what background to use?

Beatrice · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:36 am

there a certain conventions on some sites/competitions to either photograph minis always against a light blue background or inside a white light tent.
this makes them better comparable.

others do cut the image and pose them before scenary or other backgrounds. this most often doesn't look okay because the light direction or colour of light in the background differs from that of the mini...

what I personally do at the moment is having a pack of different colour paper sheets and trying to choose one that accompanies the mini. this can either be a colour that supports the colour of the mini (e.g. a brownish or greenish colour for Radagast) or makes a nice contrast (e.g. middleblue for heavy golden armoured mini).

the background shouldn't be too bright. otherwise it might get overexposed or the mini look too dark.

of course, taking minis in their more or less natural surrounding is even a better alternative. Radagast midst moss and roots in the forest, Gollum on a cobblestone in a puddle... :-)

Kalamir · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2006 6:34 am

Well ive spoke to many people over the years and they say they just cant go past blue , a really light blue.

Sort of , Blue fades into white if you understand.

They say its the best for all,

That or white, i would try different colours but i wouldnt want to , as i dont think dark colours would accomplish the complection of the mini

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:09 pm

I would argue (who, me? argumentative?) that there is a case for two types of image: one standardised version for the most comparable view to use in competitions, and the other to be a contextual image, e.g., Wood Elves shooting goblins in the forest, dwarves bashing goblins in the mines... and so forth.

The problem with pale backgrounds is that most cameras and their operators fall into the underexposure trap so we end up looking at a series of fascinating silhouettes....

valpas · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:57 am

I've noticed that the background colour does not affect the brightness if I set my camera to measure light on just the crosshair, not the entire view. I point the camera to a medium brightness point in the miniature and the white paper sheet I use does not make the pic dark.

-- Pasi

Beatrice · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2006 7:13 am

no, the mini will not look dark then, but a light background might appear to bright thus creating overexposed/glowing contours/silhouette/outline (whatever the right term is...) at the mini...

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2006 8:31 am

One discovery made by scientists and engineers is that the average balance of brightness within a scene is 17%, ie, the reflected light averages 17% of the intensity one would get under the same conditions from a pure white, uniform surface. This is the reason for older cameras under exposing snow scenes as the abundance of white background fools them; modern metering hardware and software is clever enough to cope with this more readily under average circumstances but we are coming in very close to get miniatures and this is not a typical, average use for most cameras. The reason a graduated background or neutral background workss better is because it means the CCD (or film) is not attempting to capture such a wide range of reflectivity or contrast. It will also help to use more than one source of light, even using white card or foamboard to bounce back light (you see this a lot in movies) to put some detail into the shaded areas.

Nygyll of Wyvernhole · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:42 am

Dorth have you got a hangover or taken a serious pill???
That is probably the first post you have made without a Pun.

Back on Topic, I always thought that those graduated blue background were added afterwards in some photo package, are you saying you should actually use them behind the mini rather than a sheet of white paper?
If that is the case, where do you get them from, I couldn't print one out as my printer would never cope with the nice gradients.

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Fri Jan 27, 2006 1:34 pm

This might be a little on the 'large' side but smaller ones are available -

http://spaphoto.co.uk/store/acatalog/Pa ... ounds.html

Gstormcrow · **Posted:** Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:42 pm

http://www.holywind.net/sitebuilder/ima ... 1x1739.jpg

Something like that can be done in photoshop. I had a website with a good a4 sized version of the blue/white transition but I cant find it. Found it useful for taking pictures of minis

Uthoroc · **Posted:** Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:25 am

Here's the A4 pdf I've made to print my photo background:

http://www.mapsandmoreshop.de/gwlotr/background.pdf

Meridian · **Posted:** Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:20 am

Well from what I can see I like to see the minatures taken with either a white or light blue backround, I have seen lots where the person will take a picture of one of their minatures infront of some cool looking backdrop and to me all that seems to accomplish is people focuing on the backround and not the minature IMHO. Keeping things simple seems to me to look and be the best in most cases.

Just My 2 Cents - Meridian

what background to use?

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