Nikon D5300

[skraaal]

Hello all,

Up until now I've always used my trusted Fujifilm Finepix bridge camera to take pictures of my miniatures but recently I've had access to a Nikon D5300. Now I know the Nikon is the better camera as it's a full DSLR as opposed to the bridge camera but whatever I do I can't seem to get any decent pictures out of it.

Normal shots are fine but I just can't get the setup right for miniautre photography. Would any Nikon DSLR users be able to shed some light on settings they use etc? I was also wondering if it could be due to the lens that it came with, maybe I really need a different lens? It currently has the AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G lens.

Any help would be appriciated

Axel.

 

[eyeayen]

The 18-55mm is the standard kit lens, for this it’s actually a really good choice. Angel Giraldez used it to take most of the images in his book Miniature Painting A to Z, it will focus quite close, 20cm I think and that’s good for mini’s without having to go to the expense of buying a dedicated Macro lens.

As you haven’t posted any images of what you’re referring to it’s difficult to gauge what it is you need the help sorting.

Depending on how much you know about SLR type camera’s this should all make sense. You might need to find where some of it is in the manual but I know it can do all of this.

1. Set your ISO as low as you can, 100 on your camera I think. This will make sure the images are not grainy and is best for colours.
2. I don’t know where you are shooting. Set the white balance accordingly though, so daylight or normal house lights or fluorescent lights, that will help avoid a colour cast. There is also a setting on the camera to alter it to Neutral, Vivid or Monochrome from Standard. It’s worth playing with these but you might find some are better for different types of mini’s.
3. Get a tripod or bean bag or something to put the camera on, hand holding shots of tiny things can cause camera shake and that’s never going to get you a sharp image. You can get IR remote release buttons for about £2 from ebay or amazon, that way you don’t jog the camera as you take the picture but it’s just as easy to set the self timer and wait for a few seconds while it does it without you needing to buy a trigger.
4. There should be a switch on the side of the lens for M or AF, switch it to M, that’s manual focus. Do that until you think it’s right through the view finder. Then using your monitor on the rear of the camera zoom right into the mini and adjust the focus to make it perfect.
5. Find in your manual about metering modes. This will be Matrix which will do the whole scene or centre weighted or spot. I’d try it on spot or centre weighted as Matrix will take into account your background so if you’re shooting on white or black it could drastically affect how much exposure it gives you.

Then you just need to take the picture. However how you’re controlling the light will change this, so sometimes it’s helpful to put a reflector in, this can be a piece of white card or silver foil to bounce light back at the mini and pick up some of the area’s that were in shadow before you put the reflector there. If you have your painting light that is for an example a daylight bulb on in the room but the main room light is the much warmer Tungsten type then that will completely throw your colours out so try for only one type of light or just daylight if you can do it like that, even from a window ?

Hope that helps.

 

[skraaal]

The 18-55mm is the standard kit lens, for this it’s actually a really good choice. Angel Giraldez used it to take most of the images in his book Miniature Painting A to Z, it will focus quite close, 20cm I think and that’s good for mini’s without having to go to the expense of buying a dedicated Macro lens.

As you haven’t posted any images of what you’re referring to it’s difficult to gauge what it is you need the help sorting.

Depending on how much you know about SLR type camera’s this should all make sense. You might need to find where some of it is in the manual but I know it can do all of this.

1. Set your ISO as low as you can, 100 on your camera I think. This will make sure the images are not grainy and is best for colours.
2. I don’t know where you are shooting. Set the white balance accordingly though, so daylight or normal house lights or fluorescent lights, that will help avoid a colour cast. There is also a setting on the camera to alter it to Neutral, Vivid or Monochrome from Standard. It’s worth playing with these but you might find some are better for different types of mini’s.
3. Get a tripod or bean bag or something to put the camera on, hand holding shots of tiny things can cause camera shake and that’s never going to get you a sharp image. You can get IR remote release buttons for about £2 from ebay or amazon, that way you don’t jog the camera as you take the picture but it’s just as easy to set the self timer and wait for a few seconds while it does it without you needing to buy a trigger.
4. There should be a switch on the side of the lens for M or AF, switch it to M, that’s manual focus. Do that until you think it’s right through the view finder. Then using your monitor on the rear of the camera zoom right into the mini and adjust the focus to make it perfect.
5. Find in your manual about metering modes. This will be Matrix which will do the whole scene or centre weighted or spot. I’d try it on spot or centre weighted as Matrix will take into account your background so if you’re shooting on white or black it could drastically affect how much exposure it gives you.

Then you just need to take the picture. However how you’re controlling the light will change this, so sometimes it’s helpful to put a reflector in, this can be a piece of white card or silver foil to bounce light back at the mini and pick up some of the area’s that were in shadow before you put the reflector there. If you have your painting light that is for an example a daylight bulb on in the room but the main room light is the much warmer Tungsten type then that will completely throw your colours out so try for only one type of light or just daylight if you can do it like that, even from a window ?

Hope that helps.

Heya,

Thanks for the reply. It does help a little, I guess I just need to keep practicing with it. The only pictures I have really are ones that were taken using the Fujifilm bridge camera and not the Nikon and those can be seen on my website/signiature link.

I'll keep playing around, thanks again though! :brushwave:

 

[bervt]

Maybe a picture of your ''bad'' result so we can see if there is somethink specific to say , to help you
^^

 

[fallawayde]

Dear Spacemunkie,

are those the Neewer 160 LED-Lights (or an earlier version) ? And do you have a third light source in that white box ?