A little help please...

[Braveheart712]

I know the old adage to be careful for what you wish for, but with that in mind I am calling on the membership here for a little advice and help.

First off, I know my talents or better put, the limits of my present talents. I\'m a decent painter, but no where\'s near the best one here. I guess I\'m utterly average, and that is why I am asking for help. I want to improve and make my minis better.
My problems are two fold. One is my photography. I can\'t seem to get it right. I am using a Kodak DC5000 with two spot lights as well as overhead lighting. I switched to blue incadencent bulbs to help eliminate the yellow cast normal bulbs give off. I am using a tripod and close up lenses as well but the results seem less than what I want. Any help that you can give me is greatly appreciated. The other part of the problem is my minis. Like every artist says they are much better than the photos but no way are they golden daemon quality. Again all help is appreciated.

Here are links to my latest minis, tell me what you think...

http://www.coolminiornot.com/?id=32853
http://www.coolminiornot.com/?id=32854
http://www.coolminiornot.com/?id=32855

Thank you in advance for any help you may offer!!!

 

[Aryanun]

What are you shooting at?

In other words, what resolution are you shooting the pictures at? That might be affecting the sharpness. Looks like you\'re trying to sharpen them up after the fact.

Another thing, most I can see is maybe they just need to be lightened up a bit. Your depth of field is good, which is normally a huge problem on close-up photography.

How much control does the camera give you, or are you completely at it\'s mercy (in other words, can you adjust the apeture/shutter speed or are you stuck with what the camera thinks it should be)?

 

[Braveheart712]

A little more info...

Originally posted by Aryanun
In other words, what resolution are you shooting the pictures at? That might be affecting the sharpness. Looks like you\'re trying to sharpen them up after the fact.

Another thing, most I can see is maybe they just need to be lightened up a bit. Your depth of field is good, which is normally a huge problem on close-up photography.

How much control does the camera give you, or are you completely at it\'s mercy (in other words, can you adjust the apeture/shutter speed or are you stuck with what the camera thinks it should be)?

Yes I am sharpening in photoshop after the fact but I have not done too much since most of the problems with the images seem to exist beforehand.

These images are shot on my camera that is a 2.0 megapixal camera.

There are not independant shutter and apeture controls. I am shooting these images 1 to 1.5 stops over. (+1.0 to +1.5) Does this help?? I arrived at this setting after alot of trial and error, did I go in the wrong direction?

Again thank you, the help is appreciated!

 

[tooshy]

Hi there....

Just checked out your pics and I have had similar results. The reason being I used too small a resolution as Aryanun has already suggested. Another problem is when the camera goes into digital zoom, which is not as good a quality. Do you have a macro setting on your camera?

I have started to play with my camera a bit more - even though I\'ve had it for a couple of years, I haven\'t really been taking pics of models and they require a little more thought. I have achieved good results by setting my camera to the best picture quality, which usually results in a picture 2048x1024. Huge I know! But.....I get clearer results if I then crop and zoom on a picture that size than when I use a macro. The model pic will be quite small once you\'ve zoomed in.

BTW my camera is a Nikon Coolpix 885, which has 4.x megapixels, so my suggestions might not work so well on a 2 megapixel camera - but have a go anyway and let us know the results!

PS Another trick I picked up yesterday from a friend is to make a light-box. Just take a cardboard box, (about shoe-box size) and \'paper\' the inside with white paper. Put the model inside and then take your pictures. The light from the flash should bounce off the white paper and in theory light your model better! I say \'in theory\' \'cos I haven\'t tried it myself yet, but maybe worth a go Good Luck!

 

[Braveheart712]

Thank you Tooshy

All your suggestions sound great and I will try them! I will try building a light box, that sounds good. I never use my flash though, since it seems to create some massive blowouts in the highlights and generally washes out detail. I use the macro settings on my camera currently with as much optical zoom as available. Also I have my camera set on best quality which may be at its limit since I only have a 2.0 megapixel camera. Again, thank you!

 

[Aryanun]

Hmmm...

Try shooting at the max resolution your camera can achieve, then crop your image after the fact, or resize it. Generally I\'ll sharpen once or twice before I resize and will achieve better sharpening results.

The darkness of the picture can be fixed afterwards so long as the information is on the picture, which it looks like it is. I\'ll have to reload Photoshop on my computer at home (which is going to be a bear thanks to recent computer problems) before I can say for certain which control to use. In Paint Shop Pro there\'s Gamma Correction, and I don\'t know if PS has the same name for it or not, but I\'m certain someone here can clarify that.

You might also want to play a bit with the brightness/contrast after correcting the gamma so it looks right.

Other than that, I\'m not real sure what to say. I\'d stick with the settings you\'re using right now as changing them might disrupt your depth of field. Without being able to control the apeture or shutter speed yourself, it makes it a little difficult to give better answers, I\'m afraid.

I\'d try tooshy\'s \"white box\" trick. If that doesn\'t give good results, then do something similar... get some white posterboards and flank them around your lights, this way more of the light is being cast upon the mini. Maybe even add another light if possible.

You can also try moving your lighting setup outside with some sunlight to help you add more light.

I\'ll look up some more things when I get home and see if I can get some websites posted for more information.