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Craig

Photography

Macro photography! (for realz, kinda)

Posted on October 26, 2011

I ordered a set of macro extension tubes for my camera. They are just an adapter that puts extra space between the lens and the camera body, which brings the focal point closer to the end of the lens. There are three different tubes, marked 28mm, 14mm and 7mm. As well you can go without a tube, which I called 0mm (but it really still a fair distance). If you desire, you can add them together to go further.

There is no electrical connection on these tubes, which means that auto-focus and aperture settings are completely unavailable. You focus by moving the focus ring on the lens, or by…moving the camera closer and further away from the subject :). The aperture is wide-open and you can’t change that, which has some ramifications.

This lets you take photos of things much closer up!

A few things I learned:

  • You have to use each marked tube section individually. Starting with 28+14+7mm total is veeeery blurry.
  • Because the aperture is wide open, the only way to change it is to change lenses. My 28mm Prime is f/2.5 wide open, and my 28mm-82mm is f/3.5-f/5.6.
  • The f/2.5 is a lot brighter, so I was able to take photos a little faster and reduce motion blur. But you also get a much shallower depth of field, so only small sections of the photo can be in focus at once.
  • The 28mm-82mm is best used at full zoom so that the lens can be further away from the target, so you can get more light on the target. Because it’s f/5.6 at full zoom, you need a lot of light!

What this means is that where in most situations a bright lens is better, here it might be better to get a longer zoom so that you can get further away so as to not bump into the target, with a higher minimum aperture so that you can get more target into the depth of field.

Here’s some photos to hopefully illustrate. I took a head shot and then a series of gun shots – I could get the lens closer to the gun so it was generally a better picture.

[You can click on the photos to open up larger versions. Be warned – they are LARGE versions – 4000×3000]

28mm lens/7mm macro. A couple really close images. Still to short a focus depth.
28mm lens/0mm macro. I took a series of photos of the tank of the flamer to illustrate how shallow the depth of field is on the 28mm f/2.5. Watch as the sharp part of the image moves towards the back of the tank.
82mm lens/28mm macro. This distance was largely unusable – I couldn’t get the camera close enough to the face to be able to take a non-blurry photo.
82mm lens/14mm macro. Still closer.
82mm lens/7mm macro. Closer…
82mm lens/0mm macro. Closer than the camera usually is able to get, but still pretty far away. This isn’t bad.

I like learning new things. 😀

Photography

“Macro photography”

Posted on October 3, 2011

While this is a painting-blog, I feel as though it’s also got a minor in being a photo-blog. I’m taking photos of models, so while I can have the most beautiful model on the planet (still working on that part…), if the photo I’ve taken of that model is crap then the output will look like crap. Which means that the subject of photography is entirely on-topic :).

With the new camera (Panasonic GF3), now I have some options. Buuuuut the macro lens that I’m looking at is $1200 new…(one on Craigslist for $650, but that’s still a little much >.<), so I was looking at other options.

Two things I found. First, you can get “extension tubes” which go between your camera and any regular lens. When you pull the lens away from the camera, it brings the focal point closer to the lens, which means you can get much closer. I’m told that the optics suffer slightly, but if I could find an inexpensive tube it might be worth the trouble. Right now, the best option is to buy an M4/3->X adapter and then buy a cheap X-mount lens and use that. I’m not a huge fan of this…since the expensive part would be the lens, but I really only want the tube!

Reading some more last night, I found another idea…but it’s not a good idea for general-purpose photography! Apparently you can take your lens off the camera and switch it around and it will act very macro-y. So I gave it a try to see what that looked like – very cool! (A few warnings: you have to hold your lens in place, you can get dust on the insides of your lens or mirror/sensor of your camera. Don’t do this if you’re paranoid about those things).

[You can click on the photos to open up larger versions. Be warned – they are LARGE versions – 4000×3000]

I also like how in some of these photos, I’m close enough that you can see the “bubbles” of paint – this isn’t good, you want a smooth finish :).
I took a few of these face photos. Each time, my hand moved a little bit and so the depth-of-field changed slightly. Each photo has something entirely different in sharp focus.
I switched to the 14-42 in the reverse position and then moved the zoom to it’s longest extension. This let me get a little further from the model, so I could get more light onto the model so I could step everything else down.
I turned up the aperture on the camera for this one, as well as the exposure value, to make it a little brighter. If the aperture is actually adjusted on the lens…what does the aperture setting do when the camera can’t talk to the lens?
I tried first with the 14mm. An issue was that the lens had to get so close to the model that most of the light was blocked.
This is the closest that my 14-42mm lens can get in the normal configuration while still having the entire model in focus. Also, this model was just sitting on my desk – not the best paint job (but not bad either :)).
Close up of my lens cap. 14mm F2.5

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Work-in-progress

Terrain: Orky Lander 1

Posted on October 1, 2011

I’ve been thinking about this blog since I got my new camera. One of the things I wanted when I started it, was to purchase a macro lens so I could take some better close-up model photos. I still don’t have the macro, but I do have some models…

I’ve been working on a piece of terrain. Started with a piece of “hardboard”/MDF and used my Dremel to cut it out to shape. Glued down a piece of construction foam to serve as a core. Added wood filler, hot glue, and plasticard to create the shape you see below. Then a few select pieces from my never-shrinking box of bitz, and voila, you have something that resembles a crashed Ork lander.


Painting started with a drybrush Codex Gray+Fortress Gray. They’re my Ork base colours. Regal Blue on the Space Marine tank parts (again, to match my army). Then…I got an airbrush. And started to use it :P. Airbrushed on the metal, then a couple layers of different grays, then the black.

A few things I’m not happy about right now: the black isn’t scorched enough, the hot glue needs to be something, and the entire piece is really just a big gray lump on the table, and the lighting of my photography…

Ah well. Better than nothing, right? 🙂

Featured Images

Kroxigors – Final 2

Posted on March 11, 2011

The other photos of these guys weren’t so awesome, so I took the time last weekend to take some better ones. Some sunlight, a white box and a few ambient lights later and I have some decent photos.

Also, Cin might be right. Dude on the left is pretty adorable :P.

Featured Images

Kroxigors – Final

Posted on March 4, 2011

Alright! These guys were 3/4s finished when I got inspired to paint/assemble again, so they were an obvious choice for finishing up. I’m VERY happy with how they turned out (although slightly embarrassed about the blurry guy on the left…bad photographer!). Went to GW tonight, almost had a game but there was a couple people there ahead of me, so I sat down, pulled out some models and a paintbrush and had at ’em. The result – finished kroxigors. Awesome. 🙂

Particularly pleased with their backs. Horns down the center are a simple Scorched Earth, Dessert Yellow, Bleached Bone combination, heavily watered to allow for decent blending (actually, now that I look again…these photos all suck…damnit >.<). The scales are my favourite part – again, really simple – Mechrite Red, Blood Red and Blazing Orange. My favourite thing is that I don’t think I’ve ever successfully done a very light edging of a strong highlight colour. Whenever I try, it usually ends up looking to strong, to thick, to blocky. But this time…oh this time, I took my time, had the right amount of water and it worked out wonderfully. You really should see them in person, they are amazing.

This gives me hope – it means that I should have two really amazing looking units, and two pretty good looking units and my army is just going to pop off the table with the strong reds/oranges against the cold gray. Very excited to start working on the next 10 Temple Guard (yes…I assembled another 10 of them…).

Featured Images

Wizards – Final

Posted on March 4, 2011

I bought Duke the Empire Wizard box for his birthday. I also promised I’d paint them for him, for his fledgling Empire army. I assembled and primed them…and then, like so many other projects on my desk, left them to languish.

But a sudden flush of painting/modeling inspiration, brought on by an invitation to the Throne of Skulls tournament in June, has had me attempting to clear some of the crap off my desk. The first step – finish these two models so I didn’t have to feel guilty about them sitting on my desk anymore 😛

The disclaimer: I suck at human flesh >.<. Also, the cloaks were less interesting to paint than I had hoped. Sooo…overall…models less awesome than I had hoped :(.

The first is a Life wizard in a delicious Snot Green.

The second a Death (or Shadow) wizard, in Lich Purple.

(I didn’t do the bases on purpose – left those to Duke’s thematic desire).

Work-in-progress

Ork Warboss 1

Posted on January 7, 2011

I’m re-jigging my Ork army a little bit in the face of Derrick having played and provided input on it.

Prepare yourself…for Dug’s latest creation!

I’m going to take one of these…and put a warboss in it. I don’t quite know how yet, but that’s usually the best part of being an Ork. 😀

WAAAAAAGGHHHH!!!!

(also the Kroxigors are making fine progress, just haven’t posted any photos recently – I should make time to do that, since they have several layers on them now).

Musings & Meta

Site change, WordPress update

Posted on December 18, 2010

Heelllllllllooo readers!

A couple days ago I changed hosts. The old one was dumb. Now that I have my shit off of it, I’m happy to say – never use WebServe.ca. Terrible customer service, and then randomly…you’d find someone competent to help you out. I have a long list of irritations from them, and a 2-line list of good things. (They are cheap, and some CSR named Kate was actually pro-active about helping me out, instead of solving my problem and then neglecting to tell me about the other 2 things that needed doing…like her co-workers).

Also, WordPress updated to 3.0.3. Less exciting :).

Work-in-progress

Kroxigors 1

Posted on December 2, 2010

Got down to some minor painting this evening at GW after a solid game. Put a layer of dry brushed Codex Gray and a wash of Badab Black on these bad boys. Got home and pulled out the new camera (I don’t think I mentioned a new camera) and the mini-studio and took a few photos.

I like it! Not as nice as my dads DSLR, but not nearly as expensive either :). Oh, and the kroxigors are pretty cool too :).

Work-in-progress

Painting fail

Posted on September 27, 2010

So I left Astronomi-con, as usual, filled with passion and bluster and all that good stuff, ready to take on the painting world.

And I promptly fell into high-geek-mode in League of Legends. >.<

So, I post for you, tonight, the first model-based activity I’ve partaken in for a month and a bit:

The movement tray!

<.<

It’s not done. >.>

Ok, so none of us is impressed.

However, what will go onto this movement tray should be pretty cool. I finally got over my anger at GW and ordered Kroxigors for a skink and krox unit. (The anger was related to the fact that I couldn’t impulse-buy Kroxigors…that I was FORCED to order them in…piss me off…still).

So I present to my collected readership (of 1 or 2?) a poll. I have several things I want to work on next (somehow, all for my lizardmen army). So, should I…:

  1. Paint the kroxigors that I’ve just ordered. No conversions planned. A little boring in comparison to some other things I’ve worked on recently, but that’s a-ok.
  2. Work on a skink standard bearer conversion. Lizardmen don’t really need a standard bearer…but they’re just so damned useful in 8th edition that I can’t seem to leave him out.
  3. Convert some chameleon skinks. I can’t stand the metal models, and I think it’s finally driving me to do some conversions of these.
  4. Paint Chakax. I have the model and it’s awesome, and I promised I’d paint him here, but never got around to it.
  5. Put together the “front row” of the skinks with javelin and shields. I think GW current rules say just the front row…anyway, I have 24 skinks with blowpipes I’m using in this unit right now. I’d use 10 from the box for chameleons, the rest would become javelin/shield skinks.

I think that’s about all I have on the planner right now. Anyone have any thoughts? And “All of them!” isn’t an answer – I need to prioritize!