International Flat Figure Society - British Flat Figure Society

Flat Figures Painters Forum => Techniques => Photographing Flats => Topic started by: marko on January 07, 2013, 07:38:13 PM

Title: Photography - How to Information
Post by: marko on January 07, 2013, 07:38:13 PM
This seemed like another interesting related subject area - we have some members who do some beautiful work - I am not one of them.


Here are two interesting tutorials I have found so far:


http://www.bmpt1.com (http://www.bmpt1.com)


and


http://www.planetfigure.com/pages/Photographing-miniatures-and-figures/ (http://www.planetfigure.com/pages/Photographing-miniatures-and-figures/)


Mark
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: Glen on January 08, 2013, 03:20:37 PM
Ah... the good thing about flats is that they can be scanned. Since I prefer to frame a a finished flat (the few that I do), I remove the casting plug/footer at the bottom, so it's completely flat against the glass. I put a dark background (paper or cloth) over them and push the buttons. In-progress scans are pretty much the same way, but I may use a lighter background; medium gray is good. I tend to scan at a high res - about 300 dpi and about 1.5 - 2 x actual size - so I can print or reduce to 72/96 dpi for the 'net. I can even scan them in the frame if the frame's not too deep.

Cheers,

Glen

Lonestar Figure Show, DFW, TX; 14 -16 March 2013
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: marko on January 08, 2013, 03:36:32 PM
Interesting, definitely need to try this.  My printer/scanner does do a great job vs. my photography which tends to wash out colors.


Good tip thanks!


Mark
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: PJDeluhery on April 20, 2013, 11:43:06 AM
Jeez, Glen you really have something here!

It rained last night, and while I'm waiting for things to dry out, I decided to try your idea. So, I grabbed a WIP off my workbench and scanned it. After cropping to remove the dead space, I find I have a very nice "quick photo." See attached. I saved it as a .jpeg; and while the file is small, the detail is a-mazing! I can really blow this sucker up!  I usually photo my work at various stages to look for corrections. This did the job very nicely, and I found several things I missed with the naked eye.

Kudos to you for a great idea.
.........Oh, the flat is "Queen of the Nile" from a pen and ink drawing by Frank Frazetta.  Can't get enough of Frank's work.
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: PJDeluhery on April 20, 2013, 11:48:44 AM
Interesting, definitely need to try this.  My printer/scanner does do a great job vs. my photography which tends to wash out colors.


Good tip thanks!


Mark

Mark, assuming you have a digital camera, trying setting your flash to underexpose 2 or 3 stops. I find that using this, plus a judicious angle and standing back a bit (using telephoto) I can get pretty decent pix without the burnout.
Glen's idea is a little hard to use at shows.   8)
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: Glen on April 21, 2013, 04:45:07 PM
Scanning at shows is easy if you have a military surplus Tactical Field Scanner.

 ;)

Glen
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: Roger on April 21, 2013, 04:49:51 PM
Scanning at shows is easy if you have a military surplus Tactical Field Scanner.

 ;)

Glen

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: PJDeluhery on April 23, 2013, 09:57:07 AM
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D 8) ............smartass!
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: Roger on April 23, 2013, 11:22:13 AM
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D 8) ............smartass!


Probably.... but funny with it.  ;D ;D ;D
Title: Re: Photography - How to Information
Post by: Nicholas Ball on April 23, 2013, 04:11:13 PM
And there I was thinking surplus Tactical field scanner were a pair of binoculars !!!! :-[