Miniature Mentor releases The Complete Guide to Photographing Miniatures with Felix Wedgwood

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Miniature Mentor is excited to bring you The Complete Guide to Photographing Miniatures with Felix Wedgwood !!! Join professional commercial photographer Felix Wedgwood in over 7 hours of video as he guides you through all the steps necessary to create amazing photographs of your miniatures. THIS IS NOT A BASIC PHOTOGRAPHY TUTORIAL - plenty of those on the net.

No light tents were used in the making of this tutorial - we didn't take the easy way out here! You'll learn the true art of photography and lighting. This tutorial focuses solely on miniatures and the obstacles of shooting/lighting tiny objects. You'll learn about lights and lighting, diffraction, depth of field, sensor size, lens resolution, light fall-off and more. Get ready to add an entirely new creative element to this awesome hobby of ours!

Felix Wedgwood is a professional commercial photographer working in the food/product photography field. His work has appeared in dozens of major magazine publications. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

Miniature Mentor is the world's first and only video library dedicated to the art of miniature painting and sculpting. Our current instructors include, Thomas David, JAG, Allan Carrasco, Jennifer Haley, Ben Komets and others.

CHECK OUT FELIX's GALLERY HERE...
 
Sounds interesting.Downside thing is, i'd rather spend my time painting figures and use my usual not so good pictures.
I personally i'm not too happy when you can turn a good figure into something even better with the use of photography.Basically what you see is not what you get, if you get my drift.There are figures i've seen in the flesh which look a lot better than the photographs i'd seen previously, but unfortunately i've seen many figures that don't look so good in the flesh after seeing the pictures.
Being an old timer maybe i'm missing the point.Do you paint figures so you can take pictures and enhance them so they look better, or are you painting figures firstly for personal pleasure and to show your efforts off to other people at shows etc,
I could enhance my figures with photography and all the other computer enhancing gadgets if i wanted to but can't see the point e.g. i'd hate to be a collector who buys figures on the strength of the photographs they've seen.Could be a let down.
If you look at the images of the before and after pictures at the beginning of this thread and look at the difference.I rest my case.
Only my humble opinion.
Brian
 
I'd go along with Brian and Dennis on this. I think ultimately the decision lies with the individual and that any photograph alters the 'look' of the object to a greater or lesser degree.
If you are photographing a figure to showcase technique and end result then surely the skill is in minimising enhancement and not using photo editing programmes. If however you are using such software to create a scene to illustrate text or an article then fair enough.
Cheers
Derek
 
These photos are not enchanced. They are out of the can - produced using the same lighting for all the photographs in the tutorial.

If you are someone that takes "terrible/bad/not so good" photographs then a bit of knowledge can help eliminate the issues that plauge those type of images. The tutorial is presented in an a la carte style. You can take/use what you like.
 
Hi Felix
I understand where your coming from and would think your tutorial would benefit some people but i've not got the time or the inclination, but i hope your venture is successful as your obviously a very talented photographer .
Best regards
Brian
 
This is something for me for sure. And even if figures are best "live" many of us dont get around that often to shows or shows with international standard. Additionally we dont get coverage we would like to.

At least, I enjoy to see photos of other members figures and WIP. And the better the photos the more interesting.

Cheers
Janne Nilsson
 
Looking at Felix's professional work I'm sure there's a great deal of valuable information in this guide. However I do have to point out that there's a great deal more than just basic photography tutorials to be found online for free.

Within the budget and space constraints most hobbyists face there are essentially only two or three key tips that'll make the bulk of difference anyway, and all of them can be learned quite easily from existing information on the web.

Einion
 
The great thing about this tutorial is that it's designed around one workhorse setup specifically dealing with miniatures. Once the first setup is done you're done. The exposure, shutter and aperture will remain the same for all subsequent figures. So, essentially the video will prepare you to save time fussing about trying to make your setup work. All you'll be doing afterwards us swapping out miniatures - the set doesn't change.

Also color fidelity and accuracy is one of the key focuses in this video. We don't show you how to make an image "better" than real life, we show how to get 99% accurate color and exposure without the sensor noise, out of focus parts and J-peg compression artifacts which are not present in real life.

This video was made because the large majority of images uploaded to miniature forums are less than ideal even with "the large amount of free information available on the net". Because the reality is that most of these free videos cover general photography and don't deal with miniatures and color fidelity specifically. If you spend 10, 20, 30 hours painting a figure you want it to look as good as possible.

Felix has spent over 20 years working as a commercial photographer contributing to dozens of magazines and working with clients like Sony (PS3) and Apple(iPhone). There are more than "a few tips" you're going to learn here. Please don't judge something you haven't seen.
 
Me thinks some doth protesteth too much. Let's be clear: if you want people to appreciate your work, taking competent photos is not an option, it is mandatory. What i find most baffling is the common attitude that taking decent photos is too much trouble or "beyond" the abilities of the modeler.

This is ridiculous. Folks, once you have decent camera, the things one needs to know to take good model photos is neither extensive or difficult. If you put even a fraction of the effort it takes to do the model into learning how to take decent photos, then that is more than enough. Then others can appreciate your work too.

With crap photos and half-hearted excuses, nobody will ever know how good (or bad) your work really is. While a seven hour video is more than is required to learn the basics, certainly such basics are not inscrutable rocket science...... ;)
 
It is quite interesting. I wonder what tools are used in the tutorial, I mean the equipment; camera, lens, lights, softboxes etc. There is not enough detail in the description of the tutorial to make a call.
 
The tutorial is made for people of all budgets so we don't impose any equipment rules. But specifically we use a Canon 5D (2005) and a 100mm macro lens for all the shots. We also use special, inexpensive continuous output daylight bulbs that far out perform hardware store daylight bulbs.

We rephotograph 14 miniatures generously supplied to us along with the original photos. The miniatures are of varying quality - tabletop to master level. That way you know we are not "cheating" and you can see the varying degrees of improvement. But you're right we'll add some more info.
 
This looks very interesting indeed and I applaud the creation of this tutorial. Look at how many threads are created each month on this site asking for photography help. Taking great pictures of your figures is something that we all want to do. I'll be looking further into this product fo sho.
 
Just want to have my 5p worth here. Just looked on ebay and the camera mentioned is selling from anything between 1,500 quid for body only and 2.500 quid for cameras with lenses. That is not something i am personally going to shell out on just to take pictures of my miniatures. Somebody who has a camera like that will, in most cases, have some knowledge of photography already including what this video is supposedly going to teach. Most of us have all purpose compacts that we use as snapshot memory makers and these are invariably left on permanent auto.
 
Ken, I cannot agree with you at 100%. It is not always about the camera and the lens. In my opinion the most crucial aspect about the photography is lighting. Very difficult skill to posses. Being able to freely manipulate lighting in studio enviroment as well as the natural light can give you great results with every camera.
 
Please don't judge something you haven't seen.
This is a fair point but you are doing the same yourself about what is available online - you broadly characterised it as basic, which is far from the case. And it's not just existing written and video guides, there are forums for photography that feature a mix of leisure users and working pros willing to help any member who asks, just like here.

Also color fidelity and accuracy is one of the key focuses in this video. We don't show you how to make an image "better" than real life, we show how to get 99% accurate color and exposure without the sensor noise, out of focus parts and J-peg compression artifacts which are not present in real life.
These are all key issues, but some perspective is needed.

First and foremost compression artefacts are unavoidable for a lot of us! Saving as a JPEG isn't optional for many cameras, it's the only option.

As far as noise goes, this is aided greatly by shooting with more light, but some digicams produce a lot less noise than others - we don't all have the benefit of using cameras with a full-frame sensor... EOS 5D, pictured ;)

Einion
 
Totally agree with you Piotr. My point was the majority of us are point and shoot photographers who want to get decent results without a huge outlay of money on cameras and lighting equipment. I live in a place where I cannot get to shows to see miniatures in the flesh so I appreciate good photographic renditions of miniatures. There is a place for both types of photography. My point was only that the camera used on this video is not one that most of us would aspire to and anybody who had this type of camera will already know how to achieve results.
 
My guess is improved lighting and whatever other tips they have will work with any camera. But yes, you'll probably get more out of it if you're using a digital SLR where you can change lenses and control aperature, f-stop, and film speed. I think some newer mid ranged digital cameras do give you at least some control over aperature, f-stop, etc... but I have not explored those features.

The tutorial may not be for everyone, but I think it's a nice idea. I feel I often struggle to get my pictures to really match what I actually see, and I know many others do as well. Thanks for passing along the information about the course.
 
Once again, this tutorial does not focus on which camera you use - the one we used is 8 years old and can be purchased on eBay for very cheap if that is what you want - it was $3000.00US in 2005 when it was released.

The tutorial focuses on lighting - we repeat, lighting. You will get professional results if you watch the video and follow the techniques - regardless of which equipment you use. However, if you insist on speaking as an authority on something you haven't seen, then that is your own perogative. But, once again for the record - we don't focus on camera equipment. The video was made for ALL BUDGETS.
 
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