Thanks for sharing! I think all the photos are “acceptable” (I think anything is acceptable, just people sharing the fun they have with their figures is all good to me). Getting critical about the technical limitations of cell phones...I’d just say the phone cameras are getting better and better and they pretty much cheat with processing to let you get an overall good looking image. I don’t mind the processing and distortions because it’s all about your intent and how you use it. If perfect, realistic representation is the intent, then yeah, cell phones aren’t great but we’re talking about fantasy action figures here. Distortions and capturing exact proportions doesn’t really matter as much (imo).

In examples like @Robyn The Dragon shared, I’d say the composition and lighting played a huge part in the resulting photos (as always). Basically not a fair comparison as the OP proved with the test shots provided.

That brings up a point...since cell phones are “cheater” cameras, people (myself included) are not as motivated to set up everything ideally. I use cell phones to just take quick shots of whatever and the images end up looking decent enough for me. If you are taking out a dslr , you have to pay attention to settings or you get unusable images. Because of this, I think people using dslr are going to take the time to set up and put much more attention to detail to get a better shot. Goes back to using film cameras...when each shot is costing you time and hard money, you make those shots count.

Anyways, I love seeing different shots people come up with using whatever equipment they have. Learning along the way what I like to improve my own shots.

For my shots, I’m very lazy and try to use what’s easily available to make it work for what I’m trying to capture. I don’t have a light box and even though I’ve thought about buying or making one, I’ve never got around to it. I use whatever light is available, reflecting sunlight, ambient lights from my home, cell phone lights or whatever. I only have one dedicated photography light, which is the same Newwer led @Another Stray Toaster has mentioned. Lighting is my weakness. I know it is the most critical thing but I’ve worked with it for decades and came to the conclusion that I can recognize talent when I see it but I don’t think I have it. Certain people just have the touch to use any light to bring out amazing images with.

I’ve mostly been using my phone for quick shares of whatever fun stuff I’m playing with my kids. When I want to spend a bit more time to get better shots, I use my Sony NEX-7 and I only have a 16 mm prime and a 18-55 zoom lens that are decent but not the greatest for toy photography. I’ve been meaning to get another lens but can’t decide what to get. I don’t want to spend too much either because I’d rather use the money toward more figures.

Here are some of my favorite shots:















The closest to a light box I ever used on any of these are for the Orange BG Wolverine and Carnage shots. That was actually a kids chair from ikea that has a hood that covers the whole thing. All the colors are pretty much from the camera setup except maybe some minor tweaks in PS and the carnage shot, I did some more processing to create the glow around it (no effects) and I removed the stands used for both those shots in ps.

Sorry, for all the pics and I know they aren’t amazing compared with a lot of stuff here but just sharing what I’m working with and trying to improve on.

 

Amen to that, I already had the gear, so I got a head start...

Your shots of Wolverine and the Venom(?) are fantastic! You have a great eye for dynamic poses, I can learn much from you!
The original intent with this thread was to show the limitations of some of my old cell phones, but how with good lighting they can be made to be acceptable, good even.
The main takeaway is: learn the system you have, you'll be fine, as your shots have shown. I would have never known they were cell phone shots if you hasn't said anything.

Fantastic work, keep sharing!

I wonder if we should create a thread where we show how we set the shot up, and what settings we used, to help everyone out.

 

Thanks! Just to clarify, these shots are mostly, if not all shot on a Sony mirrorless camera (either NEX-7 or NEX-5). Some of the shots are very old so I don’t remember exactly and there might be some cell phone pics there but I doubt it. Like I said, if I put any effort into the staging and lighting, I probably used my dedicated camera.

That Venom like figure is Carnage...definitely one of my favorite shots and figures. It actually creeped me out when I was taking the pictures because the figure is so incredibly dynamic and scary looking. Here’s another shot of it where I didn’t adjust any of the settings in post.



I totally agree with your main takeaway and think it would be cool if there was a thread like you mentioned. There is so much to learn from everyone!

 

Well, I have mentioned in the "main" thread that it's been raining a lot.
Tonight we got power outages, and with it, my main system died.
I'm working with a backup computer (which is better than my main, but not as geeky) but it lacks LightRoom and a few other important things.
So until I get my main system back up and running, I don't be able to test the cell phones under dramatic lighting and deep shadows.

In the meantime @Slave IV you'll simply have to keep this thread alive!

 

I don’t think I qualify to hold this thread down but here’s a case where I like a cell phone shot with ambient lighting as much or maybe more than shots with my camera and setup lighting:




First shot is holding the figure in one hand, phone in the other hand, next to a 2700k living room light.

Second shot is using my camera on tripod with the Neewer LED diffused and maybe my cell phone light as a fill. Looks like I used a lower f-stop and adjusted shutter as needed and probably 100 or 200 iso. I don’t remember the exact setup but that’s usually how I roll. I light the subject with my main key and then use my phone or even flashlights for fill if needed by moving them around to see what looks better to me.

 

i would say that 80% of the image is composition. dslr will for sure give you more depth of field and clarity, but i would say if you’re viewing the photo on a small display, it’d be pretty hard to tell the difference. here are just a few candid photos i snapped in not-the-best room lighting, and i think they’re pretty passable. i’d get a way cleaner pic from my canon mirrorless, but there’s something to be said about the convenience of spending less than 2 min to get a picture from my iphone. i can take a little more time to transfer the photo from my canon to my phone, but i get too lazy to take that out a lot of times for candid shots haha.



oh! i remember the last time i used my canon mirrorless to shoot figures, it was for mp-36 and mp-44, an idea i had for a really long time. but it wasn’t completely the most safe for work, and the mods took it down soon after i posted it haha. thinking more of it, yea those pics def were way clearer and had better bokeh. so yea, i’d say it has a way larger advantage if you want specific stylized/artistic takes, but if it’s just a quick shot like those sample shots i gave, then the difference would be a lot less

 

I'd give you "likes" but there's a Led Zepplin CD ruining the background    

I'm giving you a hard time, my preference for tunes is Black Metal so I have no room to talk.
I do appreciate the descriptions on light sources!

 

Nikon D3400, ISO100, f/25, 13 second exposure, fog provided by vape pen, light provided by a penlight pointed at the rear of the lantern.

 

That's a really great pic, @fschuler !

I went through a similar experiment last year with a friend, comparing a DSLR to camera phone pics. He had an older iPhone, and I have a Google Pixel. We were also comparing the two phones on how their portrait mode stacked up. His was having issues where it would blur parts of the foreground figure; the Android software handled it a little better. It did struggle with the figure in the middle ground, however.

Here is the shot from my Pixel:



And here is the shot from my DSLR; a Nikon D3400 with a 105mm prime macro lens. I didn't have my tripod with me, so any attempts with a wider depth of field were a shaky, blurry mess. I had to use a high ISO and low aperture (f/3.0) to capture this, which the depth of field couldn't get the middle ground in focus at all:

 

Haha, no problem. My music tastes are pretty vast and I’m sure most people don’t even know what half the cds are in that pic so it’s all good. I haven’t delved into Black Metal and closest thing it reminds me of is GG Allin.

Great to see some more pics from others!

 

I should try some other camera modes with my iPad. Cellphones and the like don’t seem to do a good job, generally, of giving you a whole lot of control over the depth of field…it’s usually pretty deep/wide. That shot with the Pixel looks pretty good, though!

 

Is the iPad camera different from iphones? I assumed they were similar or the same thing.

 

I’m guessing it is probably the same thing. The built-in camera software is pretty damn basic, though, on this iPad.

 

Yeah, whenever I use phones/tablets, most I do is tap on point of focus and let it do its thing. I’ve never tried to adjust depth of field or anything like that.

 

It is quite amazing how well cell phones can do things like this is good light...

Until things like this come along. I love my Macro lens.
What figures are those?

That's the biggest issue, IMO, with shooting with cell phones, control, though I understand the latest and greatest (and most expensive...) iPhones offer full control now.

 

I shoot with DSLR exclusively, mostly because it's all I have access to.

For mono-colour backgrounds, and in particular black backgrounds, I find that sensor "noise" is the enemy. The cleanest pictures I have taken are with lower ISO and higher exposure settings, taking into consideration light and the colours I am trying to emphasize. While sharper glass is nice, every lens has that sweet spot in which everything is just a bit sharper - you probably know where that is in your lenses, so making that work with your desired DOF, FOV, and perspective is all part of the magic in making it work.

I don't have any macro lenses, but I find that for most figures 20-30 cm tall, with a depth of 5-7 cm, I can get it to work most of the time with the "conventional" primes that I have. It's good enough that a good dusting and looking for the best angles to hide paint imperfections are still things to consider.

Higher MP counts means I can zoom in even further in post-production, of course, but a better staged shot can cover for lower MP numbers.

 

I think the iPhone cameras nowadays have a dual lens, where iPads still use single lenses. I could be wrong, though.

The 105mm lens is meant for a full-frame sensor Nikon, but I like using it on my crop sensor body. Gives it a bit more zoom factor. It's the lens I shoot with the most, and I have a 40mm macro that gets the 2nd most use.

They are both Mythic Legions figures.

 

Don't be. Have fun and that will come through.

The parts in bold - totally agree.

And @Another Stray Toaster - wonderful topic! Mind if I PM you a link to my Flickr account/pm you some pics for critique? Or I could post a couple here if that's okay?

 

Post em here!

I also want some advise/opinions. Like I mentioned earlier, I have two low end lenses, a 16mm and a 18-55. All the shots I’ve shared here other than the cell phone shots were with one of these two lenses. I’ve been looking to get another lens to improve my shots but also don’t want to spend too much (around $500 and hopefully less). There are some pretty nice prime lenses I can get including a 30mm F1.4 prime for under $300, a 35mm F1.8 prime for around $400 or a 85mm F1.8 prime for over $500. Out of these, the 30mm 1.4 is the best deal and should be a big improvement over what I have. I could also get another zoom lens around the same quality as my other or a bit better to get 55-210mm (~$200) or a higher quality zoom that is 18-105 f4 for around the same price as the prime 85mm lens (~$500). I haven’t even considered macro lenses. Any suggestions on what to get and how they think it would help my shots? Thanks!