Popular Post YourGitFacedCousin Posted February 18, 2016 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 LINK TO MOST RECENT UPDATE RIGHT HERE Let's see if a thread to post my pictures in helps with that whole 'motivation' thing. Here's a little Bayou Gremlin I recently finished up. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted February 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 Burt and Lenny. Believe I'd already posted these, but as I'm hoping to use this as a repository for all my lil greenies I figured it made sense to chuck em in here. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotokultaxe Posted February 18, 2016 Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 Good painting! Keep it up! It reminds me..hey..I have gremlins to paint too! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omenbringer Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 Love the dark moody palette though do wish the photography was a bit better. As is I think a lot of your work is being obscured. I might recommend using darker backgrounds (without fingers) to give the camera a better chance of snapping a picture that will show all that work hinted at in the above photos. Also might recommend a "cheapo" light box made from an empty plastic gallon milk jug. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guildenstern Posted February 20, 2016 Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 nicely done! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 On 2/20/2016 at 0:21 PM, Omenbringer said: Love the dark moody palette though do wish the photography was a bit better. As is I think a lot of your work is being obscured. I might recommend using darker backgrounds (without fingers) to give the camera a better chance of snapping a picture that will show all that work hinted at in the above photos. Also might recommend a "cheapo" light box made from an empty plastic gallon milk jug. Y'know, it's a silly problem that has plagued me forever! I've even gone so far as to construct a lightbox. I've just not picked up lights for it, so I suppose, technically, it's still just a box at this point, though it has a seamless background, and cloth panels to diffuse light. Just need to drag my happy butt to the hardware store I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omenbringer Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 That definitely sounds like a good setup. I encourage you to get to the hard ware store and pick up a couple of clamp lights and some bright bulbs. I know it has been a bone of contention on here before when I suggest this but I would also recommend a selection of different temp lights (day light 5500-6500k and "Warm" incandescent 2700-3000k). It has always worked well for me, though others swear against it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted March 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 Alright, so I did a thing... not sure I've done it right however. First, I finally took the time to put together the lightbox. None of the lights are on in the image, but here it is. I didn't play with it too much, but here's the first image I took in it. (including three more bayou gremlins I recently finished up) It's obvious to me that I'm not doing it quite right yet. Thinking I may need to use a thinner cloth to defuse, and possibly a darker background. Thoughts? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omenbringer Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 What is the material covering the cut outs on the top and sides? It looks a bit thick and might be filtering to much light. Two other items that might be affecting the photo, however, are the camera settings and the wide framing. The former is tricky and dependent upon the camera used, though even a cell phone camera has some settings you can tweek to get the final image clearer. Thankfully the latter is much easier to fix. When composing your photos for Macro photography you really want to limit the "head room" (space) about the subject to an absolute minimum (the subject should dominate the frame edge to edge). There are a few reasons for this but first and foremost is controlling how the camera "sees" the subject and evaluates the available lighting. With all that white in the image the camera's light sensor is going to be fooled into thinking the subjects (the gremlins) are much brighter than they are. The camera has to evaluate the lights or darks in the image and does this by trying to balance the contrasts in the final product (in that composition the amount of white is easily two to three times more prevalent than the dark). This is likely why the detail in your dark subjects are getting lost and washing out. You can also try adding another lamp in front of the light box with the beam aimed toward the upper third of the box. This way you wont directly flood the subject but will increase the over all available brightness in the box (the light will "bounce" around inside the box). I wish the old forums blogs hadn't gone away, I had a great entry on how I set up for my photos with plenty of illustrations. Hopefully some of this helps (Macro photography is quite a bit more difficult than normal photography even with specialized equipment available). 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 Ehm, dude, I recommend you this. This is the best, compact and simple lightbox that I've ever seen. I take this to myself with foldio 15'' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted March 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 @Omenbringer, first thank you very much for taking the time to write that incredibly informative post. The material on the outside of the box is muslin. It is presently doubled over on itself. I'm thinking I'll need to remedy that. I am presently just using my cellphone camera, though my wife does have a much nicer camera. Perhaps I can convince her to help me out here. So, here's my to-do list for my next attempt. -Remove some of the diffuser -limit the amount of white, by either framing the image better and removing 'headroom' (Would using a different background here help as well? Perhaps a dark blue or purple?) -Move the cameras around a bit Honestly, I probably didn't put quite as much effort into playing around with this last night as I should've before running here to whine and ask questions. Thanks again. @Stark, that's a nifty little setup. Thanks for sharing it, but honestly photography isn't really my bag (if that wasn't clear enough already). I'm not sure $150 is an investment I'm looking to make. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franchute Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 2 hours ago, YourGitFacedCousin said: It's obvious to me that I'm not doing it quite right yet. Thinking I may need to use a thinner cloth to defuse, and possibly a darker background. Thoughts? Have you tried with a black sheet (instead of white) in the back? Your gremlins are quite dark: would this be a reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted March 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 1 minute ago, Franchute said: Have you tried with a black sheet (instead of white) in the back? Your gremlins are quite dark: would this be a reason? I'm thinking that'd be a large part of it. I'm considering gluing a strip of velco to the top of the seamless background, then getting some felt I can tack up for different backgrounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omenbringer Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 53 minutes ago, Stark said: Ehm, dude, I recommend you this. This is the best, compact and simple lightbox that I've ever seen. I take this to myself with foldio 15'' That is a neat little device but not a light box. If you notice from the Kickstarter photos it isn't standing on its own, it is a great specialist tool though. The best compact and simple light box is likely this 17 minutes ago, YourGitFacedCousin said: @Omenbringer, first thank you very much for taking the time to write that incredibly informative post. The material on the outside of the box is muslin. It is presently doubled over on itself. I'm thinking I'll need to remedy that. I am presently just using my cellphone camera, though my wife does have a much nicer camera. Perhaps I can convince her to help me out here. So, here's my to-do list for my next attempt. -Remove some of the diffuser -limit the amount of white, by either framing the image better and removing 'headroom' (Would using a different background here help as well? Perhaps a dark blue or purple?) -Move the cameras around a bit Honestly, I probably didn't put quite as much effort into playing around with this last night as I should've before running here to whine and ask questions. Thanks again. @Stark, that's a nifty little setup. Thanks for sharing it, but honestly photography isn't really my bag (if that wasn't clear enough already). I'm not sure $150 is an investment I'm looking to make. Definitely agree that two layers of Muslin is likely to much, try it singly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted March 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 wilco! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 1 hour ago, Omenbringer said: That is a neat little device but not a light box. If you notice from the Kickstarter photos it isn't standing on its own, it is a great specialist tool though. The best compact and simple light box is likely this Ehm, you about 360 platform? But it's addition for light box which also there. IMHO this thing is great for purposes of our hobby, but it's only my thought) And the image that you want to share is not available( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted March 8, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 I saw the optional light tent on the link Stark. It's certainly a nice setup. It's just most likely much more than I actually need, or care to spend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omenbringer Posted March 8, 2016 Report Share Posted March 8, 2016 1 hour ago, Stark said: Ehm, you about 360 platform? But it's addition for light box which also there. IMHO this thing is great for purposes of our hobby, but it's only my thought) And the image that you want to share is not available( Oh I agree and definitely like the 360 rotating platform. Makes taking lots of pictures or video easier since you can get your camera and light set up perfect and then just rotate the lazy susan to snap more angles without fiddling with anything else. The full setup with Light box is nice but might be difficult to justify the cost of unless you do a lot of this type of photography. Not sure why you cant view the image, no worries though it is simply an empty plastic milk jug. Cut the bottom off and then cut an arch and it provides a fairly decent (and virtually free) light box for minis (at least those that aren't ridiculously large). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guildenstern Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 wow first off those are some beautiful gremlins! I wish my blending looked as nice and Omenbringer that's some awesome advice! I need it too, as I tend to paint really dark figures and always seem to have issues getting good photos (not the cameras fault, it's a nice one, it's definitely user error hehe) RE: lightbox, just noting how I did mine. I used artists tracing paper, mostly on account that's what I had on hand, that was semi translucent without being too thick. It seems to work great tbh. I also used a piece of foamboard I cut into rectangles (I wanted my box a bit wider for terrain pieces so went with 14"). Then I just cut out an inner rectangle, leaving a "frame" of about an inch. The bottom I left solid of course for stability. Whole thing prolly cost me however much the foamboard was, maybe $7 max? I like your clip on light arrangement! but agree there really should be one in front pointing up, that's pretty much what seems to work for me. (I need more lights on the side but it's an ongoing project like most things) Anyway, looking forward to seeing more of your wonderful work! *edit* forgot! got a little carried away, and meant to mention: paint the sides of your box there white as well. My first lightbox was exactly like that, I just covered the sides with paper or painted it white, forget which. Unfortunately, being a box, it attracted its nemesis, our affectionatedly named Scrappy Destroyer of Worlds and Armies, aka - a cat. The box attempted to cheat fate, but nothing is stronger than the If I Fits, I sits, subrule Anyway, lol, it helps to keep the sides white to bounce the light off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourGitFacedCousin Posted March 20, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2017 Well... I've painted alot more then I've posted recently... honest. Just finished this guy up this weekend. I'm very pleased with him. Nightmare Edition Whiskey Golem, absolute pleasure to paint. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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