I've been practicing with a white background and like the results.

 

So I got frustrated with my diy set-up, and I went and bought one of these things from Walmart:

Spoiler: Review?

It's just large enough to barely accommodate a 15cm+ figure in a 3:4 aspect, but you'll probably be wanting mug shots:



But it can get up close and personal with 10cm and under bots. Also, changing backgrounds:



Edit: I upped the warmth in most of those photos, then the rattrap one had a lower exposure.

The light source is too bright imo, and doesn't dim, and I'll have to diffuse it somehow, so automatic zero stars.

But really, it's a meh over all. Not bad for less than $20 if you're mostly into legends.

 

Gonna have to try the white backdrop too... Only used the black one, but your pics got me really curious! I also have a grey one, which might be a very good mid-way.

 

I'm mostly moved in to my new place now and have time to be more active again. I remember way back promising to elaborate more on my editing process, so I'm here to make good on that promise. Today, I'm going to show how I shot and edited this image:



At my old place, I used to use a black roller backdrop but now, I'm just using a black curtain hanging on my window


Truthfully, the backdrop doesn't matter. As long as it's a darker material, it'll be suitable for my shooting style and methods. Because I'm not using constant lighting, the camera focus sometimes has a hard time picking a spot to focus on. That's what the LED panel is for; to light the subject enough for the autofocus, but not affect the end result. Finally, I have a piece of black plexiglass to add a subtle reflection of the subject(s) above.


Images are imported into Lightroom for editing. The unedited photo already looks good, but there are a few adjustments I usually like to make. For this shot, the middle is a bit dark and the overall colors are a little dull, and most if not all shots have some sort of lens distortion, so always gotta fix that. I added a radial gradient with an exposure value of 1 to the middle of the shot to brighten up the dark bits. I then go and adjust the temperature of the shot and fiddle with the overall brightness, contrast, vibrance, saturation, etc. Finally, I add the profile correction for my lens. If you compare the unedited and edited shots, you can see the middle slightly puffs out.


For the next step, I import the edited shot into Photoshop for some cleanup and effects. The first thing to do is to clean up the shot. When I zoom in on the floor, I can see a lot of tiny specks of dust. Part of the reason why I shoot on black is that it is really easy to clean up artifacts like this. I just use the soft round brush, adjust the size, and go to town on a new layer. It is best practice to not edit directly on the image itself but rather on a separate layer on top in case I make a mistake.


Eye glow is next. I grab the polygonal lasso and trace around the eyes and create a new layer via copy. On the eye layer, I go into the blend option and add the colors. The effect comes in two parts: the color overlay which is just straight-up white, and the outer glow set to whatever color you need. As a side note, I traced Drift's eye more angularly vs Windblade's more rounded trace. To me, it helps distinguish a masculine face vs a more feminine face.


The edit is complete. All that's left is to crop the image and add my watermark. I have my signature saved as a brush preset so all I have to do is to select the "brush" and stamp it on the corner. I also export the image to a more reasonable size like 2K so that it won't take forever to load on a website. For those curious about my camera settings, I've added the setting I usually use for my shots.

 

Great write-up! Always interesting to see an in-depth look at the editing approach taken by other artists.

 

I posted this in one of the appreciation threads but thought it could also go here. This is an image sequence showing all the steps in the process of creating my latest photo - photo of the whole setup from my Instagram story, raw straight from the camera, after all Lightroom edits, after all Photoshop edits, and the final image after edits in Instagram:

 

That's awesome! I saw that on Instagram the other day and I figured that the seekers were a compter monitor picture in the backround - wonderful editing!

 

Oh man, this is the thread I've been looking for! As I approach "finishing" my G1 MP collection, I've started delving into photography. In fact, I've decided to purpose build a light box with a lot of custom touches. More on that later.

Current situation:
(My garage workbench)


Has given me some good pics, that I've happily scattered around this site.



But I want to do more, and a friend has given me some ideas. So I'm doing some building.

 

Made some upgrades to the photo setup today!

 

How do you put the backgrounds in?

 

In Photoshop, I put my photo on a layer above the background/sky layer. Then I just erase (or better yet, mask) out the areas from my photo where the sky should be, revealing the sky layer underneath. Pretty standard Photoshop stuff.

 

I'm going to revive this thread for you, because I have learned so much in the 11 months since my last post in this thread, but also because I still have so much to learn! I've been working with lower ISO, slower shutter speeds, understanding and optimizing aperture, how it affects depth of field, and really trying to understand light and how the camera sees things. I've also found there's kind of a whole science to posing characters, and the value of a figure with a lot of articulation, knowing how to get the most of a character with limited articulation, etc.

The "digirama" thing is becoming a big part of my shoots. Having my spare 32" monitor in the lightbox, I'm feeling pretty okay with how that's going. (I'll do thumbnails since I'm going to add a bunch of pics here)



I was super happy with how Runamuck and Runabout turned out, especially in this shot... until I noticed my mouse cursor in the top right corner. D'oh!

I've also used a lot of practical, real-life effects. 1/35 scale buildings and DIY diorama streets with a digital backdrop, yielded some pretty cool results, and using loose LEDs with watch batteries to light up blast effects has really helped sell scenes without a lot of digital additions. The light up blast effects require a little bit longer exposure time to really "pop" though.



But I've also gotten into the habit of doing like some others and having a black background, which I further blacken, to emphasize the figure. There has been a steep learning curve when it comes to what settings work best for this for me. Canon T7 Rebel is pretty versatile and forgiving, but I still take literal hundreds of pics, which then get sorted down into 15 or 20 "keepers" that I edit, then pare down to 10 for Instagram. It's a long process but the quality of work is higher for me when I do it that way.



And of course, doing ensemble work is really, really satisfying when I get one or two really good ones. In both cases here, I decided to keep the backgrounds simple, but these are in fact shot with my monitor backdrop, not images inserted after the fact.



Just look at how happy Bumblebee is to be included in the photo!



Finally, the most aggravating part. You've gotten some great pics, poses are good, edits are minimal but definite improvements, everything's looking good so you post them on social media... then you realize that Gears is missing his faction sticker, Trailbreaker is just a little too far to the left... or Reflector's faction stickers are in the wrong place (full disclosure, I bought them secondhand and they were already on there) and Shrapnel's face is almost non-existent, and all you can see of Acid Storm is a wingtip and a smile.

Did I mention I've still got a lot to learn? Lololololol.

 

Great post! Always nice to see someone passionate with photography.

 

Not really a photography advice per se, but the one thing that I think could've help with a number of TF photos I've seen here just comes down to posing, like there are ways to pose your TFs in a way that is dynamic even if they are just standing there like a number of Gunpla posing guides I've seen:




More often than not, I had seen a lot of TF pics here that seems to had everything going for them - They got professional-grade cameras, the photo quality is sharp, the lighting is balanced, the focus is good, etc. and yet the poses the figures are in are incredibly stiff, blocky, and lacks any sense of dynamic interest.

There's a reason why for example, a lot of official Gunpla promo photos has the kit having idle standing poses with an super model-esque S-shaped stance, with their elbows and knees slightly bent a bit, their heads looking a bit downward, their feet pointing slightly outwards, etc., like these:





Even when the figure itself is just standing there in a idle static pose in a picture, the very last thing you'll want is to have them standing there like a straight boring plank of wood, and even small touches such as having their elbows slightly bent and not completely straight, their head looking a bit downward, the legs spread outwards for a comfortable-looking standing stance, etc., can do a lot to make the pictures more interesting to look at.

 

Great guide, as the op I appreciate content like this. My life got busy so I'm glad to see people keeping the thread alive. Used a similar guide myself as a kid before I started taking photos, had it stuck in my head ever since. Would also encourage people to take more action shots in general.

 

It's part of why articulation matters so much. One that's almost essential to obtain a natural stance is waist rotation, as even just a tiny bit of an angle takes the "board-like" look and feel of a figure and gives it life. Figures without it need to be posed at an angle where the head, arms and legs can be positioned to compensate, but the angle of the shot will also make a difference.

No waist rotation:


Waist rotation

How angle works to give these figure a life-like feel, even if the picture is taken on the side of a couch... 

 

Awesome write up! Thank you for doing this!

 

Anyone have a rec for a good tripod under $200 that can get to 72"? I've tried anywhere from the $30 to $120, and they either have wobbly legs, or the ball droops whenever my camera is at any angle other than perfectly flat. (Lumix G9)

 

EDIT: Apologies for the absurdly long links, but I promise they just go to Amazon lol.

I have been using this (https://www.amazon.com/JOILCAN-Aluminum-Universal-Compatible-Projector/dp/B0CH7XBV5F/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=3DED7XWGCM0CX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.OpX-8j1LBnCBUAKVIubIECGY1HlECHv0Te--j1rvSRTDPMm1fwvBPP3O4ZIM_oCHWUkx_pWWwPty_S4Gz4KWHX8bxP666tbwtOhwF8vPWWxUfCuXnD3HGJxUAX8aFOR5APsUPvwxQOpGwozoAF4zpvasu87wV3x1W4A9bL46nhGiQo8bsYNGS07qcAyIUw3TwqRok8KaHe5xrnxwOC2hlUsL71UYioPX90PX9dK9sHO9WSCT7Hc1paygbSnKlbwQYkR_xB22bC6p1GzFxNDCp74ThujWV6vuwLaFe24zrac.9OTSFYcp9eWTF2jmqSFJDofbUzCjvxhf2MTEjuAOg5k&dib_tag=se&keywords=joilcan+tripod&qid=1714049736&s=electronics&sprefix=joilcan+tr,electronics,850&sr=1-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1 ) tripod along with a cheapo wired shutter release (https://www.amazon.com/Kiwifotos-RS-60E3-Shutter-Release-Connection/dp/B071XPW655/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=10ZXMMJH2UNPX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AHxTMBZuYSTUpOBhuS3_pu7Nfm35QzRLEn_cjOY79AbjiK0Ng4dVyHR466y51ifuUg6DJFIX4NNhgg23Fxkx18u-R6oSR-LAkhJtmKz5wWixYijvSU98aGLi9CBfwI7lFy7KWtvlbbDQnRP0FokOyl92OISb61Xhm71AH4NEuI1kfw5bCo4qFZuIkzEnfWjo0lCIBmWuLxToO_ZJBluYRinO8NtDC1TEDrg5qKuG8DcB9jerM1vVqeMKnIrQtSzH974w-KhZRghwyZ2DEAlB9mzwOKYQJYBl7QUdUO6Z8os.bZiDfquUFR5_y5nXnduDI5tWgY1J3DoqQ4eAQOqMEms&dib_tag=se&keywords=canon+remote+shutter+release&qid=1714050287&s=electronics&sprefix=canon+remote+shui,electronics,1673&sr=1-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1) and they've been pretty reliable, aside from gorilla twisting the tilt handle off. The tripod lets me go from tabletop to almost my height, so I can capture all but the most extreme angles when working with my lightbox in the garage.

The legs are perhaps a little wobbly until you get them set, but then they're as stable as I need, and the mount doesn't droop when I'm angling down; if it does all I do is tighten up the wingnut to that axis. I use a Canon Rebel EOS T7 and have zero issues.

 

What's that about? Get a little crazy with it, did ya? Lol

That looks like one I've tried, although the head looks a bit sturdier - thanks!