Photographing your minis

[chilly nacelle]

I’ve seen several of you post awesome completed photos of your minis. What’s your setup? Are you using a phone camera? Do you edit it? I’m trying to get better photos of mine and am at a loss and would love ideas and suggestions!

I don’t have a fancy camera just an iPhone 13 Pro if that helps!

[primal tiger]

Two lights, a solid color backdrop, use manual mode if you have it

[fierce meteor]

I still struggle with this on my iPhone XS. I’m sharing my perspective not from a place of knowledge but more from a place of “also on this journey and trying to figure things out.” I’d be happy for anyone to tell my why my approach is a dumpster fire. But I have made some incremental improvements based on some hints from @primal tiger and a few videos. I've been using a sheet of black paper as an "infinity backdrop"

another incremental improvement has been to back away from the model a bit more and then just crop as needed (I was getting super close before but this can reduce the range of the focus depth... but can be a cool dramatic effect sometimes).

on the iPhone, you can adjust the exposure before taking a photo by tapping on the subject which brings up a focus square with a little sun next to it. You then can slide the sun up or down for the exposure. If you tap again to focus a different area, the exposure slider resets (thanks, Apple!) But personally I just edit after the fact with the built-in iOS photo editing tools. It REALLY depends on the lighting of the photo, but quite often I'll turn the Exposure down a little, Brilliance up/down a little, Highlights down a little, Shadows up/down a little, almost never change Contrast, Brightness down a little, Black Point up a little, Saturation up/down a little, and Vibrancy up/down a little (typically in the opposite direction of the Saturation). Then sometimes a Vignette effect. All of this is really to try to make the photo "look like the real thing". If I'm lucky with the original shot, I don't need to mess with the settings much.

side note: iOS version 16+ now lets you tap/hold the photo subject to remove the background. It works pretty well most of the time. I haven't been using this, but I'd imagine one could use it to their advantage. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/ios-16-photo-tool-for-iphone-removes-picture-backgrounds-with-just-a-tap/

some videos I found helpful (your mileage may vary)

Emil from Squidmar is a former professional photographer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlkzRE33Lb0&ab_channel=SquidlyBits

Vince Venturella https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ7g9DatLpI&t=683s&ab_channel=VinceVenturella

Lyla Mev https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9DPnZcb8E&ab_channel=LylaMev-TheMiniWitch

Miniac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWzHqpvm7Ck&ab_channel=Miniac

oh and if your light is a bit too harsh, you can diffuse it with a sheet of paper. Just make sure the light's not so hot it catches the paper on fire 🙂

for better or worse, all of my 2022-i-painted-dis minis were shot/edited on an iPhone as described above

Behind the scenes footage of my super professional infinity backdrop

[slim summit]

• old iphone
• lightroom app with fixed exposure time
• painting light pointed at the model from behind the camera
• ipad as black backdrop (edit: placed at a 45 degree angle so the reflection from the light goes away from the camera)
• black plastic document holder as surface

[haughty comet]

Damn, that looks so awesome for such basic stuff.

I have an iPhone 8 and I feel like the settings are quite limited, are there any good apps?

[lyric fiber]

I use a simple smartphone: samsung galaxy m30s. I take pics outside for natural lighting

[slim summit]

the lightroom app is great imo

[chilly nacelle]

Lmao I love this and OMG that’s SO HELPFUL!!!!!! I’ve gotten to a point where the pics keep making it look worse and I want it to look as good as it does IRL

[chilly nacelle]

WHAAAAT!!! Do you do the paid Lightroom?

[slim summit]

nope, just the free iphone app

[chilly nacelle]

Whaaaaat

Okay I’ll download it

Is that how you get it to be so dark?

[slim summit]

no, getting dark is actually he iPad as a backdrop

but likely any high gloss black would work.

If you use a high gloss black and put it at an angle so the light from your lamp is reflecting away from the camera you get a very dark surface. It's like why a gloss black paint is darker than a matte black (because most of the incoming light is being reflected in one direction rather than diffusely in all directions)

the Ipad just happens to be designed to be very black and have a high gloss finish on it's glass surface so it ends up being a very good camera backdrop... hold on I'll get an image from another angle

[fierce meteor]

Wow great tip! Looking forward to trying this out. Your photos always look so nice. And your minis are 😍

[slim summit]

its' a really dumb hack but it works 🙂

[haughty comet]

I have an iPad so gonna try this

[slim summit]

so, since my light source is behind the camera, the glossy reflection is being reflected up towards the ceiling

...and not back into the camera

[haughty comet]

Just need to find a good black base but maybe an old binder will do

[slim summit]

I happen to have a foldable stand for the iPad too, which fits purpose perfectly, but you could also just have it stand on it's edge and reflect left or right too

[fierce meteor]

I’ll try with my laptop screen

[slim summit]

I just use a flat black document binder placed on my wet palette (so as to hide the lower edge of the iPad)

it's funny how nobody seems to have thought to do this. I came up with it myself and every time I post it online people get mind blown 😂

I mean... a part of me feels stupid recommending using a €300 device instead of buying a €30 photobox, but it saves space too ;D

[haughty comet]

I have this lower half of the avatar of khaine packaging, this should do nicely right?

[slim summit]

it might... it looks like it's reflecting a bit more diffusely than the Ipad. Only one way to find out.

[haughty comet]

I’ll try using it as base and iPad as background

It’s worth a shot

[slim summit]

yeah, it's probably better than the binder I'm using as a base

[haughty comet]

So what do you use the Lightroom app for? I’m not very technical.

[slim summit]

this binder is beat up and ugly af, I should just go to an art store and buy something better 🙂

[chilly nacelle]

Omg that’s a great idea

I got a little light box when it was on sale and was disappointed with the photos lol

[slim summit]

the main thing I like using the light room app for is that it allows me to set manual shutter speed and manual iso. The reason I do this is that I always set the lowest iso (to avoid graininess) and then use the exposure to control the exposure (so it's correctly light/dark). the default iphone app (on my iphone 6 at least) doesn't allow setting iso and forces me to re-set the exposure with every photo. Here I can set it to exactly 1/30 secs and I'll get the same result every time

[chilly nacelle]

Do you use a tripod or stand?

[slim summit]

no, but I should.

Oh yeah, it also allows me to calibrate the whitebalance manually instead of the 4 default settings + auto that the iphone app has.

the reason for that is just I messed around (randomly) until I found a white balance that works with my setup and then I never change it so my pictures are consistent.

[chilly nacelle]

Omg the camera in Lightroom!!

[slim summit]

my tripod is bracing the camera against the desktop of my painting desk 😂

[chilly nacelle]

I see now!

[slim summit]

but yeah, I've been considering getting my DSLR camera set up and putting it on an tripod, I just never get around to doing it since the iphone works 😂

[slim summit]

yeah... like... I don't use the photo editing of lightroom, just the camera in the app.

[chilly nacelle]

Ohhhhhhh

[slim summit]

iirc the video somebody linked above by squidmar recommends using the same app

lightroom also has some export options that I've been messing around a little bit with, but haven't gotten anything I'm 100% happy with, just make sure to set it to exporting att full quality if you have it export to jpg

lightroom also has a histogram which is nice, because it'll allow you to see if any color is bleeding out. If you're doing it right you should have a big spike off the scale right at the left most side of the scale (that's the black background)

[haughty comet]

Dicked around a bit and tried it out. Definitely need some adjustments but it’s looking decent. Great advice Robin, better than any mini photo tutorial I’ve seen on YouTube.

[chilly nacelle]

Omg that was in Lightroom photo too?!?

Now I gotta try lol

Those look amazing

Describe what you did! Lol

[haughty comet]

I did this. As for settings all I did was put iso to minimum.

Makes my phone lag like crazy but it works.

And yes Lightroom

I need to try and find a way for bigger minis though. Avatar doesn’t fit 😛

[chilly nacelle]

OkY so yes Lightroom

This is the best photo I’ve taken lol

[slim summit]

I'm glad you guys had use of this 🙂

[haughty comet]

I need to learn what the settings do. Never done any photography before.

[fierce meteor]

I need to minimize the background reflections more but I’ve found that photos taken on my light gray IKEA desk turn out petty ok for a lighter background effect

[slim summit]

wow, that's actually pretty cool @fierce meteor

when cropped it looks like a really arty background

[chilly nacelle]

Wow

That’s actually amazing

[fierce meteor]

if i get more purposeful about the random crap in the background, it could be interesting

[slim summit]

yeah, you could put colorful things to get cool color shifts in the reflection

[fierce meteor]

I'm glad you shared it!

[slim summit]

hmm... I wonder if my ikea desk is clean enough to pull this off

[haughty comet]

I need to put the kids to sleep but will try using the cardboard box as background and iPad as base for larger models later.

Hard to get this wip to fit

[chilly nacelle]

All these tips are amazing lol

It’s making photographing my mini fun and not frustrating

[haughty comet]

Agreed, I’ve always hated photoing since it always ends up like shit.

[slim summit]

Not as cool as andys, but ok

grainy af though, but that's because I used the iphone app instead of lightroom

[vital basalt]

hacks are not dumb if they work imo

[slim summit]

I mean.. it's not dumb to use them, that it works feels dumb 😄

[haughty comet]

This app completely drains the battery though. Holy shit!

From 25% to 2 from like 10-15 minutes of use

[slim summit]

oh wow, never realized, lol

[fierce meteor]

yeah I tried lightroom a few months ago and it kept crashing my phone

using the default iOS camera like a savage

[slim wasp]

i usually use t-shirt for background but for some reason i always lose saturation this way

[chilly nacelle]

Damn that’s beautiful tho

[slim summit]

might be the white balance or exposure messing with you if they're set automatically. I got a really desaturated result when doing this iPad thing sometimes until I manually calibrated the white balance. I think the intense black was causing the auto settings to go whack because it was so black

[slim wasp]

will try with Lightroom next time

[slim summit]

like compare the saturation of the colors in these two, the black is causing the automatic setting to freak out

[slim wasp]

same exact case

[chilly nacelle]

Ohhhh I had something similar too

Maybe a gray background would be better

[chilly nacelle]

How do you calibrate it in Lightroom?

[slim summit]

for white balance:
there's a setting called WB, the right most icon is a pipette. the pipette icon allows you to calibrate it yourself by aiming it at something of neutral color, like a piece of white paper or something like that. I don't remember the exact details, but messing around with that for a while I got a white balance that gave me a somewhat accurate coloring.

for exposure:
it's called Exp, but I would recommend instead setting shutter speed and iso manually (at which point it becomes greyed out). I would recommend setting it manually rather than auto so you get consistent results every time and it doesn't go and try to raise the exposure because the background is really black or something.

[chilly nacelle]

Omg Tysm!!!!

[mystic trellis]

Found this thread and tried it out with my iPad. Probably need some adjustments but initial results are pretty nice!

[zealous crane]

My setup is quite simple, I cover my screen with a sport t-shirt but should try to find a way to tilt it instead for cleaner and darker background according to this thread. No such app found for free on Android (if you know one I am all ears) but I can use my significant other's camera with manual settings...

Replaced the tripod with a box on a chair

Backdrop is not that dark as you can see, room for improvement...

[chilly nacelle]

It still looks great!!!