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Photography

colonel_sponsz

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 11:06 pm

Brood Brother

Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2005 6:14 pm
Posts: 390

What cameras are people using to take thier photos of Epic figures? I've got a pretty basic digital camera that can't deliver the kind of close-ups needed to even show off a simple drybrush finish.

At some point I'm intending to get some macro tubes onto my old analogue SLR but that's alot of work for the standard of my painting !

Orde

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Shinnentai

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 11:16 pm

Brood Brother

Joined: Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:52 pm
Posts: 54

I'm using a Fujifilm finepix 50i. A few years old now but its still got 4m pixels and the crucial macro function. Its scary how paint-jobs that you previously thought looked good show a lot of errors under the close scrutiny of a digital zoom - it really makes me appreciate just how great other painters are as their models look so good even in pics.

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CyberShadow

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 12:23 am

Swarm Tyrant

Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 6:22 pm
Posts: 9350
Location: Singapore

To be honest, most modern camera will do it. If your camera has a macro then that is most of what you need. Aside from that, the higher the number of pixels, the better.

Aside from this, the lighting where you actual the picture can make a big difference in the quality of the pictures.

My old camera was an original Sony CyberShot, 2MegaPixel camera. This worked fine. Now, I have a Casio P505, 5MegaPixel machine... lovely!

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Warmaster Nice

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 10:55 am

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Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 9:15 pm
Posts: 7948
Location: Denmark

I wrote an article about the basics of miniature photography
http://www.mustangsalling.dk/otherstuff/article1.pdf

Like CS said the most important feature you'll need is a Macro function.

Cheers!

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blackhorizon

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:04 am

Brood Brother

Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:40 pm
Posts: 2842
Location: Netherlands

Good article Warmaster.

Another note: take your time and be patient. The fun of digital cams is the fact you can shoot as many pics as you want without wasting paper.

Just start trying, maybe you make 100 pics and only find 5 usuable, but you learned and next time you only take 50pics for 5 good ones.

Lighting is very important.

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TuffSkull

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:08 am

Brood Brother

Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:49 am
Posts: 2830
Location: South East UK

I invested in some decent kit for photographing my work a while back.
Im still no expert (not by a long shot!), but The important thing is to get a good macro function as the guys above state.

Beyond that, the investment in my daylight lamp was also something I'll never look back on for photography as well as painting. It cost me ?100+, but the change in results is immense. http://uk.daylightcompany.com/product.plm/10/45

You never want to be taking photographs of minis close up using the flash - I was guilty of this for a very long time & didnt see what people were complaining about but now I have my lighting sorted, what they meant is very clear! So fiddle about with lighting to minimise shadow & get the best results.

I use the above lamp positioned just behind & above my camera lens, with the models usually mounted on a background of plain white paper (althouh I do have a blue fade going up the wall too..)

Actual camera wise, I currently use a Olympus C-765 UZ. The only downside is its rather bulky so have never used it for personal photos on nights out - it lives on its tripod in my workshop & for miniatures its awesome!

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Frecus

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 11:49 am

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Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:10 pm
Posts: 184

A hundred pound for a daylight lamp???

We got one for at most a fifth of that!

Edit: I didn't look into the link, that's a bit more than we got. W got for ?40-some: A daylight bulb, with an arm much like in that picture (in the link).

Most decent lamp-specializing stores will have some, for not a very high price too!
Daylight lamps are really good for if you want to paiont in the evening too. Though not in the middle of the night, as any model painted after 23:00 is doomed anyway!

Frecus
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TuffSkull

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 3:22 pm

Brood Brother

Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2003 11:49 am
Posts: 2830
Location: South East UK

Frecus makes a good point about Daylight Bulbs being a lot cheaper, although they truly do not compare to real daylight lamps.

The light my lamp kicks out is outstanding - no matter the conditions I always use it & on bright days I often close the curtain & paint by the light of the lamp by choice rather than having the natural light interfere .

Its also a note worth making that a lot of high power daylight bulbs heat up a lot which can be bad if you're photographing plastics for any period of time & also bad for painting under.

The lamp I have has a tansformer on the base of the arm which gets slightly warm, but the lamp iteself puts out no heat & since the arm always comes over my shoulder, I act as a heat shield for my subjects even when the transformer does heat up.

And no.. I dont get a commission on these lamps - I'm just a very happy customer who's trying to remind himself why he spent so much money on a posh light... ? :blues:

Edit: Oh, and for those of you who might not know - I've not got more money than sense - I paint minaitures for a living so am perpetually broke, but the lamp & camera were business investments for me :blues:

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Dobbsy

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 2:34 am

Brood Brother

Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 1:24 am
Posts: 4499
Location: Melbourne, Australia

I use the Nikon5900 5Megapixel and a hand made light diffusion box (basically some vellum paper and balsawood frame)for my minis. At the moment I still have only one lamp for it though and it needs 3 to work correctly.
The recent pics of my Tau minis were done using the box system with only the single lamp. You can see the shadows one lamp casts. The idea with three is that no shadow should exist.

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Dwarf Supreme

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:08 pm

Brood Brother

Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 8:45 pm
Posts: 11149
Location: Canton, CT, USA

I don't own a digital camera, yet. I know the number of pixels can vary widely, depending on the price. When considering which one to buy, is there a minimum number of pixels to look for? (keep in mind that cost is an issue for me.) For example, I shouldn't buy one unless it has at least X number of pixels.

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CyberShadow

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:21 pm

Swarm Tyrant

Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 6:22 pm
Posts: 9350
Location: Singapore

Not really. Like I said, I got some pretty good results on a 2Meg camera, and you cant really buy one smaller than that any more! For example (2MegaPixel):

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Dwarf Supreme

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:29 pm

Brood Brother

Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 8:45 pm
Posts: 11149
Location: Canton, CT, USA

Thanks, CS. I know you can pick up some fairly inexpensive ones for under $100 USD now, but I wanted to make sure that getting something that cheap would be good enough. :;):

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stormseer

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:49 pm

Brood Brother

Joined: Fri Feb 14, 2003 9:52 pm
Posts: 4598
Location: Suffolk, UK.

Some cheapo cameras are not much cop at all though, so be careful- read some reviews before you buy.

My Sony P-52, which I bought over two years ago (on a reccomendation from Jimbo incidently!) is still going strong; I use it for all the shots of miniatures I post here, and for a lot of general snapping, kiting photography and lots of other stuff too.

It has a 3.1mp CCD and a 2X optical zoom, which have proven more than adequate for most of my use (although a better zoom for outdoor photography would be handy)- no macro function, but this has really been no handicap for me ; Jimbo has a guide on cropping images and resizing which was invaluable for me when I was learning. CHeck out the photo below for a quick example of this; the final picture here was cropped out of a larger image, and then resized by about 50% to give a good postable photo.

The autofocus is excellent on my camera as well; I rarely get blurry shots while using it, and virtually never bother to set the focus manually. One thing I have noticed when comparing cheaper cameras is that their autofocus is often not quite as effective or easy to use; make sure you get a decent one!

Cheers, ~G

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Dwarf Supreme

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 6:06 pm

Brood Brother

Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 8:45 pm
Posts: 11149
Location: Canton, CT, USA

Thanks for the info, Stormy.

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GlynG

Post subject: Photography

Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:37 am

Brood Brother

Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 7:27 pm
Posts: 5602
Location: Bristol

Bought an Olympus C-8080 that I've been using. Think it's quite a good camera - it's all black and has got 8megapixels in - but I've not really figured out what half the buttons and settings do yet...

Glyn

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