How To Take Good Pics With One Lamp
Miniatures
-- Bob Bickels
Paints/Materials etc Introduction Countless times I have been on the Chatroom or MSN and people have asked me for a picture of the mini
I had just painted. I took my digital camera, lined it up, and took a shot. This came out very blurry. Do
you have the same problem? This guide will help. Step 1 Change your camera to macro setting. Everyone I asked on how to change this was completely useless. I did some
research, and found that the macro setting on most cameras is represented by a flower image. If you don't have
one of these, this guide won't be very helpful. Step 2 Set up the shot. I took a piece of white paper and taped it to the wall beside my desk. Place your mini
or what ever you want to take a picture of right in front of the paper. Then place your camera 15 - 35 inches
away from the mini, depending on the zoom on your camera. My camera has x12 zoom, so I place it on the
desk (I don't have a tripod) about 30-35 inch away from the mini. Then bend the lamp down to be right over
the camera. Put it as close to the lens as possible, so all places that the camera lens see gets the light. This
way the lamp doesn't work as a single source of light, but an area of light. If you have your camera closer,
put it about 25 inch away from the mini. Here is a picture of my set up. So you can see what I mean now. The model is getting hit by light that the lens will see. It is useless to have
light hitting the back of the model, as the lens doesn't see it. Step 3 Take the picture. I use a timer to avoid wobbling the camera when the picture is actually being taken.
So here is what the picture looks like. Zoomed to x7. Step 4 Edit the picture. You want to crop it to get all the excess off the sides, as the mini is taller than it is
wide. Now you get a picture of a mini, but it is grayish and doesn't look white at all. This is where the editing
program kicks in. You want a good quality one, and Paint just doesn't work. I use Adobe Photoshop CS. I am not
sure if any others work, but this is the one that I will be describing. Go to IMAGE on the top tool bar. Go down too to where it says ADJUSTMENTS and click. Click
LEVELS, or you could press Ctrl + L. You should get a screen similar to this: Now that doesn't change very much on this particular model, so I moved it over to the next trough. Conclusion From my experience the most important things in successful miniature photography
are to use the macro setting, set the timer, and ensure the flash is turned off. I hope this article has enabled you to get better results in your miniature photography.
Digital Camera
Mini (obviously)
ONE Lamp
Photo Editing Software
White Paper
NOTE: My palm pilot will serve as my camera, as I can't take a picture of my camera.
Thanks for reading.
nickgibbs@hotmail.com
