Many of you are hard at work on entries for the Anima Painting Contest, Leg 2 (see: http://cipher-studios.com/2009/08/anima-painting-contest-leg-2-wissenschaft-agent/), and speaking for the rest of us, we can’t wait to see the results! In order for your figures to look their absolute best for the contest, I’ve written this tutorial. These are the techniques I use to photograph the official studio figures to send for approval. Although some of this may be familiar to you, hopeful I have some original insight as well.

I’ll cover:

1.Light Temperature and White balance

2.Lighting

3.How to Make a Light Box

4.Tripod is a Must

5.Camera Technique, Settings

6.Adding a Gradient in Photoshop

Light Temperature and White Balance

Perhaps the biggest challenge of miniatures photography is getting clean bright light and accurate colors while minimizing shadows. But here is the silver bullet: take your pictures at night. Why? Two words: light pollution.

Light pollution occurs when you set your camera’s white balance to one kind of light, but light of a different temperature is screwing up the works. For instance, you set your white balance to match your fluorescent light bulbs but daylight is seeping, insidiously and inexorably, from a nearby window. “Ah,” you say. “My camera lets me take a manual white balance reading.” This is good news (more on this later) but it won’t help you here, I’m afraid. For reasons I can’t explain, when you have two kinds of light the camera doesn’t gauge the combination of the two but rather becomes utterly confused.

Note that some tout sunlight as yielding the cleanest, most accurate light, but they don’t tell you about shadows and glare. You have simply no control outdoors.

The key is control, and at night, you’re in control. Make sure all the light bulbs that are on in the room are the same. Then set your camera to match these lights. You will thank me.

One final consideration of white balance is should you trust your camera’s “fluorescent daylight bulb” setting or take your own reading? You will hear different answers from different people, but I can tell you for my Canon G3 I get better results taking a white balance reading. And I do it using a photo gray card. For absolutely professional results, the photo gray card is a lifesaver. What is it? A piece of cardboard of neutral, 45% gray that you obtain from your local photo shop for a couple bucks. Your camera can take a white balance reading while pointed at basically anything, but my studies have convinced me that taking the reading against the gray card is infinitely more accurate.

Lighting

The next step is to consider lighting. You’ll need at least two lamps using the same type of bulb, but three is best. I use two $10 shop lights from the hardware store and one common desk lamp, all with compact-fluorescent daylight bulbs costing a couple bucks each.

If you have three lamps, you have the luxury of being able to light your figure from the front-left and front-right as well as from the top. This is best.

Figures lit from 3 directions

I’m attaching my shop lights to light stands, but if you don’t have access to light stands consider clamping your lights to your tripod or your the edge of the table (in this case you will want to position your figure near the center of the table).

If you have two lamps you will want to position one lamp directly above your miniature and one lamp as close to directly in front as you can get (obviously your camera will directly in front so you will want to crowd these two things together as closely as possible).

How close to position your lamps from your figure? As close as possible! Your figure may look like it is bathed in light, but believe me, your camera likes as much light as it can get, so move the lamps closer. Literally warm your figure up in the light.

Diffuse or Not

If you are a perfectionist, you may want to experiment with diffusing your light. However, I have found it makes almost no difference at all to my picture quality. The choice is yours! If you’d like to diffuse your light, I recommend semi-transparent mylar sheet, which attaches easily to shop lights with the use of plastic clips (see picture). I also place a diffuser sheet over the top hole of my light box.

Compact fluorescent bulbs are great

How to Make a Light Box

You will need:

• A square, cardboard box (7″ on a side is great)
• White paper
• A sheet of light gray or otherwise neutral, light paper
• Tape
• Boxcutter or sharp knife
• And very optional: Semi-transparent mylar or tissue paper

Why use a light box? The first answer you hear might be to diffuse light. This is one reason, but not the most important. The most important features of the light box are the white sides and light colored backdrop, which bounce MORE light back onto your miniature. I’ve made this light box from a square cardboard box. Turn your box on its side, cut out a large hole in what is now the top, and cover the sides with white paper. I’ve cut holes in the sides of mine, but this is unnecessary. I’ve also put clear mylar over the top of mine–optional. The important thing is that the inside walls are white so they bounce light back on the figure.

The second reason for the light box is that it gives you an easy point to attach a background sheet of paper. The best color for your paper is a colorless light grey. Why? Because colored paper reflects colored light back onto your miniature, coloring your results. White paper is bad because it confuses your camera’s light meter and creates glare.

Note: A black background can be effective, but be warned that black will also confuse your camera’s light meter. The solution is to take your light reading against a light gray background, switch the background and use the shutter speed from the light reading made against gray.

Cut your sheet the width of your box and tape it to the rear back of your box. Let the sheet slope naturally in a curve to the front of the box. In this way you can have a seamless background that evenly reflects light.

Done! You now have your….

…Lightbox.

A Tripod Is a Must

In my opinion, a tripod of some kind is absolutely essential. Why? Because without the flash (and you certainly don’t want the flash on!) the shutter is going to have to stay open for a long time, and you’re hands aren’t steady enough to hold the camera still. I use a large Vanguard MK-4 tripod, which is inexpensive as far as large tripods go, but has served me very well for years. But there’s good news if you don’t have the cash to spring for a full-sized tripod. You can make do with the kind pictured in the alternate setup below: $1from an import dollar store!

Here you have an alternate setup

I know not everyone has the cash to spring for a tripod and light stands. All it means is you’ve got to get a little inventive. Here I’ve attached my shop lamps to the back of a chair, and I’m using a tripod that literally cost $1.

Camera Technique; Settings

Aperture and Shutter Speeds

If your camera has manual settings, I recommend you manually set the F-Stop to its smallest aperture. Why? Because a small aperture allows greater depth of focus and depth of focus is what is needed to ensure that your figure’s face and its outstretched hand are both in focus. F-stops are a little counterintuitive, because a big F-stop means a small aperture. Therefore, you want the biggest F-stop number available to you. On my camera it’s 8.0.

The flip side of having a small aperture is that your shutter will need to stay open longer for enough light to get through to develop the picture. This means a tripod is essential, and you’ll have to use either a timer or a remote to prevent your touch from shaking the camera.

On my camera I can set the F-Stop to stay at 8.0 and then manually adjust the shutter speed as I take pictures. I find I take most pictures with a shutter speed between 1/60 and 1/100, with 1/80 being normal.

Distance of Camera From Miniature

If you’re camera has a macro feature (flower symbol), you’re sitting pretty; use it! Now, some will tell you to get as close as possible to the miniature while staying in focus, but I disagree. Why? Because inside a certain range, your lens will go fisheye on you. Better to stay 8″ to 12″ away and zoom in.

If you don’t have macro, don’t despair, but make sure your camera is far enough away that it can focus on your figure. Do some tests.

Adding a Gradient in Photoshop

I’m just going to touch on this briefly as it’s a part of my process for taking many of the official Anima Tactics pics. I add the gradient you see in post. I like a natural-looking, subtle gradient without too much contrast so it doesn’t compete with the figure itself. That’s important. You spend time making your gradient nice so that people DON’T notice it, not so they do. If I’m looking at the gradient, I’m not looking at the fig!

My dark color is hex value 9699A8 and the light color is E7ECEB. Try these out to get an idea of a range of contrast and saturation that works well, but by all means experiment and find your own favorite colors!

Use the magic wand tool to select background. If you accidentally grab part of the fig, use the lasso tool while holding down the Alt key (option key for Mac) to deselect that bit, then either go back and add to your selection again by holding down Ctrl (Command key for Mac) and using either the magic wand at a finer setting or the lasso tool.

When the background is selected, create a new layer and use the Gradient Tool to fill the selection from dark at the top to light at the bottom. I hold down the shift key while I add the gradient to make sure it’s straight, but that’s because I’m a little OCD.

Here’s the magic trick: now adjust the transparency of your gradient layer to 70%. See how the layer fades just enough to allow the imperfections and shadows of the photograph to come through and lend the background that vital subtlety and convincing realism? Good!

Conclusion

Remember:

• Wait until dark
• Bulbs all the same
• Pale gray background sheet
• Line light box sides with white paper
• Three lamps are best, two ok in a pinch
• Lamps close as possible above and in front
• Tripod=must
• Timer setting or remote
• Camera 8-12″ away
• F-stop 8.0 or biggest setting
• No flash
• If desired, add gradient in post, fade to 70%

That’s it! Now go!