Photo Setup

[BigDaddy]

Below is a picture of my photographic set up. I have labeled the picture to show the components. You can use any DSLR camera that will take a hot shoe mounted flash transmitter for the flash. You can also use any manual flash that can be triggered by the receiver. I use a Canon 430EXII for the main flash- set to manual mode so I can select the power (1/8 power). The second flash (Vivitar 383) does not have a receiver, but is set as a "slave" that is triggered by the Canon's flash when it goes off. I usually have that one set to 1/16 power. You can play with the power settings and the distance to the subject to get the light you like. The triggers I use are Calumet Pro Series, but there are several on ebay for under $30.00. You can go with two inexpensive speedlights- look on ebay- all you need is ones that work in manual mode. Whats fun too is you can use white foam core or cardboard to make simple reflectors to illuminate parts of the figure or model. Sometimes I use a fluorescent or halogen lamp to illuminate the background.

I shoot in manual mode on the camera- usually something like 125 sec @ f8.0 or 9.0 pretty simple. A couple of test shots shows you right away what you will get. Faster shutter speed will darken the background. Make sure your figure is about 10"-12" from the background to avoid shadows and give nice out of focus blur. The background is available from Hangar 18 Miniatures.

 

[FigureLover]

Thanks for this Matt, great to see how others take photos of their figures, ( I had a look at your postings to see what the finished photos look like, NICE). Do you leave this setup up all the time or set it up only when you want to take pics?
Also, your camera, does it have a flash mounted to it that you use, or just the two flashes off to either side of the setup
Cheers
Ben

 

[BigDaddy]

Thanks Ben. I don't leave it set up all the time, it's pretty easy to set up once I am painting for in-progress shots. No, I do not use the on camera flash, just the two speedlights. Newer Canon cameras will let you control off-camera flash (their brands) throught he pop-up flash though. but it has some limitations when you use the soft boxes.

Matt