Sharply after my day of Blood Bowl, I had a photography class to go to. This was one of the things I was most excited about! My photography reading and research has not been specifically about the topic of taking pictures of models. You read about macro, and they’re talking about bugs and other small things usually. And miniature bloggers don’t write much about their photography. Probably because, rightly so, they believe that their readers are there to read about models, rather than the finer points of focal lengths and depth of field!
At the end, this class wasn’t 2 hours of learning for me, simply because I have done so much research on my own. However, it had more than enough information that I didn’t have already, to make it a terrific class.
The class was held on the 13th floor of the hotel, in another hotel room converted into a gaming room. It had rows of desks with hobby lamps on them, and the previous class had left little piles of green stuff all over the place (man, I wish I’d been able to take that class…)
Here’s a summary of the things I took out of this class, that I didn’t know before:
White Balance
The white balance is apparently the most important thing to correct for. This makes sense, as without proper white balance, your colours will come out an entirely different shade or temperature (cool colours, warm colours) than the “actual model”. But even the words “actual model” are some what strange. I paint and mix and glaze under a florescent “daylight” light, which means that when my models are under another light, they aren’t the same colour I painted on!
You have to make sure that all of the lights you are using are the same temperature, otherwise you can’t possibly white balance. Some of the model will be lit by a warm light, some by a cool light, and there is no balance that can correct for that.
You should use a white card to set your camera’s definition of “white” before you start taking photos. This can be easily done with most prosumer cameras. (including mine) Look for “custom white balance”.
Softbox
He showed us how to make a simple softbox, using some frames, some vellum, and a few Home Depot lights. I have a white box already, but he added a simple white piece of paper in the front of it. This is used to bounce light up from the bottom of the box, which can fill in shadows from underneath the model. It was subtle when he showed us, but still noticeable if you looked. You can use a front light if you want, but you have to use the vellum (or other) to diffuse the light. Otherwise the light looks sharp and harsh on the model.
He used a gradient backdrop to create a simple background that didn’t draw the viewers attention away from the model. You can buy these, our just get one printed out. Most are a blue gradient to white.
I’ll save the step-by-step on creating a softbox, but if you’re interested please ask.
Setup
The human eye has vision equivalent to a 50mm lens (35mm equiv), which means that is the focal length you should shoot at. Don’t use the zoom to bring the model closer or further away, move your camera.
He doesn’t use RAW. Tends to think that it is a lot of memory, and that JPG is good enough since we’re mostly only making photos for display on the internet, rather than a magazine.
Shoot from above or at level with the model, never from below. From below is a horrible angle (insert sidebar about never shooting portrait photos from below). Ideally focus on the face. This follows the advice from my Masterclass painting to highlight the face more than the rest, since that’s where the viewers attention will be at.
Lastly, the best advice of the night: “if your subject isn’t moving, use a tripod”.
Sorry there are no photos in this photography post, we didn’t actually take any!
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