Jaslyne's Moulin Rouge

[Jaslyne]

Thanks you guys! I'm also very very pleased with how her face came out.

I'm using a nikon d5000 which is a beautiful camera and takes great pictures otherwise but I need to learn more as far as lighting/setting/background goes, and how to change the settings on the thing (manual time I guess..) any tips on it are incredibly helpful I'd like better pictures.

[Mydnight]

Thanks you guys! I'm also very very pleased with how her face came out.

I'm using a nikon d5000 which is a beautiful camera and takes great pictures otherwise but I need to learn more as far as lighting/setting/background goes, and how to change the settings on the thing (manual time I guess..) any tips on it are incredibly helpful I'd like better pictures.

I use a simple trick for taking my pictures. I use a piece of computer paper leaned against something with the miniature sitting near the "bottom" of the page, which creates a nice white background. For lighting I use my painting lamp, which has a natural light bulb (I got it for $30 approx at Office Depot). What you want to do is get as much light coming from the front as possible. A flash is likely to wash out some of the details and over-brighten (new word?) some of the colors. I'll see if I can post a pic of my setup later.

[Mydnight]

For the lovely Jaslyne, my picture taking setup

[jeffb007]

My basic setup is the same as Mydnight but I don't have a daylight lamp so tend to use actual daylight. I'd probably use a manual setting with f22 and then play with shutter speeds to get the brightness you want. Mine is usually towards the +1 mark to be honest, but I think that is because the white background messes with the levels a bit.

[dsmiles]

Those look great!

I actually use little wood discs for wooden plank bases, though. You can pick them up at a Michael's or a Hobby Lobby, if you like. They're WAY cheaper than greenstuff.

[Jaslyne]

@ Mydnight: Thank you for the tips and the picture that's really really helpful! I have a light similar to yours that I use for painting under, it just needs a natural bulb. I'll see if I can pick one up and play with a set up like that; your pictures always look great for such an easy way to light/background them =D

@ Jeff: I will definitely give those settings a try with the set up and see how they turn out with my current models. Hopefully I can shed some better light on these ladies.

@ Dsmiles: The greenstuffing on the first bases drove me nuts but I wanted to do it so I could fit magnets in there. On the newer bases it's just a couple plastic like signs cut into strips and made into a stage. It took A LOT LESS TIME this round lol going from probably 2 or 3 hours to make a base down to 45 minutes from start to finish. I didn't even think about the wooden circles though that's another great idea for fast basing.

Thank you again guys! ^^

[Mydnight]

Thanks for the compliment :-) I'm always happy to pass on whatever knowledge I have. I think the natural light bulb does a lot to help capture the way the colors fall, but even with that it's still different to see them in person.