Background Help

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I've recently taken about 200 pics of my latest project. I'm struggling though, because I can't duplicate the effects I get when I take the photo outside and in front of my sliding glass door. Something about this angle, at a certain time of the day, makes the light reflect off of the glass and hit the mini from behind. This causes the highlights and shadows to be perfect. If I put a background behind the mini, the brilliance disappears. So this leads to my question.

Can photoshop or something similar be used to make the background black or white? And if this CAN be done (and it doesn't take an inordinate amount of time and effort) could I persuade a friend to do this to 4-5 photos for me? Unfortunately, my extremely expensive laptop was stolen a few months back and I have neglected to purchase one since. Therefore, if it isn't imposing too much effort, and you can do this, please PM me with your email and I'll send some on over. Or just let me know if this is difficult and time consuming and I'll be happy with using other pics. Thanks and here is an example:

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Just so you can see the difference in brilliance. Here is a pic with background:

 

[Webmonkey]

have you tried a large curved piece of paper in the back,.. then pull the piece a bit forward on the paper. That way you can drop the "spot" of light behind the piece and let the remaining "ambient" light illuminate it from the rear. Once you drop the camera down to be level, you shouldn't see the spot behind the piece at all. (also, making the paper be white might help reflect the light a bit more)

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Thanks Web. I did take your advice with moving the figure far forward and it helped a bit. Thanks for that. Special thanks to Demihuman for helping with the montage...again. Waiting for approval for the gallery...

 

[BloodASmedium]

It's up!!! It's up .. Now just hope the first 30-50 votes set a nice pace for true scoring its no less than perfect color, base storyline it's all quite in a word :MAG NI FI CENT!!!

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Hey, thanks a lot BaM. Very kind of you to say. Ill admit that I wish I would have gone win a simpler base, but the large one allowed me to learn a lot. Here is what I went with in the end (and the voting link). No as brilliant as I'd like, but it came out not too bad.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/364012

 

[Webmonkey]

try changing your ISO settings down to around 100 (or auto),.. use your macro function,.. and if your camera has it, try setting your aperature setting to 16 or 18 (for depth of field). This might help the focus issues some. Note the fuzzy foreground and background areas in picture 1. See how the sharp focus is in the area about an inch under his feet. And when we get up to his head, or down to the front edge of the base,.. see how it starts to blurr? We want to try to eliminate this as much as possible. So the setting I've just given might help.

Just some friendly advice from a guy who's been wrestling with pics for ages now. Feel free to take it or leave it as you like.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Web, your advice is very much appreciated. And I'm glad I have the benefit of going back and referencing this later. But you see, all of my photos are from the good old iphone. In fact, everything I do on this site is done from the iPhone. So how can I bitch about my photos, right? Thanks though I will certainly take ur advice when I can!!!