I got a new camera... but I still have no photoshop skills.

[Necroghast]

Well, last night I got a new, better camera and took some shots of my models. My photoshop skills are still lacking though so I wanted to post the images here so I could get some feedback instead of just a score. I've got more stuff, but heres what I have for now:

A space marine, no particular chapter, tried to do some OSL and it kind of worked except for on the head:

And the ork I did for that paint off challenge. (got into the finals at GD baltimore 09 in WH40K single, but didn't place)

And, not really anything I want criticism on, but this is the first army I've finished, legion 19, Raven Guard:

So I just need some criticism on the first stuff. Photoshop ideas might be nice too, I've read countless articles and even taken a computer art class, but they're always so technical and use technical terms that I just dont know.... Thanks

 

[Rugne]

Hmmm.. looks good to me, but larger pictures would be nice, can't really tell on some of them and they also seem to be pretty dark.

Marc

 

[freakinacage]

the dude at the top looks like he has one of those oversize foam hands. is it that big irl or is it the perspective?

 

[Tercha]

I am no expert, but i would say,
1. More light
2. A neutral background and leave it in white is too much contrast
3. 1 image at a time (it looks cluttered to me as a montage)

 

[Necroghast]

the dude at the top looks like he has one of those oversize foam hands. is it that big irl or is it the perspective?

It's that big irl. (powerfist) In terms of everything else, I'm going to take some new pictures later, camera battery is charging right now as I've been messing around with it all day.

 

[Necroghast]

So I printed out a gradient background and used that. Heres the same stuff with that, and no photoshopping:

 

[Tercha]

To me that looks lots better, a bit of cropping, and maybe trying other light sources? such as filling in from the front?

 

[freakinacage]

It's that big irl. (powerfist)

fecking hell!! whys it that big? is that a stock fist or have you sculpted it yourself?

 

[Rugne]

I think it's stock... the bloody things have been getting bigger and bigger.

Marc

 

[freakinacage]

that.is.mental.

 

[Chrome]

Yeah, I'm using stock power fists for normal marines when converting hands for my dreadnoughts.

 

[Necroghast]

Haha, I wish I had sculpted it myself, but no it's stock. I think it's from the assault squad set.

 

[Necroghast]

Any criticism for the painting though? I think my biggest problem right now is paints being too thick. Also I've been finding it hard to keep dust and junk out of the paint because its just EVERYWHERE in my house. I guess it's the price you pay when you live with 4 cats.

 

[Phaty]

Nice works. I like the shaman.
Space marine is well done as well .... but the green lighting on his helmet doesn't work for me. I´m not sure if it's casted by gun or by some focus top light - but it looks a bit flat for "rounded shape".
About new camera - try to setup some higher aperture (like 11 and more - depends on your camera) to get a sharp macros. It'll take longer exposure time - but it will draw sharp miniature even with pieces which are to far or to close your focused point.
Also - looks like your using direct lights during taking pictures - using some transparent material between light and model can help you draw pretty soft shadows.
But it's all just minor thingies so .... nothing you really need to do .. just in case.
Ah .. and about photoshop for miniatures - I think your pretty fine with just "auto-levels" function and "crop the image"

 

[Necroghast]

Yeah the green on the helmet didn't work. Oh well, first try, hopefully it will be better next time.

 

[Necroghast]

How would I go about posting all these pictures in my gallery in two groups (1 for sm 1 for ork) while keeping them the same size? Can I import multiple pictures on 1 submission or do I have to do some photoshop thing?

 

[Necroghast]

I combined them into 1 picture but its too small to see detail. When I try to resize it it gets all blurry. So how should I do it?

 

[Chrome]

(Assuming you have photoshop and not Elements)

you can open one of the pictures in photoshop, open the menu 'Image', select 'Canvas size'. there you will have one info square showing the current width and height and under that you will find an editing window. First off, in the image named 'Anchor', press the arrow pointing straight up, this ensures that the image will stay at the top of the canvas (you'll get my ranting soon) then uncheck the box named 'Relative' just above the Image with all the arrows. Then double or triple the value in the 'Height' box. When that is done press 'OK'.

You will now find that you have a large white area (it might be checkered depending on your Ps settings) under your picture. Now you can just copy/paste the second image into this image and use the 'Move tool'(the black arrow tool) to adjust the new Layer's position. Repeat this with as many pictures you wish to add. If you run out of space, just repeat the first instruction I gave.

Hope I made some sense. Cheers!

 

[Necroghast]

Well, that works when its in photoshop, but it gets reverted to this size when I try to upload it:

Sorry if I'm just being really stupid or something...

 

[Phaty]

Just thought - it might be upload setting in your photobucket account.
Your picture is 284px × 639px now - is it how it cames from photoshop to your hard drive ?