camera in front of it. I hold the button to make the picture for a while, to let the camera focus. When it's focussed I release the button and the picture is made. I then load the pictures into Photoshop, hit Auto Levels and finally change the Levels to 130/230. I also crop the picture, to get rid of the excess white background. Example:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v199/jeroendiks/IronWarriorBolter1.jpg

[Artimis Vergadin]

There have been numerous threads on this topic. I'll just link you to a few. :lol:

 

Here's one not even 2 days old

In the tutorials section, but you should check there for some detailed tutorials plus this is kinda photoshop...

something really helpful, also in the tutorials

 

The last one is real good. If I offered you any advice it practically be a copy of that. :angry:

 

Artimis