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| How to take good photographs of models and the kit you need to do it.; A walkthrough on how to take good photo's and the difference that expensive kit makes | |
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| Topic Started: 24 Jul 2012, 08:03 PM (521 Views) | |
| Elfaen | 24 Jul 2012, 08:03 PM Post #1 |
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WHAT CAMERA SHOULD I BUY?? This depends on your experience and more importantly the amount you use it, If this camera is going to be solely shooting toy solders don't spend a fortune on it. I own a top of the range DSLR because I use it to make money, if I was a hobbyist photographer, or just shooting models I would not by one. There are cheaper, easier to use camera out there (known as bridge cameras) that do all the work of a DSLR without the price. The bridge camera used in this tutorial is a Canon G12, it gets considerably more use than any other camera I own, Is nice and small and shoots pictures big enough to frame (A3). I recommend that camera over anything else on the market, however any digital camera with a MACRO lens and manual setting option will work for this guide. What other kit do I need? sunlight, a tripod or stable and adjustable surface, some white paper and some card. Everything beyond this is considered luxury kit. Step 1: Set Up. Here are 3 different set ups, that all do exactly the same thing complete with price for each. (Prices are estimates) -LUXURY (PRO) SET UP-  Camera: Canon 5D mk II £1600 Lens: Canon 28-105L £860 Flash: Canon ex 580 II £300 Tripod: Calumet heavy duty tripod £75 Background: Calumet portable product shooting table £40 -AMATEUR SET UP-  Camera: Canon G12 £450 Lens: Built-in Flash: Built in (not used) Tripod: Any adjustable height tripod. (I don't have a cheeper one, or i'd have used it) £5-15 eBay Background: 1x sheet of a3 paper, 1 book, 1 box (weight) 4 tinny balls of blu tac. £1-5 (IMPORTANT: Look at the angle of the paper, it needs to have that natural curve, that gives the 'background-less' look. STEP 2: How To Take UNIVERSAL RULES: 1) A CAMERA IS BASICALLY AN EYE. THE LONGER YOU LEAVE THE SHUTTER (OR EYE-LID) OPEN, THE BETTER IT CAN SEE WHAT ITS POINTED TOWARDS. 2) ISO IS A TERM USED TO REPRESENT WHAT USED TO BE CALLED GRAIN IN FILM CAMERAS. THE LOWER THE NUMBER (IDEAL BEING ISO 100) THE BETTER QUALITY IMAGE YOU'LL PRODUCE. IT REPRESENTS HOW QUICKLY THE SENSOR WILL REACT TO LIGHT (100 BEING SLOWEST, 1600 FASTEST) 3) F-STOPS (THE NUMBERS THAT GO UP ODDLY 3.5->4.0->4.5->5.6 ETC) REPRESENT THE IRIS OF THE EYE AND HOW MUCH LIGHT YOU LET IN AT ANY ONE TIME. IT ALSO ACTS AS A FOCUS. THE HIGHER THE NUMBER, THE SLOWER THE LIGHT COMES IN, THE LARGER THE AREA YOU GET IN FOCUS IS. 4) ALL PHOTOGRAPHY FOLLOWS THE SAME LAW: QUALITY OF LIGHT+EXPOSURE TIME= RECORDING. THIS MEANS TO SOME RESPECT THAT IT DOESNT MATTER HOW MUCH LIGHT YOU HAVE (AS LONG AS YOU HAVE SOME). THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHT NEXT TO A WINDOW AND ON A TABLE 15FT AWAY IN A DARK CORNER OF THE ROOM THE IMAGE WILL STILL EXPOSE, YOU JUST HAVE TO GIVE IT MORE TIME. 5) NO NOT TRY TO JAM YOUR MODEL AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THE LENS, USE THE ZOOM FUNCTIONS WITHIN YOUR CAMERA AND KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. AROUND 30CM SHOULD BE A GOOD DISTANCE TO KEEP. -Luxury (PRO)- With Pro kit you will have a flash that you can point away from the model and bounce off a surface. In this case I bounced the flash from the ceiling to avoid creating any shadows. I placed the model roughly 40cm away from the end of the lens, plenty of room to then zoom into my preferred crop. This allowed me to shoot my image quite quickly (2.5 second exposure, iso 100, f/14). Even with pro kit I never leave the shutter open for less than 2 seconds and any lower than f/9. I used a remote to shoot the image so there was no chance of 'camera shake' and I also gave 20 seconds between multiple shots to make sure that the motion of the shutter opening and closing had not made the camera rock from said to side. -Amateur- Because the flash on this camera is In-Built i could not use it. it would massively distort the colours on the paint and flood light into the image, which is something we never want. I placed the model roughly 40cm away from the end of the lens, plenty of room to then zoom into my preferred crop. I set up with an exposure time of 12 seconds, at f/8 and iso 200. I used the self timer on the longest possible setting to make sure there was no 'camera shake' present. Results: -Luxury (PRO)-  This image has been cropped, as a raw file is roughly the size of a billboard. That is the strength of PRO equipment, you can shoot to life-size from model. -Amateur-  This is good enough for most. The main difference between the two is the lack of a shinny effect, caused by the flash bounce on the pro kit that was absent on the amateur kit. SO, there's a some generalisation. ultimately your problem may not be covered, so ask away!! I'll endeavour to answer any question! I can do more of these for squads, large scale, photoshopping etc if enough people ask! Edited by Elfaen, 25 Jul 2012, 03:13 AM.
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| # El Diablo | 24 Jul 2012, 08:15 PM Post #2 |
Warmaster Of Chaos
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You might want to edit the first line of your post, seeing as your not on Warseer and all...... That plus there is no need for huge block of all caps text  Why not go to the introductions section at the top of the board and tell us a bit about yourself? Edited by El Diablo, 24 Jul 2012, 08:17 PM.
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| Elfaen | 25 Jul 2012, 03:15 AM Post #3 |
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Aha! Done. Digits asked me to cross post this as apparently its an issue that crops up here too. Was in a rush so just paste posted! |
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| # Digits | 25 Jul 2012, 06:09 AM Post #4 |
Shadowkin
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Cheers for putting this up. |
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| Valdez | 29 Jul 2012, 12:40 PM Post #5 |
Lieutenant
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What a bout background? I've heard it is good to have plain gray background so camera will focus on miniature not take colour from background. Also what about macro option? |
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| greeble | 30 Jul 2012, 12:44 PM Post #6 |
Warrant Officer First Class
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Manual focus, manual focus, manual focus. Also what about macro option? not really needed |
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| Valdez | 1 Aug 2012, 09:18 PM Post #7 |
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Lieutenant
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So you should specify you are talking about a camera which can make this kind of pictures :-P unfortunately for me I have one which can't... |
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| Thoth | 6 Aug 2012, 08:03 PM Post #8 |
Warrant Officer Second Class
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I think he did. Any digital camera with a MACRO lens and manual setting options. I think this is very useful tutorial. I just picked up a DSLR a few months ago (Canon Rebel T2i), but I haven't had the opportunity to shoot any of my models with it. Hopefully soon though. So far I just have the stock 55mm lens, is it worth it to drop the coin on a macro? |
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| greeble | 22 Aug 2012, 07:26 PM Post #9 |
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Warrant Officer First Class
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this should help anyone wanting to take good pics http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/review-miniature-mentor-complete-guide.html I don't bother with the macro setting and i'm getting good results |
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