Trying to take some pics of the minis I've painted over the past few months and they are not turning out great, lol. I'm just using an iPhone 7, I don't have a fancy camera. I set up the white piece of paper for the background and tried playing around with my lamps, standard 40W bulb and an ottlite.. but I find the closer I get the grainier the photos turn out instead of crystal clear, or washed from a bad combination of the light.

How do you get proper light? Do you prefer natural light versus the artificial?

Anyone?

On 04/30/2017 at 1:13 PM, FrogTrigger said:

Trying to take some pics of the minis I've painted over the past few months and they are not turning out great, lol. I'm just using an iPhone 7, I don't have a fancy camera. I set up the white piece of paper for the background and tried playing around with my lamps, standard 40W bulb and an ottlite.. but I find the closer I get the grainier the photos turn out instead of crystal clear, or washed from a bad combination of the light.

How do you get proper light? Do you prefer natural light versus the artificial?

I have been trying myself to take better pictures of my minis. I have a s9100, d3300, and a galaxy s7 to take pictures. I normally screw up something and the pictures never turn out right. They are either to dark or to light. That is even with using a program to edit them. I use the daylight bulbs which helps and I even made a light box. It has helped but not as much as I hoped. So at least for me it is something I'm doing wrong. It's trial and error to get it right.

I use my wife's Ipad, and place white poster-board behind the minis. I use artificial light, just the chandelier in my dining room.

probably, the same thing you are doing.

my suggestion is using something else to capture the image.

and as stated above........trial & error

good luck!

Make sure you're using identical bulbs - same temperature.

Don't use digital zoom, instead place the camera closer.

Take a look at this link...?

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

J--

I haven't read through this thread (http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/55357-miniatures-photography-101/) thoroughly, but the folks at the Reaper forum generally know what's what.

With an Ott light at your disposal, I would probably think about another background--something beige or grey. But that's just my gut instinct, and not based on experience. If your pictures are washing out, that might be part of the problem.

Also look for a "macro" setting. I don't know if the iPhone would have it, but most cameras will.

I tried some more angles last night, I put the ottlite out in front of the mini and tried a few distances, this one seemed to be the best. I still think the actual mini is coming out chalky/blurred, I did use the manual zoom though so I might try again tonight without that and just move the camera closer. I feel like the iPhone is not a DLSR but it should still be able to take clearer photos than this:

@Sorastro sorry to bug you again but do you have any suggestions for this?

Are my horns to shiny?

18 hours ago, FrogTrigger said:

I tried some more angles last night, I put the ottlite out in front of the mini and tried a few distances, this one seemed to be the best. I still think the actual mini is coming out chalky/blurred, I did use the manual zoom though so I might try again tonight without that and just move the camera closer. I feel like the iPhone is not a DLSR but it should still be able to take clearer photos than this:

@Sorastro sorry to bug you again but do you have any suggestions for this?

Hi mate!

I actually think they look pretty great for a phone pic! I don't have much to offer in the way of suggestions for improvement except to ask if you're using a mini tripod? And the other thing is, if you really want to delve into things you might like to try shooting in RAW format (http://www.imore.com/how-shoot-raw-photos-your-iphone-or-ipad). When shooting JPEGS the camera (or phone) is making lots of decisions for you regarding exposure, and probably adding sharpening and contrast to the image that you might want more control over. Shooting in RAW preserves all of the original data captured so you have a lot more control when you "develop" the image. (http://www.imore.com/how-raw-changes-iphone-photography-better)

Happy tweaking!