Noob Seeking Help with Lighting/ Photography

[Volatyle]

Hey there all,

I have just started getting back into 40k after 15 years and have started painting quite furiously! Still learning that as well but that is a different story

Well my problem is that I want to start photographing my minis properly but think I have a lot of learning and improving to do. I have read through a lot of the posts here, which I am thankful for! But before I start buying what I think I need and end up getting stuff I don't quite need, thought I would ask here. I have a habit of buying too impulsively!

Currently I am using my camera on my phone, 8 mpx on my Motorola razr. I use two lamps, cheap nothing fancy, both energy saving, one daylight and one is incandescent I believe. I will get the info on the light bulb/ lamp power later if that helps. I am planning on getting a 3rd light source and better light bulbs but wasn't sure what would be best. I feel I Need better light for my painting while I am at it.

I have also built a home made light box, but it probably needs work till I get a better setup. I use some backgrounds I found here that have helped. Photographing red space marines seems to be a problem. They are a lot more vibrant and highlighted when seen in person. Comes out quite flat

I have attached pics of my light setup and my attempts at photography

So basically I need help with advise on what lamps/ bulbs or techniques are a good way for me to improve !

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any help

Lighting needed for painting

 

[Bailey03]

I think you're off to a good start. As for me, I prefer using daylight bulbs. So if you're adding another light I'd recommend getting one of those bulbs for it. I use those when I paint as well. I also use energy saving bulbs, nothing wrong with them. Some take a minute or two to get to full brightness but when I'm setting up my photographs they are always ready before I'm prepared to take the picture.

One thing to consider is getting several different photo backgrounds for your figures. You can find plenty online. MassiveVoodoo has a couple you can download for free (http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2010/05/photo-backgrounds.html). If you have a decent color printer you're all set. Otherwise you can print them out at your local copy/office store for a few cents per page. The red space marines may pop more when put against different colored backgrounds. Experiment and see how they look.

You mentioned that the highlights aren't showing up well on camera. The bright lights tend to wash out the figure. You could try adding another layer of paper between the lights and the model or moving the lights farther away. Unfortunately subtle shading and highlighting has a hard time showing up on camera no matter what you do.

I'm always a little skeptical of phone cameras for pictures of small things like models. You might want to consider investing in a regular digital camera. But I don't think that's necessarily going to magically fix everything. So you'll have to decide if the cost is worth it.