"Miniature Photography" Topic

Hello again all,
Seeing that I struggle to have good photos of my minis , I decided to look around & found this great tutorial & decided to share.They have some other very good tutorials so look around.

Comments & suggestions are welcome.

rustandthecity.blogspot.ca/2012/06/budget-miniature-photography-my-tools.html

Z

Henry Hyde has just published the first of a series of articles on the subject in MWBG No. 377.

Thanks, Z.

I have the same obsolete but worthy Canon A530 … it takes beautiful sharp pictures ..

Sometimes it doesn't (the difference is me – especially noticeable on the Sunday morning of a 2-day event where I have enjoyed the odd glass or two the evening before …) ..

It always got through batteries quickly so I replaced them with a pair of Sony rechargeables. Never had a problem since (the rechargeables last longer anyway, then die progressively – so don't catch you out – and then charge up over night and have done so for years )

The drawback of the A530 is the small screen on the back (hence my lower success rate if hungover …)

Phil

One thing it didn't mention in the article is the importance of a tripod. Just a small table top tripod will do. Mount your camera on the tripod, and use the self timer function on your camera, and you will eliminate the biggest source of vibration – your hands.

nice, thanks for posting

You're all more than welcome.
Thanks for reminding me of the self timer function taskforce58
I used it for my next post.

I presently use a Fuji Finepix J50 compact, its small & handy. The main drawback I find is the large Tft screen on the back as focusing is not that precise sometimes, I prefer a Dslr ( Digital SLR ) as these have adjustable focus eye pieces,much better for focusing.Unfortunately I had one but it died on me .

Z

I use a iPevo Point to View document camera, mostly because I am a total wash with any sort of handheld camera.

link

Nive piece of kit infojunky but is it good for mini photography ?

Z

Somebody suggested to me that Nikon Coolpix range of cameras are particularly good for shooting Macro pics. I'm kinda tempted to replace my current Fuji Finepix with one.

infojunky the iPevo Point 2 View looks very interesting. Probably the camera is decent and the software is handy but it looks like what really makes it work is the articulated stand. And the price is quite affordable. Thanks for the link.

Fizzypickles. I have a Canon EOS DSLR which I still use occasionally, mostly for the ability to use some specific lenses on it. But nowadays I take 95% of my shots using a Nikon Coolpix 510. It is an excellent camera.

I use almost all natural lighting but have a rig to take to shows with extra led lights mounted on the camera via a bracket (I advised Henry Hyde for his article in MW and he went out and bought the same rig).

For natural lighting a tripod is virtually an essential. I use either a very small one that I can use essentially as a lower handle but which opens out to a tiny tripod no more than 8 inches tall, a 'proper' small tripod with a quick release top that goes up to two feet and is okay for putting on a chair or table edge*, or – in doors – an old Slick full sized tripod (again with a quick release stud head) which will go up to 5 feet or so. That saves my back from all the bending over!

Back in the pre-digital age I used to use tungsten filters and regular lights or – if I was in doors – tungsten corrected bulbs with no filter (many of the shots I did for Practical Wargamer back in the day and right up to those in the original Hammers Slammers technical manual used wet film and colour corrected bulbs) but – better photoshop onwards (and especially with digital cameras) I do any colour correction post shoot in the computer.

As someone who has been doing this for a very long time (Staff Photographer in Practical Wargamer), I can't stress enough the requirement for minimising the aperture of the camera lens by maximising the ‘F stop', thereby getting the best ‘depth of field' (ie the most in focus). It's rare that we actually want parts of our shots out of focus and – to avoid this – get a camera that allows – at the very least – an ‘A' setting (‘A' for Aperture priority). This will allow you the maximum use of the lens and the best options for focus.

If you can then get a camera that allows you to manually select focussing so much the better but, if not, at least the high F numbers using the A setting gives you a fighting chance.

John T

* All of the shots at shows that I've done in recent issues of MW – ie those of Bovington in issuer 377 and Hammerhead a few issues before that – were all taken with the Coolpix on that mid sized tripod

Note the differences in depth of field and focus:

An excellent article by KrazyIvan on drop ship horizon

link

Thanks John, appreciate it.

Thanks John!

RebelMike
Rebelminis.com