Re: [DS] Photographing Minis

Control Robot wrote:

> This is for all you guys who take pictures of your miniatures.  I've
been
> trying to take some pictures with a camera that has autofocus, and the
> results have not been good at all.  Usually the picture comes out very
> blurry with close-up shots.  Is there any way of taking relatively
clear
> pictures with an autofocus camera, or am I doomed to failure?  Is a
> high-quality camera, with good lighting, really necessary for taking
> pictures?  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you.

Well, I think good lighting is always going to be necessary.  Of course,
that 
can be as simple as a few cheap lamps and some shirt cardboards.

For the focus issue, off the top of my head, that's going to depend on
the model 
of camera you have.  Does it have a "macro" mode for telling the
auto-focus that 
you are doing close-up work?  Can you disable the focus and use manual
focus?

My brother is a photographer by trade.	If you'll let me know what
equipment 
you're using, I can ask if he has any advice that might yield better
results.

Now, taking advice from my brother, I've found a digital camera works
great for 
this sort of thing.  If I understand what my brother has said on this
properly, 
the small size of the imaging element makes digital cameras well suited
for 
close up work.	Having a live preview on the back of the camera also
helps quite 
a bit too.

This pic: http://www.wombatzone.com/images/GundamSet.jpg was taken with
my 
camera (Nikon C800) and the detail level is pretty good (the graphic has
been 
shrunk to ~50% of the size the camera recorded).  I've had to use manual
focus a 
few times (mostly on figs that have bazookas pointed at the camera), but
overall 
its macro-mode has worked out well for me.

--