I've just ordered this portable 'studio' to help me get better lighting results in my pics, (sadly the camera doesn't come with the pack). Has anyone got any experience using a light box or indeed any pearls of wisdom for taking better pics.

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Other than the camera's macro setting, I have found that the key to good pics of miniatures is to not try and get closer to the fig than your camera can manage. Take the picture from a bit further away and then crop it in some image editing software. Here are some 40K scale conversions I was working on once upon a time that were taken just by putting the fig on a table with regular room lighting and a 10 year old, 4 MP camera












The miniatures aren't great, but I think the pictures are perfectly fine. I guess basically my advice is to not just rely on the camera to do the work, clean the pics up after taking them, crop away the excess margins so that the fig you want us to see is basically all that is there, make sure they are straight, not rotated 90 degrees, resize them so they fit comfortably on people's screens (really annoying when someone posts a HUUUGE picture that is 3x the width of a screen) make them 256 colors so that they load quickly.

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Thanks,
Troy


Once Upon a Midnight Dreary....

I see the kit you bough includes a tripod, tripod allows you not to use flash, wich makes for a much better photo.

the main probles when shooting 6mm pics is that everything gets out of focus fast, and with a tripod you can get around that, so:

If your camera has a "priority to aperture" mode, set it in that mode and choose the smalest aperture size aperture (f-16 or f-22 for most cameras) , in most cameras this is the letter "A" or "Av", this has the effect of increasing your "Depth of field", wich simply means you keep more of the photo in focus.





The other thing you can do is set your photo quality to maximum and take the picture further away from the miniature than you normally would, then you crop the excess in photoshop or other image editing software, this magnifies the same effect above, you get even more of your photo in focus because the camera is further away from the miniature.

Also you should set the timer delay for 2 seconds, and take all the photos with the timer delay, this is because the camera shakes when you press the button, and the 2 seconds delay allow it to stop shaking and take a very sharp photo.

Then after the machine is i the tripod and pointing at the mini, set your focus to manual focus, and set your focus manualy. If you find it dificult simply measure the distance from the lens to the miniature with a ruler or tape, and use that value for the manual focus.

and thats it, there is a lot more that could be said, but this is the really important stuff to get a good photo.

some examples of my pics here:

viewtopic.php?f=119&t=24941&start=15

and here the ones in the first post:

viewtopic.php?f=119&t=23138

Happy shooting!

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Pyrköl´s shiny stuff

Great advice, but it's mostly dependant on good equipment, sadly I'm working with a mobile phone. Thanks for your help, hopefully in can use it one day with a good camera.

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lol,

well, you dont really need a expensive camera, any cheap point and shoot will do the work, the important stuff is that it has a dial with the "P A S and M" letters like in the picture above, so that you can set the aperture size.

With the cellphone at least you have a small boon, the very small camera means a lot more of the photo will stay in focus than with a normal camera. So disregard all in the above post and just put the cellphone in the tripod with an adapter with a reasonably good amount of light (by a window) and you should get a ok photo, in the iphone you can even focus manually by taping the miniature on the screen to tell it to focus there.

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Pyrköl´s shiny stuff

I'm using a Nokia Lumina 820, one of the few Luminas with a macro setting. I'm finding that using the tripod and taking the pic at a distance, as you suggested, it also has a crop setting built it, which is really useful. The main drawback is that I can't get extreme close ups with any clarity. I am starting to get to grips with my lighting though, which has helped. Ultimately, I will look to get a good camera.

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The Canon Powershot SX170 is one of the cheapest cameras I know of with manual controls, at US $180. It’s no SLR, but put it on a small tripod – even a gorillapod sort of thing – and it’d do just fine for pictures of minis. Getting diffuse light onto the minis just requires either a fabric lightbox, or a pair of lamps with tissue paper over them and a few white surfaces stood up as reflectors.

The Panasonic lumix series are also great little cameras.

All of Panasonic's cameras are called Lumix, from the $77 Lumix DMC-FH10 to the $3,300 Lumix DMC-GH4. Camera naming conventions are horrible, *edit* especially Panasonic's.

With Canon's Powershot series (non-interchangeable lenses) the G, S, HS, and SX offer manual controls. They differ in zoom levels, having GPS, image quality, etc., and I wouldn't necessarily call the SX 170 a great camera but it should do well in this context. Also for taking decent outdoor photos of distant objects in good sunlight while on vacation. For good pretty good pictures of people (party shots) in a small camera with less zoom, I'd recommend the S110.

Hi!

I confess, while I have a decent camera, through my own laziness I have not learned to use it to its fullest.

A thread like this is appreciated, to at least use my camera more efficiently.

Thanks!

Primarch

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Primarch


The Primarchload
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Ok, I probably meant the Panasonic TX series then! All I know is I got a cheap-ish TX something for my wife a few years ago and it's great!

Edit: wow, you're right! Their naming sucks!! I think I meant TZ series, ZS series in the States! TZ35 looks good enough at a glance. I wish I'd just kept my mouth shut now!

Today I sold some minis and have myself £60 to spend on a camera but I'm not sure we're to start. What should I be looking for? (Please don't say more cash).

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I could stretch to a Polaroid IS2132 16MP 21x Zoom Bridge Camera, as it is in a sale. Anyone know if this would do the trick?

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It has the controls you'd need, but the Amazon reviews say it struggles to focus in Macro mode (up close). That could be a deal breaker. You're better off going used:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Canon-Power-S ... 51ba229d97
and tripod:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-Camera-Cam ... 1e874dc038

I have the tripod, just need the camera. I'm guessing your saying I should go for a bridge camera with more control rather than a compact point and shoot. I will head over to eBay and have a look.

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