Still plugging away here

[groffus]

I am still trying guys.
This is a mini I bought on ebay and I had it stripped, there was no banner with it so this will be another project for me, trying to design one for him.
As always helpful hints are always appreciated.

I am trying to get that GIMP think to make the images better but as I said before I am a numpty when it comes to things like that, I took some others but they were way to blurred to use.I tried pleading with the PC, then I tried to threaten it with a hammer, failing that I tried to use my Jedi mind powers and one stage I even got the wife and neigbours to hold hands and chant to see if that would help but the beast refused to budge. I guess what I am trying to say in a long winded fashion is that this is the best I could do both paint wise and picture wise.

:cussing:

 

[Avelorn]

The painting looks alright. Difficicult to see because of the picture.

Okay we\'ll just have to have to have a camera/photo walk through (you should have seen my first pictures, they were awful)!

What camera do you have?

Read this article

Do a gradient from a grey-blue to pure white (the gradient should end 2/3 down on the paper approximately) In GIMP and then print it out to the highest quality.

Good picture in no time

My basic setup:

The paper work as reflectors and ensures a pretty even lighting. I don\'t use a tripod for most of my miniatures but it\'s not a bad idea if you bother. I just take 5 or so pictures of each view with a steady hand, often supported against the table, a couple should turn out sharp then.

The result:

Raw 25% crop (a bit underexposed):

2 minutes of leveling, sharpening:

50% crop of the same picture:

The settings of my camera and model:
Sony Cyber-shot P100 5MP

Camera in manual mode, M on the main dial in 99% of the cases.

Macro mode: The little flower button you can press
White balance: set to fluorencent lighting. Usually the sign for it is a long rectangle with rays coming out.
Aperature: 5.4 (my model only have two settings) In manual mode it is the one denoted F5.4 on the LCD screen.
Shutter: 125 (milliseconds) should also be viewable on the LCD screen. How to change both these things should be in your manual, I can perhaps help if you give me the model of the camera.

Tools in photoshop:

Filter/sharpen/unsharp mask. Set this time to amount 100%, radius 0,9 and 3 treshold levels on the full image.

Image/adjustments/photofilter. Set to cyan 25%. This colour correcting can be done with \"color balance\" as well. Or the automatic leveling tool, but the result is often pretty crude with automatic functions. Different cameras will also have a cast in different colours even when set to the same whitebalance. So even if cyan works for me to remove the magenta cast of the untouched miniature it might not be as good for your specific cast of course.

Image/adjustment/levels. You can read about this one in the article I provided. I drag the little buttons so that the image look natural and as close to the real thing as possible. You can easily overdo this resulting in an overly contrasted miniature.

I haven\'t used GIMP but it should be something similar, maybe someone else can help out?

 

[supervike]

Wow!

Very helpful Sven!


Groffus...are you using a tripod of any sort? Blurry pics can be simply because you are slightly shaking the camera (regardless of how still you think you can hold it).

 

[groffus]

Thanks a lot guys!!! This is great


Avelorn Thank you so much for the help I am going to do just as you suggest and then repost.

supervike I am going to try and get my camera supported, I dont have a tripod.

 

[Legacy Account]

Good stuff Sven!

[size=-2]You could have cloned the muck on the background out though... [/size]

 

[groffus]

Hi guys,

Well I tried my best to copy you Sven, its not close to your quality but I still think its a big step forward for me.

I think a big part of my problem is the fact that I am using a camera on my mobile phone. So as soon as i get a hold of my wifes propper camera hopefully the phots will improve.

Once again THANKS

 

[arogers907]

Ok... the better pics definitely help you out.

A couple things and these are totally just personal commentary so take/use/leave this as you see fit.

1. Paint your bases. They don\'t have to be elaborate, but they ought to be finished.

2. Try thinning your paint and using many thin layers (as opposed to a few thinker ones). This will smooth out your paint jobs and make the finished minis seem less plasticy.

3. Several minis have blue, red, green, and yellow. That\'s fine I guess, but try picking a two tone color scheme and test it out. I think you might be pleased with the effect. Get variety from different shades of a couple colors instead of different colors entirely.

Just a couple thoughts.