[The Paint Monkey]

It's really annoying when all your cool painting just doesn't photograph well, isn't it? The figure looks good but more practice with photography will get you a more rewarding picture. Here's some advice that I've found useful-

Don't use the Macro (little flower) option. It really doesn't help.

Place the camera as far as possible from the mini and then use the optical zoom to zoom back in.

The advice about not needing to fill the picture is kinda true, but it means you'll have to do a bit of trimming in photoshop.

Use photoshop, it's great. Most cameras are programmed to produce good pictures of the 'normal' photo- 2 or more people in front of a scenic view- not a tiny bit of intricately painted metal. Photoshop helps adjust the picture back to what it should really look like if the camera hadn't been trying to 'help'.


Try and use two lamps- one above the mini and slightly in front of it, the other from just above the camera. Don't use the flash.

Try and photograph against a plain background.

Take lots of photos. It's digital, just dump the ones that don't work add have a bit of a think about what you did differently on the ones that did work.

I use a mini tripod or pile of books to reduce hand shake. I also use the automatic timer so that I don't need to be holding the camera when it takes the photo.

Hope this helps a bit! Remember- photography is as much an art as figure painting and learning a few basics and a bit of practice goes a long way. Have a poke around the gallery (it's back up and running now, happily) and check who's got good photos and maybe pm them.

I look forward to more!