+ minus_t's guide to: miniature photography +

[minus_t]

minus_t's guide to: miniature photography

OK, so here is the next in my series of helpful, informative and (possibly) patronizing articles, which (as you may have gathered) is about how to take photos of those lovingly painted and converted models that we all love so.

So, the things that you will need:

• A model (to photograph). You might need more than one for some of the exciting options I have for you later on...
• A Camera. Really doesn't matter too much what kind, I use an old Nikon Coolpix mostly, though a more versatile camera will obviously be more helpful if you know how to use it.
• A Tripod. This is amazingly essential. Seriously. If you don't have a tripod, get one. If you can't get one, then it is possible to get by with a pile of books, or something similarly steady.
• 2 pieces of plain white A4 (or Letter, for you foolish Americans out there) paper.
• Some blu-tack (or similar sticky putty).
• At least one lamp. Preferably with a daylight bulb.
• A desk and a wall. I suppose a floor could do in a pinch.
• A computer, an internet connection, a photobucket account and (preferably) some photo-editing software (such as photoshop, paintshop pro, or GIMP).

Right then, assuming you have all those things, I shall continue (well, even if you don't, I can't stop you from reading... Mores the pity...).

Firstly, set up your space. On your desk, lay one (1) piece of paper flat. Add a little piece of blu-tack (or similar) to the middle top of your other piece, and stick it to a wall (or other vertical surface. In the picture below, I have used my PVA glue bottle to prop it up), allowing it to curve onto the ground, like a relaxed L (I believe these are called infinity curves, but I may be wrong about that).
Position your lamp shining onto the curve, from in front and slightly above.
Position your tripod slightly in front of the curve, and attach your camera to it.

You should have something that looks like this:

Quick note: Daylight is the best light of all. If you can't take a photo in daylight, use as many lamps as you can. Because I am lazy (and a student), I only use one lamp, and normally end up taking my photos late at night, which means a lot more work at the editing stage for me. If you can avoid this, you will save yourself a lot of work.

OK, now onto the setting up of the camera. You've probably heard people talking about Macro modes. This is the little image of a tulip. If you have one, use it. A picture of mine is below:

This tells the camera to focus on objects that are much closer than it would usually try to focus on, which is very handy for us. I find it works best if you zoom in a little as well.
If you don't have a macro mode, fear not! For I have discovered a solution, but will go through it in more detail at the end, so as not to distract from the information...

Right, I will assume you managed to figure out how to let your camera focus, and take a picture all by yourself (it normally involves holding a button down lightly while the camera focuses, then pressing harder to take the picture).
The only thing to note here is: use the timer. this way, you won't be holding the camera while it takes a photo, so you can't jog it. Very important that bit...

Now that you have your picture, you want to put it on your computer and start editing it, as it will probably look a bit like this:

Alright, but not that great really. At least it is in focus though...

The first thing you want to do is sort out the colour balance. Normally your photos will be quite yellowy, as you will probably have been using mostly artificial light, which is normally yellow tinted (for various reasons, none of which are particularly relevant at the moment...).
There are several ways to do this, depending on how involved you want to be. In photoshop, you can auto-colour balance (which is found in Image > Adjustments). This is normally the best and fastest, but can sometimes get it a bit wrong.
Secondly you can apply a cooling filter, which can be found under the photo-filters in Image > Adjustments. This is quite good, but sometimes doesn't go far enough.
Finally, you can manually edit the colour levels. This is quite tricky to do properly, and generally isn't necessary, especially as the other two ways are much faster.
So, your photo should probably look something like this now:

Getting much better, huh?

But there is still more to do. Levels. These things are incredible. Now, you want to be very careful with these, as too much fiddling can ruin any photo, and make it hard to see what is supposed to be going on. They are found in Image > Adjustments (in photoshop, anyway).
So, lets have a look at the normal 'levels' display:

[note: I have just noticed this is a screenshot of the levels window for a different image, so please don't be confused at the weird change in shape between this and the next one, they don't normally do that ]

This graph is a histogram, but that isn't really important. The 3 little sliders, however, are. The white one controls the threshold for what 'counts as' white, the black one controls the threshold for what 'counts as' black, and the 50% grey does the same for 50% grey.
Fiddling with them is the best way to really see what they do, so have fun.
I decided to move mine to about here:

...and ended up with this:

...which will do nicely.
Now, I personally consider this done, because I've got a bit fed up of fancy gradients all over the shop, and because it seems more 'natural', but that is up to you. I won't cover doing that sort of thing at the moment, but if it is sufficiently requested, I shall edit it in later.

Finally, upload your photos to photobucket, imageshack or whatever, and let everyone marvel at thier beauty...

So, that is how I take my photographs.


Appendix 1: Macro-less cameras.
Firstly, this is where the multiple models come in, so grab 4 or 5 minis. Anything will do. Then move your camera slightly further back than it is for all of us macro folks.
Line your 4-5 minis up in a diagonal line, like this:

Now, zoom in until you frame all of them. Your camera should be able to focus without too much trouble. Take that photo. Leave the models where they are (very important, that bit).
Now, put that onto your computer, and sort out the colours and levels (if you want).
Then, zoom in on each model. Hopefully, one of them should be in focus (shown below).

In this case, I managed to focus on the 3rd model back. This is where you want to put your models when you photograph them, so maybe mark a small x just behind the models base, to remind you.



As usual, any questions, feel free to ask in a reply, or PM. Hopefully that has been of some use to you, and stay tuned for the next installment of minus_t's guide to:...

-t.

[_Toast_]

great guide, minus t. I have already copied some points down into a wrod file. My only question is, how did you take a picture of the back of your camera?:huh:

[minus_t]

Ah, well, I'm sure you could figure that one out if you apply some simple logic.

(It was ninjas :ninja: )

-t.

[neurodisruptor]

Very informative. I especially liked that last tip. This should help the community as a whole.

neurodisruptor

[Hunter Killer]

Sweet. I'll have to try this. My photos turn out like crap, which is why I haven't posted in my WIP thread in a while or on my blog ever. This should really help.

+Rep, but I dunno if I'll affect your total score.

[King Ulrik Flamebeard]

This is good enough to get pinned, mate. A good, well laid out and clear guide. The pictures are good. I do like you, only really ever take pictures at night but I find that two lamps (one from above, one from in front) do fine.

However, I don't use the "auto-colours". I use the levels then if required I use "curve" to alter them. But I'll have a look at trying the next batch your way.

One thing though. You should be painting not playing about with the new camera you have. =P

KU

[minus_t]

Originally Posted by King Ulrik Flamebeard

...
One thing though. You should be painting not playing about with the new camera you have. =P

I have my public to think about!
*storms off to dressing room*

/diva

TVM for the sticky guys, glad to be of assistance to people.
There are many many different ways of doing photo-editing, I just spoke about how I do it, as I find it quick and simple (and I don't know too many others).

I should say, if you can do it in daylight, then do. It generally removes all need for colour manipulation, which is a good thing™.

-t.

[chemicalcaveman]

Smashing guide -t mate............just smashing.

Some rep is winging itself on the way to you as we speak. I also just use the image slider in photoshop and I find my photo's really have improved since then. I just need to get myself a tripod now.

One question though, how do you resize your photo's? I normally just use the save for web feature in photoshop and resize them to 600pixels. How do you resize yours?

[minus_t]

I normally do all my editing at full size, then save that as it is (for use in different sizes, printing etc).
Then, I use the marquee tool to drag a selection around the mini, and copy it into a new window.
This then gets resized to 525 pixels wide (the max LO allows before resizing them automatically, and also small enought to be fast downloading, but big enough to have more than enough detail), which I then Save For Web (usually a jpeg at about 60% quality).

Which is fun.

-t.

[slorak]

Great article -T! I use 3 shop lamps with tissue over them (thanks Gareth!) and I think my pictures themselves have improved quite a bit. Now I just need to sit down long enough to try the photoshop techniques. I usually just auto correct and call it a day as I usually don't have time. But this looks straight forward enough for sure!

Cheers,

-Mike