Photographing figures

[MattG]

A strange request Matt - but is there any chance of you doing a thread outlining your technique for photographing figures etc? Mine never come out looking this good.

Sure. I'm no expert, but I do enjoying photographing collectibles, and have tried out a few techniques to do it cheaply and efficiently for articles on SWNZ.co.nz. Some of my thoughts are stating the obvious, but I'll try and get most ideas down for completeness.

If anyone else has tips or tricks, totally feel free to chime in.

In an ideal world, I'd love to have a permanent setup with multiple lights + diffusers and/or a ring-flash. My general technique is pretty quick and easy, and often relies on natural light. I'll break it down into categories.

1: Backgrounds

I have a selection of large pieces of card (A3 or A2, from the stationery store) or sheet plastic that I use as backdrops, usually just by placing them on a flat surface and against a wall, so that there is an even curve at the right angle between the ground and back. The card I use most often is a large silver-coloured piece, as it can be used to look quite white under strong lighting, but generally just gives a nice gradient of grey that works as contrast against most collectibles.

These Mon Cal were photographed against silver, under fairly low light conditions.



Sometimes I use a sheet of glossy plastic (ABS/styrene, before it gets turned into a prop or armour piece). This can give the cool effect of a floor reflection.



I keep yellow card on hand, as I personally find it reminiscent of vintage Kenner cardback photography.



And sometimes a colour needs to be selected to get a nice contrast to emphasize the subject.

[MattG]

This pic shows a piece of glossy plastic quickly set up as an action figure studio.

[MattG]

There are lots of articles online about photographing small objects like action figures, including some on Star Wars collecting websites and forums.

Here's a general one that I have bookmarked: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/08/on ... y-new.html

[MattG]

2: Lighting

I resort to a number of different setups (all cheap and/or non-professional) for lighting, depending on the weather and how much of a hurry I am in.

If there is strong sun, and light cloud giving a bit of a diffusing effect, I'll take photos outside on the deck. If there's no cloud, and I'm not fussed about strong shadows, I'll do the same.

From memory, this is taken outside, with mild cloud only.



If I need to shoot indoors, I'll sometimes use direct sunlight. If I'm going for even lighting with minimal shadows, I'll use sunlight diffused through a textured glass window, or I'll set something up to give multiple light sources to minimise shadows. I don't have any dedicated photographic lighting, but in addition to room lighting I have a pair of halogen work lights on a tripod that I'll use to counteract shadows from sunlight or other sources.

This is an example of using multiple sources of light to split/minimise shadows.



And this one uses light diffused through textured glass to almost avoid shadows.



And, to state the obvious, sometimes strong lighting and shadows can be useful for intentional effect.

[Buzz Bumble]

On a similar theme, when I scan things (before my scanner bulb died) I usually use a sheet of black card on top of the item instead of the usually white scanner top cover (closing the cover as well). It tends to produce better colours and can help lessen bleed through from printing on the other side of newspaper / cheap paper items by giving a more uniform black background.

Just make sure the card is big enough to cover the whole scanner glass, other wise the contrast between the black card and white scanner cover can cause colour problems. On my old Umax Astra scanner the card also has to cover an extra thin glass strip above the main scanner glass because the scanner uses that area to calibrate itself against the white cover after switching it on.

[Archon Revuge]

Excellent thread thanks Matt. It'll be very helpful.

I've tried lots of different techniques to try and remove the 90-degree angle at the back of my photographs... The idea of just curving the cardboard never occurred to me!

Do you use any photo-editing software once the pictures have been taken?

[Archon Revuge]

I usually use a sheet of black card on top of the item instead of the usually white scanner top cover (closing the cover as well). It tends to produce better colours and can help lessen bleed through from printing on the other side of newspaper / cheap paper items by giving a more uniform black background.

Good advice Buzz. I find that bleed-through a real problem when scanning newspaper print.

[MattG]

...

Do you use any photo-editing software once the pictures have been taken?

Yes, I'm using a really old version of Photoshop (PS7...'cause I'm too cheap to update it, and it still does most everything I need). I'll post some details of the processing steps I usually do shortly.

[Archon Revuge]

Great, thanks. I noticed you cleaned up those Pizza Hutt photos I took quite nicely.

[Buzz Bumble]

Yes, I'm using a really old version of Photoshop (PS7...'cause I'm too cheap to update it, and it still does most everything I need).

I still using a Mac application called "ColorIt!" that I got for free on a magazine cover disk ... yes floppy disk, it's that old (the copyright date is 1998). It does everything I need for the desktop publishing work I do, including proper print quality CMYK work, and is much less complicated and bloated than Photoshop as well as easier to use. The only problerm is that it doesn't work in Mac OS X, so I have to run it under the "Classic" environment (sort of an emulator for the old applications) or reboot the computer into the old Mac OS 9.