New Camera for Taking pics of Minis (Nikon P90)

[DangerMouse]

Well so i have been taking pics with my little sony point and shoot and it has done a ok job, but i figured with doing commission work and all it was time to get a better camera. So i looked around and found the Nikon P90 and just took my first pics with it and i LOVE it. So here are my fist test shots:

http://www.lorddangermouse.com/paintblog/StrykerandIronclad.jpg
http://www.lorddangermouse.com/paintblog/StryekerBandT.jpg
http://www.lorddangermouse.com/paintblog/StryekerBandT2.jpg
http://www.lorddangermouse.com/paintblog/IroncladBandT.jpg


I am going to play with backgrounds and shuch later, as i think the pics are good but the white is very bright, but am very happy with the camera.

-DM

[tonyzahn]

Congrats! Nothing like a good camera.

As for the brightness, kicking the exposure time down a notch or two ought to do it.

[Hjelmen0]

Maybe a non-white background would help to allay some of the brightness?

[Obie001]

DM you make me wanna go Emo and cut myself for your painting skills are amazing. lol...nice bases too. makes me inspired and makes me hate my non artistic side LOL

[DangerMouse]

played some more with the camera and also tried some other backgrounds and i think i like the dark blue the best:

http://www.lorddangermouse.com/paintblog/StrykerandIroncladBlueBack.jpg
http://www.lorddangermouse.com/paintblog/StrykerandIroncladBlackBack.jpg

-DM

[psycnarf]

Wow, really good detail work on those models.

[mitchjames50]

those bases look real nice, stand out thing for me tbh

[Corroded]

yeah... those bases are kickin alot of As$

[Bert_the_Turtle]

Those are great! Who is the little dude model? He looks so cool!


I think I prefer the white background though. Maybe its just my tired eyes but I think the models are sharper on the white background.

[Angelust]

There's some good articles out there about making a photo-box when taking high quality pics of minis.

Some easy things to change to really bring out the most in your models:

1. Lighting. Flourescent's are usually really bad at showing the depth and range of a model's colors, as everything seems to come out whiter or lighter than it really is. Getting an appropriate lamp can really help bring the color out.
2. Tripod or stability fixture. Pretty straight forward there.
3. Photo-editing software. You don't want to be deceptive in your presentation of your miniatures, but often the macro-setting on a camera can be a little TOO accurate. This means that it accentuates things like dust particles, small mistakes, color inconsistencies, etc, that are really not noticeable on a model to the regular eye. This can give an impression that you are much sloppier than you normally are, or that a model's highlighting is extremely stark in contrast when it actually blends together quite well. Just something to think about, but again, you don't want to cover up poor painting with digital touch-ups, just try to edit things in a way that's consistent with how it really looks in person.

Good luck!

[Mr.B]

Great job! ...one question. How many watches did you have to break to make the bases? haha

[DangerMouse]

Great job! ...one question. How many watches did you have to break to make the bases? haha

lol thanks guys,

The Clockwork bits i got off eBay in bulk and I did a how-to on the bases that is posted on my website HERE (http://lorddangermouse.com/id38.html).

-DM

[Parintachin]

Those bases are bleeding impressive!

Nice work on the minis as well (o:

[Falc]

Now, this might be because of the angle at which I'm watching this on my laptop, but you might want to try having some more lighting spots. Both models are casting a bit of a shadow on themselves, which makes it all just a bit less-than-perfect.