What is with the WebCams? (rant)

[Lurch]

Why do people insist on posting fuzzy, unlit pics of minis taken with their cheapo webcam? I mean seriously I cant see a damn thing in these photos.
It seems like the last 20 or so minis I have rated have been some form of webcam pic that VAGUELY resembles the sillouette of a mini.

Give us a clear pic of your mini or your gonna get slammed with a bad rating ! :flame:
It makes no sense to spend hours on your figure then post a pic that shows nothing but a form.
If you dont have a digital camera, use a scanner.
No Digital camare OR scanner? Take a regular pic and have the developer put it on a disk ( They can do that these days you know..)
But whatever you do, lay off the cheapo webcams
Sheesh!
End rant

 

[hullukoira]

Hear hear!

Scanner is these days very cheap method for getting rather fine pics. And then, if you really are into minipainting, it is always worth investing into a good camera (with macrolens)

I suppose the worst pics come from kids who do not have resources to get better equipment.

Where I live librarys have computer rooms with scanners and printers and whatnots. Kids can go into library and scan their minis there. Great innit?:bouncy:

 

[wightzombie]

i think we should have \"killer\" moderators that have the powah to kill bad pictures. i mean i know people are cool and excited and stuff but dang man, i just feel stupid trying to stare a pic down feeling bad if im giving a good mini a bad vote because the pic is crapped. or i get pissed and give it a 1! good days, bad days.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Where I live librarys have computer rooms with scanners and printers and whatnots. Kids can go into library and scan their minis there.

Yeah and if they are anything like a local one close to where I work the Librarians stand overthem and watch like hawks. Put\'s kids well off. Sad

 

[Treacherous_1]

its the urge...

im sure im right in saying that those that use a web cam use it because the urge of putting a pic on the site is too great.:duh: meaning they cant wait for a couple of days for a photo. may aswell make use of a resource that is available, they would say.

i didnt realise they would put normal photos onto a disk for you, thought that was just digitals. to be honest i wouldnt go without my digital cam. its quality!!!

 

[Corvus]

another benifit of using a scanner, except for being cheap and easy to use, is that you\'ll always have good lighting

IMO producing a good pic with a digital camera is much more difficult than with a scanner. For example my Sered miniature is currently rated 8.0, a picture created with my scanner: http://www.coolminiornot.com/index.php?id=30208&c=All&m=All&nm=none

A few weeks ago I borrowed my friend\'s digital camera and decided to take some pictures. I wasn\'t going to put much effort in it, because it wasn\'t my intention to photograph minis, so I put the mini on my desk, a light on top of it, camera in macro mode, and snap! These are the results: http://www.coolminiornot.com/index.php?id=31606&c=All&m=All&nm=none

The score? 7.7

I\'m not really amazed at the low score, because I\'m no specialist at digital camera photography, but it is the same mini anyway (except for the grass on the base which I glued on afterwards)...

Just to say: a scanner is okay if you don\'t have the skills and/or tools to do digital photography.

And yes, please ditch that webcam :innocent:

Cheers,

-Gerrie.

 

[Aryanun]

Unfortunately not all people 1) are good at photography in general, 2) have the money to even afford a scanner, much less anything else (or they\'re too young), 3) are anal-retentive photographers who take too long to get their film developed or aren\'t yet happy with the current quality of affordable digital cameras (me), or 4) just don\'t understand the basics.

My boyfriend uses his Gameboy Advance (he has a camera for it) or his webcam because either I ran out of film or he\'s over-anxious to get pics of his minis up. Meanwhile, I\'m still looking at digital cameras (the Sony F828 that\'s coming out is looking mighty nice, although the F717 might do for me) because if I\'m going to invest, I want to make certain the camera is going to do what I want it to do, not what it thinks I want it to do.

True, while a better picture will show off a mini to it\'s best, it doesn\'t necessarily mean we need to flame or slam them for it. Be nice and explain what the problem is, ie: \"Your picture is fuzzy and I can\'t see details, which is why I\'ve rated you low. My advice would be to check out .... for tips on how to get a better image of your mini posted.\" Giving constructive criticism will gain you not only the appreciation of the person doing the posting, but you don\'t come off as an a-hole in the process (unless you really do want to come off as one).

 

[Sand Rat]

Originally posted by Treacherous_1
im sure im right in saying that those that use a web cam use it because the urge of putting a pic on the site is too great.:duh: meaning they cant wait for a couple of days for a photo. may aswell make use of a resource that is available, they would say.

i didnt realise they would put normal photos onto a disk for you, thought that was just digitals. to be honest i wouldnt go without my digital cam. its quality!!!

I was going to do some snippage, but I want to address the whole post, and just so you know, I aint picking on you there Treacherous_1 -

So let me see if I got this strait - you spend hours/days/weeks/months getting the mini just right, and then you rush the picture up with a lousey web cam? Sure the quality of the web cams is coming up, but they still suck rocks. This is where I agree with Lurch in this thread - where I dont agree is that if thats all you got then you shouldnt post the picture - but there are things that can be done to make even those pictures presentable, if nothing else. As for the wait time you mentioned in being able to get the photo\'s up, in the area I live, you can get photos processed and onto disk in about 1 hr - thats from raw film to negatives and cd with the pictures on it. Cost? Well, there\'s the initial film cost (anywhere from a buck a roll up depending on what you buy), your time to take the photo\'s, drive to the developer, and then depending on the lab about $1.99 a roll to have them developed and $3.49 for the cd plus tax - those prices are for developement in a local grocery store so you could go shopping while you wait for developement - then you take the disk home and there you are - ready to roll. Sure, it would be nice to have a high end digital camera (the ones I want run between $1900-3000 without lenses) but there are other solutions.

 

[Corvus]

I\'ve seen cameras of 350-500 euros which perform just fine when it comes down to photographing minis, of course all these cameras have a macro function. But then you don\'t have all the fancy stuff such as night shot and such

 

[Aryanun]

Most people don\'t have $300+ to spend on a digital camera, or even a regular film camera. As it is for me, between rent, food, gas, car, insurance, electricity, phone... all those things that make life livable, my paycheck is eaten up and I get paid well. It\'s still going to take me about a month to save the $1000 I need for the camera I\'ll settle for. Even for someone who can settle for something less expensive, in the $200-$250 range of a decent used camera, that\'s a pipe dream, especially when you can get a web cam for under $100.

Not everyone can afford extra luxuries, and face it, a camera is an extra luxury. If it\'s the only thing available to you, you use what you\'ve got.

I know people who still don\'t have a computer. They can\'t afford one as they are struggling just to make ends meet and put food on the table. They pretty much take what they can get. If that affects how their minis are rated, then that\'s the price they are willing to pay.

Where my boyfriend is concerned, he\'s been painting all of two weeks now and he knows his stuff isn\'t that great, but he\'s not doing it for competition. It\'s relaxing and fun and just a hobby. He takes pics because some people ask to see his work.

Shoot, in the time it\'s taken me to finish one mini, he\'s done five. Then again, I\'m working on perfecting things while he\'s just tooling around.

As for getting an image placed on cd via the photo lab, that\'s great and all so long as the original processing is done right in the first place.

Which is why I always tell them \"Print for Subject.\" Of course, that doesn\'t always work, so I take it to someone I know will do it right, my old boss. Plus he gives me 1/2 off of everything.

 

[Lizardmen]

Hey why don\'t you guys give me the money to buy a decent camera?

I am a college student and with a ton of loans, my GW addition and my studies I don\'t have time and money to buy the good stuff. I don\'t use my scanner because it would break my figures and I paided alot of money for them, so I don\'t take the chance. So I use what I can. Don\'t like it? You don\'t have to vote no ones making you vote.

 

[Errex]

Seems to me someone was just having a bad day, and something of a sugar rush.

While I agree on liking to see decent pictures, I just could not support the idea of having some type of \"Image Quality Police\" on this site. I\'d rather go with the post of a constructive criticism, and vote what I see accordingly to it\'s merits (I mean, enough of this \"This is my mini, but I swear it looks a ton better in real life\" comments. News Flash: ALL minis look better IRL. Just the same as appearing on TV makes you look as if you gained 30 pounds, so there).

Back on topic. I find that webcams can do a passable job when doing Work In Progress shots, but do require a lot of fiddling to get a viewable pic of a finished piece.

 

[Sand Rat]

@Corvus - yup, I\'ve seen those cameras also and they are wonderful. I\'m also trying to change jobs and break into commercial photography as something more than a hobby and need the higher end camera for the work so thats what I\'ve got to spend.

@Aryanun - you\'re right also, if thats all you\'ve got, then by all means post the shot - all I was saying was there are other options out there that can be tapped - I realize that not everyone can afford a decent 35mm, let alone a digital rig, so you works with what you got (my first and to date only shots were done with a borrowed Sony camera and then posted from a friends computer (they had photoshop and I didn\'t) so I can understand about not having the equipment on hand to do the job

@Lizardmen - most of the older members on the site have been in the postition you\'re in at one time or another so dont sweat it - but as a suggestion, one of the things that I have seen that will really piss folks on this site off is making demands - couch your request as that and you will get better response than if you demand they do something

 

[Lurch]

300 dollars for a digital camera? gimme a break. Cheap Digatal cameras are ALL over the net.
I searched EBAY and found TONS of them for less that 50 US dollars and almost all had the Macro function so helpful with minature phography.
Dont believe me? Check EBAY.
Or better yet, here is EBAY\'s Vivatar Digital camera store:
http://www.stores.ebay.com/vivitarfactorystore/plistings/list/all/dept1/index.html

 

[hullukoira]

Another thing wort remembering:

Even if you do not have equipment to get good pics, there is sure to be someone other hobbyist in your town who has!
Way to see if there is indeed someone to get those pics for you is to go to your local forums and ask there. (with local forum I mean the most popular national forum of your country...)

 

[Corvus]

Originally posted by Lizardmen
Hey why don\'t you guys give me the money to buy a decent camera?

I am a college student and with a ton of loans, my GW addition and my studies I don\'t have time and money to buy the good stuff. I don\'t use my scanner because it would break my figures and I paided alot of money for them, so I don\'t take the chance. So I use what I can. Don\'t like it? You don\'t have to vote no ones making you vote.

Do some commissioned painting jobs and start saving for that camera, like me
But of course, if you want to show people your services, you need decent pictures...

 

[Aryanun]

Originally posted by Lurch
300 dollars for a digital camera? gimme a break. Cheap Digatal cameras are ALL over the net.
I searched EBAY and found TONS of them for less that 50 US dollars and almost all had the Macro function so helpful with minature phography.
Dont believe me? Check EBAY.
Or better yet, here is EBAY\'s Vivatar Digital camera store:
http://www.stores.ebay.com/vivitarfactorystore/plistings/list/all/dept1/index.html

True, but the question is, do they actually work? Last time I bought a camera (film) from Ebay it had a light leak which didn\'t show in the inital roll of film I shot, but grew worse as the months went on. Even then, for some, $50 is a lot of money. Shoot, I remember a time when $5 was a lot of money and I couldn\'t afford ramen. I ate popcorn for a month because a bag for under $1 would last me two weeks or more.

So before you start off on \"they should do this or that\" you might consider that \"they\" might not be as lucky as you. They might live out in BFE where the closest person to them is three miles away or more, and as for other hobbyists, those people could be more like 100-200 miles away. If someone doesn\'t have a car, that\'s a tad bit far to walk. You use what you have available. Sure, they know their pics aren\'t publisher quality, but all their trying to do is share their love for the hobby. Don\'t come down on them for that.