My second for your perusal and comments. I think I'm going to have to change how I photograph these, this mini looks a hell of a lot better "in the hand".
Before you start with highlights or shadows get a mini you really like. Make sure all the seam lines are removed etc.
With a good brush block in the separate colours for each area, skin, hair, clothes etc - take your time and build up the layers using thinned down paint.
You need to get much better use of brush control before moving on. Hope this helps. :)
Dare I suggest that it's not how you photograph them, but how you're painting them? You don't seem to have given any attention to the contours and shapes of this mini beside drybrushing his cape. I'm not even sure which bits of the blob of flesh colour in the middle are supposed to be nose, mouth and eyes. To be fair to your painting, it doesn't look like the best-designed miniature in the world, either. The skull on the staff is pretty weird, and the hat looks more blobby than floppy.
Still, a judicious use of washes to provide depth and contrast would go a long way to fixing many of the issues on the mini. And making sure that the colours you use stay on the parts of the model for which they are intended (q.v. the aforementioned skull and the point where hand turns into staff), will also help a great deal.
Your photography, actually, is pretty good. A little over-exposed, perhaps, but in good focus and a very decent size for viewing.
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