Ever Notice! (1 Viewer)

[1sttvbn]

These figures look more lifelike when you just admire them with the human eye. But when you photograph them...It shows, how manufactured they really are.
Something I've noticed from a lot of the dio's on here. Maybe it's just when the photograph's are close up? I collect mostly German, and they are over running my curio.
(Time for another one.) I've had to resort to putting some on my computer desk. And with the Das Reich Tiger, and the King Tiger...It looks like a 1/35 battle is waging. But when
I took some photo's recently..They look like what they are..toy soldiers. No..I'm not on acid. :smile2: Just an observation.

 

[wwiibuff]

I agree with that for the most part, but sometimes some of the figures are done so well that they still look very lifelike even when photographed up close.

 

[theBaron]

Digital photography seems to make things more obvious than older film photography did, at least in terms of the resolution that's available to the average person, than used to be. You can find this theme mentioned on many modeling sites, in build blogs, where a modeler posts a photo of his latest progress, and notices flaws that he didn't see with the naked eye. I find this often to be the case.

Some guys now use digital photos as a check on their progress, that is, to take a digital photo, check for flaws, correct them, then take new pictures.

Prost!
Brad

 

[PanzerAce1944]

I agree what Duke has mentioned. Some of the photographed figures look like what they are...toy soldiers while others when photographed look very realistic and give the impression of real people. Based on the individual figure it seems, to me more and more of them are looking better.

 

[1sttvbn]

Wow!..wwiibuff..That is a great photo. Very realistic. Just shot my theory in the @$$. Natural sunlight?

 

[wwiibuff]

Thanks 1sttvbn. Yes, I took that photo using natural sunlight.

 

[cruelios]

Indeed great photo....... "It's alive, it's alive".

 

[TomNT]

I meant to say Duke that at first glance, i thought this was a pic of two real G.I.'s! Excellent photography mate and using real sunlight really makes a difference.

Tom

 

[jules118]

The secret to achieving great results when photographing models (or anything really) is primarily in the lighting. A great dio, poorly lit will look average at best. It doesn't have to be natural light and can come from a simple bedside table lamp placed in the appropriate position, with the camera's white balance compensated to suit. If you look at the really effective images you will notice that very rarely is on-camera flash used (look at where the shadows fall, it will give you an idea of the direction of the key light source). On-camera flash tends to flatten subjects but cast horrible shadows in the wrong places and cause bright specular highlights on painted surfaces which look unnatural if the surface is supposed to represent clothing or some other non reflective material. Try to avoid using on-camera flash. Bump up the ISO to make the sensor more sensitive to light (if indoors) and use reading lights or some other source to provide the illumination... throwing the shadows in places that they would be if it were mid to late afternoon in real life.

So, the first step is creating the appropriate lighting and then combining that with good composition, controlling the point of focus and depth of field (part of the image that is sharp). Controlling the depth of field (which is done via the lens aperture - f numbers) is really important as it can hide some of the imperfections whilst still providing enough information for our brain to fill the gaps. It also lends depth to the image. Often the most effective photos in these threads have have a fairly shallow depth of field with some key points in the dio being nice and sharp and then the 'softer' parts giving the pic depth and adding to the composition by hiding some of the obvious 'model' characteristics. If you want to experiment with controlling DOF, set your camera to aperture priority (AV setting on many) and use the lower f-numbers, 2.8, 4, 5.6 etc these will give you a much shallower depth of field, particularly on zoom lenses when the lens is zoomed all the way out.

Have a crack with those points in mind and I think you'll notice the difference.

And yes, I agree with others, Duke that is an excellent shot

jules

 

[panda1gen]

I agree with that for the most part, but sometimes some of the figures are done so well that they still look very lifelike even when photographed up close.

crackshot ! I think that is one of the best I have ever seen.

If the background and light are ok, even the old glossies can look more lifelike imo.



The better diorama stuff and more realistic kit also help, but it varies with quality of figure and how large you make it

 

[wwiibuff]

Thanks guys for the comments on my photo.

Kevin, those are some really nice dio shots there. Thanks to you and Jules for the information on photography and lighting. I'll being trying some of these tips out in the future.