Friday 18 August 2017

Dynamic Miniature Photography - Part 2

I wrote an article a little while ago extolling the virtues of taking dynamic photos of your miniatures. It was quite well received, and I've been doing a few more experiments with the technique lately.



These pictures aren't produced with any special wizardry; quite the opposite actually. All I use is a few bits of scenery with a backdrop and a light. In this instance, I was using a red backdrop to try and get a cool "evil dawn" kind of looking thing going on (if that is a thing...). It does add a nice bit of ambiance though. The camera is just the one off of my ipad, so nothing special, and a decent phone camera would do you just as proud.

 
One of the tings that I've particularly enjoyed is that taking photos like these can be a great excuse to throw good practice out the window. In the picture above I was only lighting the models from one side, which doesn't give you a great view of their paintwork; but it does give a great feel. I've done a little digital editing afterwards as well, but only to crop the pictures and darken them to make them more moody and realistic.


I've found that a slight upwards angle often helps the shots, as it takes the bases out of the picture a bit and really helps the miniatures look like they're part of the scenery. The picture above is tow of Anvil's Regiments range hanging out in some GW ruins, but you have to admit that they look a lot more exciting than the description sounds!



It can be fun to play around with your lights too. I got this interesting moody photo by moving the light so that the miniature I was taking a photo of was actually obscured. Sounds sill, but I think it looks like a still from Resident Evil or something. Those odd shapes in the red background are actually bits of what the background was leaning against (picture frames), but who cares. I'm not looking for perfection, so much as just interesting with these kind of photos anyway.

You might be wondering what use this could be. Well, for one thing, some exciting pictures never hurt the popularity of a blog! They also might help to keep people's attention who are reading (did you make it this far? because I know you wouldn't have without the pictures!). They could be great to include in a campaign though or just a write up of your army's background with some cool shots of units/characters thrown in. After all, we all like to think about the place our forces would have in the fictional worlds that they inhabit.



Anyway, that about sums the process up. I think the results are really cool though, and this zombie battle scene was fun to put together and photograph.

I'm in a bit of a hobby slump at the moment (well, actually distracted by other hobbies), so I hope you enjoyed this slightly random article.

Until next time...


1 comment:

  1. I've been playing around with this a bit myself. Just tossing a few bits of Terrain in my light box along with whatever Models I want pics of. It's really quite fun, and does produce more interesting shots. Nice for mixing in with some "cleaner" ones that show off the Model itself better to get some more of the whole feel for the Unit in its setting.

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