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BoromirCaptainofGondor · **Posted:** Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:21 pm

Hey.
I'd like to say in advance that I really appreciate the help you guys gave in my previous thread about my A520 camera. But I'm still having trouble taking good pictures.
It seems like my photos have a slight 'grain' on them. Or like its too 2D or something I can't really put my finger on. And I'm always getting a thin white outline around the picture from where I've cropped out the backround.
Here's a pic of my Khandish Chariot that I've been trying to get a decent picture for ages.

Just some info on how I take my pictures and my setup.
My set up is in my basement, the only place where I can have a permanent setup. I have 3 lights around a white paper.
My tripod is setup in front of the paper about 5-6 inches away.

When taking my pictures I set my camera onto the AV setting and turn the F to 8.
I also set the white balance on light bulb and change the exposure to about 1+.
I also turn the ISO to 50 and set it to vivid.
And the bottom setting on the menu to 2272x1704.
Also turn on the timer and the macro.
Then I take the pic.

Okay, here's what I do to edit the picture, I use gimp.
Open the picture, then I adjust the picture using the Auto Levels and Auto Contrasts.
After that I adjust it with the curves.
Then I remove the backround with the magic wand. After that I sharpen it.
Then I add the gradient and the outer glow.

So thats what I do, I've been reading some articles and asking some people, but I can't seem to get them to turn out right.

Any help could be appreciated.

EDIT: I was just looking the picture on the site and it looks a lot cleaner then it did on GIMP. But the colors still don't look right.

Beatrice · **Posted:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:52 am

I don't know GIMP but use Photoshop. Gimp must have similar functions.

when you use a magic ward, you can probably set the colour range that get's selected by it, and also selection should be anti-liased or not (should be always on when working at photographs)
so play with this selection range of colours.

in Photoshop you can also expand a selection after you have done it to even catch more pixels and such 'come closer' to the actual object. (or vice versa to shrink a selection)
plus you have the option to feather a selection. (e.g. when the deleting of the background would cause harsh staircase effect at the object's edges, you can go back to the selection, then choose a certain feather radius and try again deleting the bg until the transition is smooth enough.

in Photoshop you also have the object to work on a selection by choosing mask modus. with black and white colours you can add or delete masked (selected) areas and work on them like on a photograph itself.

but for your pics with a normal smooth white to colour gradient I would recommend simply a paper with a gradient! this would make everything a lot easier for you and would look more realistic (cut images against a new background usually look somewhat 'wrong/artificial' as the lighting is different and the eye notices at once.

your setup sounds professional and the pics looks quite okay to me!

still, when your colours are not like in reality, you can use hue/saturation or curves/colour variations to trim it until it looks quite right. (not sure where this in GIMP, but it should be a menupoint like 'adjustments/colours/....'

(this would be an intended manipulation of the image to achieve the 'real colours' on the digital pic.)

do other colours look better in your pics?
some digital cameras do have problems with photographing red colours correctly...

not sure if sth of the above was of help, otherwise please ask further.

BoromirCaptainofGondor · **Posted:** Wed Jan 24, 2007 2:26 pm

Okay, I'll give that a shot. Thanks for the quick reply. About the colors here's two pics I took a while back. And it looks like the colors are muted in the pictures.

See like the brown on the base doesn't really stand out, and the troll looks almost like one color.
And would I be able to fix that with the hue and saturation?
Thanks in advance.

BoromirCaptainofGondor · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:54 am

Hey, Sorry about the double post...
Anyway here's another pic of the King with the Printout Gradient. It turned out pretty well. Looks like I got a hot spot from the light bulb though.
Also the Gradient looks like it's a shadow instead of a Gradient. Would I be able to fix it by increasing or decreasing the curve of the paper?

Beatrice · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:06 am

Did you replace the background with a gradient or as I had meant but maybe not said that clear that you should try putting the figure on a slightly bend gradient paper when taking the photo...?

I think the pic is rather okay. not sure what more you want to achieve. (as mentioned in my earlier post, there are various settings you can try out (also levels/brightness/contrast/exposure, etc.

the gradient looks like a bluewhite gradient to me with a darker gradient towards the right top corner... but it doesn't look like a shadow ...

BoromirCaptainofGondor · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:27 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I guess the pictures are fine. I think I had been having trouble with the colors, I think I'll fiddle with it some more. Glad you think they're okay.
I think the printout gradient was helpful, I think I'll continue to expirement with that too.
Thanks again for the feedback.

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:48 pm

Those are very decent images by any standard - better than some we have had submitted here for the Awards which IMHO is a shame as people are not giving their minis a chance.

I am not in favour of swapping backgrounds on minis - but that is just me being me.

BoromirCaptainofGondor · **Posted:** Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:14 pm

Thanks for the comments.
My pictures have usually been okay, I've just been having trouble recently with focusing and colors.
Sorry if it looks like I've started this thread just to show off my pics. I really appreciated the comments and tips and hopefully I'll continue to improve in my photography skills.

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