"photos of minis for rulebook" Topic

I'm taking photos to include in BLOODY DAWN (Alamo). As a matter of aesthetics versus recognition of reality (i.e. these are toys on a tabletop, not real soldiers in battle) do folks prefer:

1) as far as possible, conceal the bases and movement trays. using flocking etc to hide straight lines, try to make the photo look like the real thing;

OR

2) take a nice photo of a GAME being played, without worrying about the fact that the miniatures are mounted on bases with lots of unrealistic straight lines visible?

I own hundreds of old WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED and, while I am no professional photographer, I can work towards that standard.

On the other hand, no wargame actually played ever looks like one of their covers, even if we DO remove the dice and the coffee cups.

So what's a reasonable standard for photos illustrating a game in progress, to be included in the rules book?

Can you do both without it being a problem?

You can do some eye candy shots to make the book look good.

You can do some more unobstructed shots for illustration for mechanics.

Doc Happy New Year to you and David and families.
I hope Splintered Light makes it back to Hurrioon or Recon soon.

I agree with Knighttemplarr. A mix of both would be nice. I do like the shots of the figures with the bases blurred into the back ground but then for some shots it would be nice to see that they are figures.

If they are big battle scenes blurring would be best though.

Thanks, KT. Which cons we do is up to David, and primarily a function of his day job and limited number of days off.

Yes, I can do some of both. I agree that eye candy is dandy (but liquor is quicker).

2 for sure…. I want to see the game played by the desinger.. Meaning it is playtested… No faked photos for me please.

Yes, that is a good point. Best way to take pics is during a game.

For a game rulebook, I would prefer the pictures to look like they have been taken from actual game situations.

That said, for photos in particularly central locations (like in the cover) you might want to do a few "diorama" style shots where the bases are less visible and maybe the setting is more dramatic looking than you could expect from a usual game.

Definitely decide the type of pic by function.

Consider either an drawing (possibly as abstract as a sport X's and O's diagram) or a pic from play to illustrate important rules points.

Nice pics should function as filler to help you with pagination and alignment.

Everyone seems to agree that a case-by-case mixture is best. Makes a lot of sense. Thanks.