New photo set up

I've been struggling ever since starting this blog to take decent photos of my miniatures. This is in part due to using my i-phone and in part due to not knowing the first thing about photography! Last week I read an article that explained how to get the best out of taking photos with your i-phone. The article is by Garfly on Tale of Painters and is well worth a read as I am not going to even attempt to explain how he does what he does. If you wish to have a read follow the link below...

http://taleofpainters.blogspot.de/2015/02/tutorial-how-to-photograph-miniatures.html

Instead I am going to show you the results I got with my first effort at following his advice. Below are a couple of shots of my (quick and easy) set up.

The big difference is the use of a tripod (cost me £2) and the use of the camera+ app (cost £2.99).  The results are below.

With these first two shots of my British Colonel the model appears much darker than it is in real life. Notice the colour of the background, far from white and more of an off grey.

The same shots taken using Camera+ and following Garfly's advice. The background is still not white but far lighter than the first two. More importantly the colours of the actual model are a much closer match to those in real life. Unfortunately the image is slightly out of focus and this is something that I will have to work on. By letting more light into the camera the image loses some of its sharpness but a little more practise and I should be able to get the best of both worlds.

Here are two shots of my French Foot Artillery. I found these very difficult to photograph as each team comprises of five models and getting them all in the right light was very difficult. In the end I had to settle for some very odd angled shots.

With my new set up the models themselves are far more accurate in terms of their colours. You will notice that in the second shot the background has not really been overexposed but importantly the figures themselves appear brighter.

Overall there is a lot more work to be done if I want the photos to represent what I see when I pick one of my models up but this is a good start. It is a shame that people put so much effort into painting their models and yet the internet is full of photos that make that paint job look second rate. While my first attempts above may not be there yet, Garfly's post will show you just what is possible using an i-phone and a cheap app.

Finally I'll leave you with a work in progress shot of the 1/45th Foot. This is the first half of the battalion. They may well take a little while to finish but I think the results will be worth it in the end.