(written in November, 2004)
Hi Gang!
Some of you have written to me after having seen the series of photos that I posted last weekend asking if I would put together a tutorial of my photography techniques.
Well, I am more than happy to oblige! I believe that it is ONLY through the sharing of knowledge that we will improve the presentation of ALL of our work! This in turn will make Hasbro and other toy companies stop and take notice, and give us what we want… better and better products!!!!
I want to warn you at the onset, though, that this post will be very LONG!! Depending on how quickly you can read, this could take you a half hour or MORE to get through. So you may want to get comfortable!
Without further ado. Let’s get started:
As it is,
PHOTOGRAPHY can be somewhat intimidating to those who are novices. It can be awfully “technical” and can really put some people off.
But I can assure you: Armed with practice and the right knowledge, you can take pictures that will really make your custom action figures stand out, and let everyone know who you ARE!
The techniques I’ll cover apply to pretty much ALL cameras (film OR digital), and can be used to photograph virtually ANY action figure.
Before I get too deep into MY OWN personal photography techniques, I think it might be best if I offered some general background information about photography. This will help you to understand many of the photography terms that I’ll use later.
FIRST and FOREMOST: Before you can take any pictures of your prized custom action figure you will need a decent CAMERA (duh!
). There are a myriad of cameras available out there, but not all of them are APPROPRIATE for the type of photography that is employed when photographing 4 inch scale action figures!!
What are the different types of CAMERAS?
POLAROIDS:The Polaroid or “instamatic” camera has been around for decades. It is an extremely good “planning” camera that lets you quickly take a picture and see what you are going to get before you take a final photo with your “main” camera. Fashion photographers use these all the time in their work. But are they suitable for taking serious photos of your favorite custom action figure? Uhhhh… I think not. You don’t really have the ability to manually focus with those cameras, and the quality of the final photos is not the best.
POCKET CAMERA:We’ve all seen them used in EVERY possible place: at family outings, gatherings with friends, college dorms and parties, hang-outs at the beach… Virtually EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE that someone wants to take a quick picture with their pals without a whole lotta fuss, this is the camera you’ll see. And of course they come in MANY varieties. From the inexpensive “over-the-counter” throw away cameras, to the higher-end “point and shoot” systems, these pocket cameras are VERY popular! But can you make that custom General Veers that you worked long and hard to create look really good using one of these? The answer generally is “no” These cameras use a viewing system known as a
RANGEFINDER. That means that when you look through the eye piece to snap a photo, what YOU are actually seeing is something roughly in the
RANGE of what the LENS sees, but NOT EXACTLY the same thing. With the lens being about 2 inches below the eyepiece that you’re looking through, there IS a difference between what you see and what the camera sees. This difference is known as
PARALLAX CORRECTION. This parallax difference is NOT that critical when you are several feet away from the subject that you are going to photograph. But when you are mere inches away from your subject (as you will be when you take a picture of your custom figure), that difference will be HUGE!!! A custom action figure that you framed to be in the center of your picture will likely end up being far off to the side (possibly even cut-off) in the final photo!
SINGLE LENS REFLEX:Ah!! Now we’re talkin’!!! The Single Lens Reflex camera (or “SLR”) corrects the “parallax” problem of the pocket camera’s inaccurate viewing, by giving the photographer the EXACT view that the lens sees!! Thus, when you look through the eyepiece, “What you see is what you’ll get!!” SLR cameras manage this neat little trick by employing a pair of mirrors inside the camera body. The image inside the eyepiece, then, is a reflection of EXACTLY what the lens sees, bounced from the mirror directly to your eye. Presto!! SLR cameras come in many different varieties to shoot the different “formats” of film: 35mm, 120mm, Medium Format, etc. The most common format that is used to photograph our Custom figures is 35MM. These types of cameras have removable lenses that allow one to interchange from one focal length lens (say a 28mm wide angle lens) to another (say a 150mm telephoto) with great ease.
DIGITAL CAMERA:The introduction of the digital camera about 25 years ago is quite possibly the greatest boon to the action figure (miniature) photographer! These cameras combine the potential “point and shoot” ease of a Polaroid or instamatic camera, with the high image quality and framing accuracy of an SLR. Typically these cameras are equipped with a
ZOOM LENS lens that lets you cover everything from as wide as 28mm to as telephoto as 150MM and beyond!!
Now that you know a little bit about cameras, we can now move onto the next aspect of photography that you’ll need to be intimate with:
Once you’ve selected a good camera (hopefully either an SLR or a Digital) to photograph your custom action figures, you’ll next need to have a good working knowledge of
LENSES:STANDARD FOCAL LENGTH LENS:The standard lens that accompanies most 35mm cameras is the 50mm lens. This lens is meant to represent the closest example of the human eye’s field of view (within the
confines of the photo frame area) .
WIDE-ANGLE LENS:The “Wide-angle lens” is typically used to describe any lens that represents a field of view WIDER than the human eye. The focal length of such a lens is usually 28MM or shorter. When that focal length gets really short , you have what is called a “fish-eye” lens where objects appear roundly distorted. An example of when a Wide Angle lens is used: You and your friends wish to take a group picture in your living room. The photographer (your dad) has backed up AS FAR AS HE CAN GO and is now up against a wall. But he cannot fit your whole group in the frame. But dad is calm, cool, and collected. He knows this is NOT a problem. He reaches down into his photo bag and retrieves his wide-angle lens. Once he clicks it into place, he is NOW able to fit you and the ENTIRE GROUP easily into the frame!
TELE-PHOTO LENS:The Tele-photo lens is typically used to describe any lens that represents a field of view that is more MAGNIFIED than the human eye. The focal length of such a lens is usually 80mm, 135mm, 150mm and beyond. An example of when a telephoto lens is used: Your mom is REALLY into bird-watching. She knows that she can’t simply go up to a little birdie and ask it to pose for a picture without it flying away. So what’s her solution? She attaches her VERY long 150mm telephoto lens onto her camera so that she can take a photo of the Yellow-Bellied Sap-Sucker perched on the tree branch WAY ACROSS THE STREET without disturbing him.
VARIABLE FOCAL LENGTH LENS:The Variable Focal Length lens (or “Zoom” lens) is typically used to describe any lens that can CHANGE from one focal length to another. An example of when a zoom lens is used: A Sports Illustrated photographer in on the race track at Belmont. He needs to be able to photograph the racing horses when they first leave the starting gate which is, say, 300 yards away AND he also needs to be able to photograph the winning horse as it crosses the finish line directly in front of him. He needs to be able to do this quickly, and cannot waste time changing lenses. With his “zoom” lens, he sets his focal length to Telephoto at the start of the race to catch the far away horses, and then he changes his focal length to Wide-Angle when the horses cross the finish line in front of him so that he can fit them ALL in the shot.
MACRO LENS:The Macro lens is used to describe any lens that can represent a MACROSCOPIC (close-up) field of view by physically getting CLOSE to the subject being photographed. Some of the finer Macro lenses allow the Photographer to get as close as 1 inch away from his intended subject with a perfect focus.
THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS THE TYPE OF LENS YOU’LL WANT TO BE FAMILIAR WITH WHEN PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR CUSTOM 4 INCH SCALE ACTION FIGURES!!!!Now you know all about lenses. Good!! Are you still with me? EXCELLENT!! Let’s move on!!
Now you need to know about
FOCUS. One of the things that many custom action figure photos suffer from is POOR FOCUS. It’s understandable. Focusing on items this small is NOT an easy thing to do. And you’ll need to know some basic focusing principles:
When dealing with MACRO photography of your Custom Action Figures, you’re going to run into the dreaded problem of
DEPTH OF FIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Play SCARY music here)
What’s “Depth of Field” you ask? Well, simply put: In photography, the "Depth-of-Field" is the area immediately in front of and immediately behind your point of focus that ALSO seems to be relatively in focus.
With a MACRO LENS, the Depth of Field is incredibly shallow!! That means that if you’re about to photograph your awesome new 3.75 inch Han Solo: Bespin custom Action Figure (full body shot that FILLS your frame), and you have very carefully focused on his FACE, there’s a really GOOD chance that anything past, say, the back of his head (about .25 inch from the point of focus) will be completely BLURRED!!!
With a WIDE ANGLE LENS the Depth of Field is considerably deeper. This lens lets you get pretty close up onto your subject (although not as close as a MACRO), and your area in front of and behind your point of focus will be pretty sharp. The only trouble is, when you get close to something using this type of lens, there’s usually a bit of distortion of the subject.
With a TELEPHOTO lens the Depth of Field is, once again, pretty shallow. Yeah, you can photograph something that’s really FAR AWAY, but anything in front of or behind your focal point will be blurred. And you cannot physically get CLOSE to a subject with this type of lens and focus upon it.
But wait!! There’s more!! There’s ANOTHER factor that determines your Depth of Field: It is the APERTURE that your lens is set at!!
What’s an “Aperature”? Well, that is simply a term used to describe the size of the camera shutter’s OPENING at the moment that the photo is taken. The shutter’s Aperature settings are usually found on your camera’s lens, delineated as “F” numbers: F16, F11, F8, F5.6, F4, F2.8 etc. Generally, aperture works like the human eye’s IRIS. If the subject is BRIGHT or has a LOT OF LIGHT thrown onto it, then you may want to set the aperature smaller to prevent "over-exposure" (that's when a photo turns out all white and washed-out looking). Conversely, if a subject is dimly lit or lacking in light, The aperture should be opened up to catch as much light as possible and prevent "under-exposure" (when a photo turns out waaaaay too dark).
How does the size of this “Aperture” affect Depth of Field? Well, generally the SMALLER your aperture, the greater your Depth of Field. Conversely, the larger your aperture, the shallower your Depth of Field. This is no different than when you look at something with your naked eyes. Instinctively, you may SQUINT at objects that are not focused or clear. When you squint, you are in essence, making a smaller “aperture” for your eyes to look through, thus improving the focus of your vision.
As you can see, miniature “Macro” photography presents a whole unique set of problems! But UNDERSTANDING the root of each problem makes you a better photographer.
Now having said all this, I can now talk about my own
PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES:
