14/11/2008

Joining the FtW Blogger Group

So i just got an email from Ron, accepting my request to join the
++ From The Warp ++ Blogger Group! Im still waiting on more information about the group, but im just about to upload a new title banner with the FtW blogger logo on it! I have to say, i'm really quite excited to be joining FtWBG - At the moment, my interaction with other gamers is limited to my friend Chris and the guys in the local GW. I'd really like to meet and talk to other gamers, and it seemed to me that this was an excellent route to take!
If you want to read more about the FtW Blogging group, you can on this page - and here is the logo

12/11/2008

STC-Defense Laser Turret Tutorial

Just came across this tutorial about making very nice STC defense laser turrets for 40K, or similar futuristic game systems...

11/11/2008

Miniature Photography

So after my last post about miniature photography, i figured that i would try out some of what i had read, and try and improve the quality of the photography on the site.
The first thing that i did was to setup a sheet of white paper, underneath my OTT-Lite. OTT-Lites give out "daylight" (that is, light of the same frequency as daylight), so it gives a very natural look to the models. You can see this setup in the picture below

basic_workspace.jpg

I decided to use the HQ from my Tau as these were the impetus for learning more about miniature photography - I really like my small Tau army and wanted to put it online for a few people to take a look at. Unfortunately the only photos i have of the Tau are low res phone cam pictures, not really suitable for a blog!
Once i had the miniatures setup, i placed the camera approximately 3-4 inches from them (on the picture above its about where the edge of the green cutting matt is). I then found the first problem - the OTT-Lite was casting very bad shadows, which you can see in the image below:

dark_1.jpg

So i used another angle poise light that i had lying around and taped a piece of toilet tissue over it. I moved this around trying out various shots, which you can see below, in their "raw" state:

raw_cmd.jpg

Once i had taken a couple of dozen shots, i pulled them all in to photoshop, and after consideration chose these two images to work with:

basic_image_1.jpg

basic_image_2.jpg

Ive only performed basic operations on these files - I've altered the size, cropping and adjusted some colour balance...

commander_final.png

final_command.png

So, my first proper attempt at miniature photography is done, and i have to say, it went "kinda" well - On the plus side, the images i have captured are a lot better than the previous attempts. But the colour is still a little too blue for my liking (the greys are too blue in the images - in reality they are a much more neutral grey). Oh well! Practice makes perfect!

10/11/2008

Photography of miniatures...

Given how bad my miniature photography is, as can be seen by the shots on this site, i decided to do some reading about photography of miniatures. And i came across this blog post on "From the Warp" - There are some excellent details on there about photographing miniatures which i will hopefully be able to apply to future pictures that i take..

Addendum! Ive also just found this very handy post about how to make a home made Lighting box for photographing your minis