Photography: It's All About Light

stgm — GMT

Often I get compliments about the quality of the photos on my website, and am asked what equipment I use. The key to good photographs, however, is not in higher megapixel counts or image stabilization or laser 3D flash matrix (or whatever the latest fancy oooh-aaah technology is). It's all about light. Not surprising, given that the word [i][b]photography[/b][/i] literally means "study of light."

Everyday people post pictures of their latest work in progress or completed work, and there are indeed no shortage of breathtaking brush- or conversion work. A lot of the times, however, our appreciation of such work is lessened by pictures that are, well, simply put, not very good. The reason can be many -- handshake due to longer exposure, out of focus, distracting background, etc. -- but the biggest culprit is probably the reliance on, and usage of, the built-in flash that is ubiquitously present in just about every single camera, digital or film, costing under $3,000.

When you look at a miniature under a "normal" viewing circumstance -- most likely you are in a well-lit room, and you can view and appreciate the miniature as it is. The light or lights illuminating the room is most likely an overhead light or a torch-type that points up. Such light sources do a good job of diffusing light and providing level lighting that make it possible to read, paint, write, etc.

However, when you take a photograph of a miniature with the built-in flash, the light source is very small, is very close to the lens, and is very intensely focused. It does an OK job taking pictures of a group of friends at night from 5-10 ft., but it tends to overwhelm a miniaure, especially if the camera is positioned somewhat close to it.

Take a look at this picture. It is a 28mm Space Marine figure (in progress), taken with the built-in flash:

At a glance, it looks OK -- right? Well, no, not really. The intense burst of light tends to "flatten" the subject matter, so any naturally occuring shadows under the chin or nose are lost (notice the "shadows" you see on the miniature are actually an ink wash kind!). Then there are other disadvantages: The dark, harsh shadow right behind the figure can be distracting; the flash will create glares from any kind of shiny surface; the color comes off very strong and stark. In all, it's not an ideal way to photograph!

This next picture is of the same miniature, but the light source used is an external flash, with a tilt-and-swivel head. That feature allows me to "bounce" the light off the ceiling or the wall behind me. It's helpful if the ceiling or the wall in question are painted in white; otherwise some post-processing work in an image editing software is necessary to correct the color tone.

I hope you can tell the difference! For starters, the image is definitely "softer" without losing focus or detail. There's a pleasing overhead directional light, and that gives the Space Marine's figures more depth and feature.

However, it's not every camera that has a hotshoe to attach an external flash to. Typically most point-and-shoot digital cameras costing under $500 will not have a hotshoe; the more advanced "prosumer" cameras, as well as pretty much all digital SLRs, do have them. And even if your camera did, it's no small expenditure, as most digital flashes with tilt-and-swivel heads start at around $200, on top of the camera! (pardon the pun)

So, what to do, what to do? Well, there is a third way that yields just as good results as using external flashes, but only costs a fraction of the price tag. It's called a tripod. Yes, those klunky, definitely pedestrian, unsexy tripods. But only to the uninitiateds! In the photography field, tripods are revered and esteemed as a valuable part of any photographer's equipment, and it's not unusual to see people spending $300-600 on quality tripods.

But for our purposes, you only need to spend about $20. You can get a 5- or 6-ft. tripod for that amount, and that will do just fine. The only thing you need to pay attention to is how much weight the tripod can support. For most point-and-shoot digital cameras, this will not be an issue, as those cameras are far lighter than what even the cheapest tripods will bear. You can even get a mini-tripod, but I'd recommend you still get the regular tall one; as their legs are in sections, you can use them as a table-top tripod by not extending all leg sections. However, do avoid the super duper mini tripods, the ones with bendy legs; at the minimum, you want a tripod head that will swivel and tilt.

The key to achieving great results with a $20 tripod is to use [b][i]ambient lighting[/i][/b]. You know, the light that illuminates your room. For this to work, your camera must be able to allow shutter speeds longer than one second. I'd venture to guess that most digital cameras will let you take long exposures; if your camera has manual or aperture/shutter priority modes, then you're in luck. Most newer cameras should, except for the super ultra compact ones.

So set the camera on the tripod and point at the miniature. Use the LCD screen to frame and adjust exposure as needed. The length of exposure -- how long it is -- will depend on how well your room is lit. Don't use table lights or flash lights to illuminate the miniature; let your room's ambient lighting do the work. If your camera shows histogram, learn to use that -- it's invaluable in properly exposing a photograph. Use the timer function to take the picture; otherwise your act of pressing and releasing the shutter might introduce vibration to the picture (blurred picture).

Here's a picture of the Space Marine, using a tripod, timer, ambient lighting, and no flash (the shutter speed was 1.3 seconds; as a comparison, and as a general rule, you really can't take hand-held shots at speeds slower than 1/40th second):

If anything, the figure looks even better than the external flash photo! Actually, that's likely, as the external flash light -- bounced off ceiling as it were -- is still an intense, small source of light; for light diffusion and level illumination, it can't compete with a room light. You still have your natural shadows and a sense of depth.

Incidentally, the photo came out of the camera looking like this:

Without getting too technical, this is due to the different light sources having different "temperature" and the camera's built-in white balance not being able to compensate adequately when left on "Auto White Balance." If I had set the camera to the proper white balance (in this case, tungsten light source), then the figure wouldn't have such a yellowish cast to it, but as I post-process all my images, it's no big deal to correct it afterwards for me.

Finally, here's a comparison photo showing the same section of the miniature, with the three different light sources:

A big difference, no?

Hope you found it useful!

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

Hauler — GMT

A very helpful post. Thank you!

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

malfred — GMT

That's also a nice yellow.

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

Hellfury — GMT

Greta post, this should be added to the modelling FAQ sticky with the other photography stuff from Fine Scale Modeller.

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

stgm — GMT

Here's another comparison photo that illustrates the differences between different light sources even better: The Tyranid Biovore. It's got a glossy finish, so the built-in flash really plays havoc with this one...

Notice the difference in the neck area, as well as how flattened the first picture looks...

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

stgm — GMT

[quote]Posted By malfred on 12/04/2006 12:08 AM
That's also a nice yellow.[/quote]
You have no idea how many coats of yellow it took!

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

Vero — GMT

Wish my work computer didn't block the photos.

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

stgm — GMT

[quote]Posted By Vero on 12/04/2006 10:53 AM
Wish my work computer didn't block the photos.[/quote]
That's interesting. Can you see other photos posted on the forum here? If so, that'd mean that your work network folks have blocked my hosting server specifically, I would think. I didn't think I had achieved that kind of notoriety!

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

Vero — GMT

My work blocks a lot of sites, including media hosting sites. Some blocks are a little quirky.
But yeah, your site is blocked, 40konline is another that is too. They probably couldn't figure out what DakkaDakka even ment.

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

Sepherus — GMT

I am studying photography at university, so when no one is in the photo-lab i can sneak in and use all the equipment, they have 4 nikon D80's and about 20 different flashes, some specificaly used to diffuse light for macro shots.
Oh yeah thats another thing, when taking close up pictures you need to set your camera to macro (helps stops your pictures from being blurred when close up), its a little symbol that looks like a 3 pronged leaf or flower, on a reflex camera it is better to use an actual macro lense but they can cost a bit.
And when you take a picture NEVER trust the little tiny LCD screen on the camera, it is usefull for framing, but 9 times out of 10 the picure in the LCD screen is not at all what it's going to look like on a large screen.

RE: Photography: It's All About Light

Kotrin — GMT

Very interesting post. Indeed, light is 80% of the job.

As a complement, I've also written an article on lighting sets and post-processing. The purpose is to get this kind of result:

In a few word: ambient light, color and lighting correction, removal of background and addition of a gradient. All in a few steps.

http://www.stephane.info/show.php?code=miniature_photo

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