Another tip I've found useful is to use an "Ott's Light" sold at many office supply stores and on the internet. It has the natural spectrum and is not like a regular house bulb. It is somewhat expensive, however. I use mine especially when matching fabrics' colors for custom minis.

I have also had good luck with the natural spectrum light bulbs sold at WalMart and gardening stores. Just make sure it's the only light on in the room. With these lights you can put them in any lamp or lighting outlet in the house. It's amazing how they bring out the natural colors in everything inside the house! These lights look somewhat blue/purple in the box and are a bit more expensive than regular lights, but they are less expensive than the Ott's Lights.

The comments by several other posters about using your camera's macro mode, if available, and using computer digital editing programs were right on target. Also try not to zoom, especially if you have a digital rather than optical zoom on the camera.

Also I use a small tripod, sells at WalMart for under $10.00 to hold the camera totally steady. This is very important when using macro modes on digital cameras.

Example of the techniques I've used can be seen here with some tiny mini flowers:

http://www.geocities.com/wilma_kinder/flowers.htm

Wilma Kinder

I didn't see anyone mention using "natural light, light bulbs. They're supposed to simulate sunlight. The brand name I use is Reveal.

I am not a photography expert but that is the good thing about a digital camera - I can take ten pictures to end up with one good one without it costing extra money. The downside of digital photography is that I'm having difficulty getting the film canisters that I use to ship miniatures because apparently, few people are buying film. I have the same camera that Tom Bishop mentioned (Sony, DSC-F707). Excellent camera. It's a little too good as it shows every dust particle on the piece I'm photographing.

Carol
S P Miniatures
6/9/04

For the milk jug light tent idea, a water jug is easier to use; same material, no cleaning issues.

There is a reflector/light cube for sale on the web at http://www.ezcube.com/ The micro one is 12 inches square for $55.

In my search for knowledge I found this site, http://www.megapixel.net . It is a site devoted to digital photography, and has some great articles on macro-photography (what we are trying to do taking close-ups of miniatures).

From the home page, select English, then from the left hand side select 'articles'. You then get 4 drop down choice boxes in the centre of the page. Under 'camera basics' are 2 particularly relevant articles, 'macro photography" which includes tips on depth of field and basic lighting issues, and 'lighting for macro photography'. Towards the end of this article is a link to instructions for building your own light reflector box from a photocopier paper box. Lots cheaper than $55 VBG!

This is what I have been using for my photos for eBay. I use a neutral sheet of scrapbook paper as the base and curving up the back wall to give a seamless background. There are so many scrapbook papers out there that you can experiment with plain colours, degree of gloss, slight designs etc.

I cannot afford a professional setup but I am able to produce decent photos. I am photographing much smaller objects than dollhouses (silk pillows on the end of a sofa) and use two 50W halogen spot lights, one on each side and slightly to the front, and one workshop halogen light for overall lighting. I select the "tungsten" setting on my camera and turn off all other lights. You can experiment with different colour lights and different camera light settings.

Have a look at the shadows in miniature magazine photos and work out from the shadows how many lights they used and where they were, especially in show reports where individual miniatures are photographed.

To diffuse the light and reduce glare spots I put a quadruple layer of white bridal netting in front of the lights, held onto the top of my photocopier box with pegs, just making sure that it is tucked behind the camera lens! Old thin hankies, mylar etc are other suggestions that I was given. I think that it was Barb Jones who suggested the netting.

I also have the camera on a tripod and use the timer setting to further reduce the chance of camera shake.

Since I am photographing objects of pretty much similar size I experimented with the distance between the miniature and the front of the lens that gave me the best focus. I then made a mark on a thin dowel and just use this measuring stick each time to set up the sofa and pillow at the right distance from the camera. In my case it is 3 3/4 inches.

I have the lights as close as possible, as light intensity falls off with distance, I think as an inverse square ratio. Only once have I had a fabric start smoking. I only have the lights on for the minimum amount of time to reduce the chances of overheating of the miniature.

I take a number of photos, altering the lighting positions slightly, and then choose the best one at the computer.

The final stage is to use photo-editing software. I just have an old version of PhotoDeluxe that came with the computer, and it has a one click touch up feature called Intellifix, that sharpens, brightens and reduces glare spots. I open a number of copies of the photo I am playing with, keep one unaltered, intellifix one, and on others I sometimes manually play with the contrast, the colour balance and saturation etc. I then choose the version that looks best to me and save that one. It's easy to do, and the results can be quite an improvement.

I hope that some of these thoughts and ideas can be of help. Also, if you go to the NAME website http://miniatures.org , select "tips and projects" then ignore the category box and type "photographing" into the Project box, then click on Search, there is whole list of miniature magazine articles on photographing miniatures.

Wendy Smale in Michigan
6/9/04

My digital camera has a "super macro" feature, which allows me to set the lens almost on top of the item that I'm photographing.

I have found with photographing minis for detail that no flash and working with my photo editor program (adobe photoshop) to adjust the contrast (sometimes I just use "auto adjust" which most photo software will do for you, it might be called "instant fix" or something like that) is just the ticket. The image may look dark, but once you have the program adjust the quality of the image there is a tremendous difference. I don't worry so much about how images look anymore, what I worry about is if they are in focus since that is much harder to "fix".

The reality of using digital photography for images that will be displayed on the Internet is that you have no control over the color settings on someone else's monitor, so... IMHO... you don't need to worry too much about getting colors accurate.

If you're photographing to print your images then it's a whole different ball of wax...

Ami
6/9/04

One method I've found helps eliminate shadows and give good color is to use a 8 by 10 sheet of the white foam pieces sold for under a dollar at craft stores and WalMarts. It's the stuff kids use to cut various shapes out of and sells in many colors. If the minis are white, then use the medium blue foam piece as background.

Also a very good and free software (for non commercial uses) program lets you easily adjust the photos already taken with digital cameras to correct lighting color casts.

The program is small in size, IrfanView version 3.91, and is about a 2 or 3 minute download at:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/194967.html

After you download the program just double click on it, and it will install on your computer.

To adjust color cast, open the jpg picture taken with your digital camera and then do Image, Inhance Colors. You can move the color sliders just a tiny bit and see big differences in the photo. You can also sharpen the image to help improve the printed photo.

Be sure to save the corrected photo under a new name so you can keep track of the photos you've enhanced/corrected. :)

Wilma Kinder
6/9/04

I have noticed that there always seems to be a lot of discussion about digital cameras and lighting. For those of you interested I thought I would let you know what I do and use. One of the good things about this is that you can actually see for yourself what I have done by visiting my web site at www.BishopShow.com and then going to the "Show Report" section. I keep everything as simple as possible as I do not want to carry equipment with me when I fly to shows and I don't have much time to do this while at shows.

My backdrops are either a length of black felt that Don Meehan gave to me or if you see a different color on the background, it is a table cloth I have borrowed from the hotel. My camera which I LOVE, is set on automatic and I use what my booklet refers to as "Recording images at close range (MACRO)". It is a little tulip that appears in my viewing screen. That is all that I do with the camera. My camera is a Sony, DSC-F707 with a Carl Zeiss 10X lens. It cost a little over $900 but I wanted a good camera that would do what I needed so that I could take pictures for my Show Reports, ads for the dealers, and pictures of their workshop samples. I think it does the job beautifully. They have updated my camera since I purchased it two years ago and I think it is now called a F717. Now, regarding the lighting. I purchased two small lamps at Office Depot. The description on the box says they are Metallic Silver, Clip on Lamps and if I remember correctly, they were about $20 each. They will not stand so you must clip them onto something. They are also the gooseneck type. I then purchased the little 25-watt spotlight bulbs, located in the same department and off I went.

When at a show, I get a chair, place it on top of a table and use that for my staging area. I drape the material over the chair and clip the lights onto that metal rims that run along the sides of the chair and become the legs once they turn into a downward direction. I will then adjust the lights for each picture by twisting the gooseneck until I have eliminated as much shadowing as possible. I usually will take two pictures of each item. I then pass the chip onto my wife Leni when I get home and she places it into our computer. She uses a program called Adobe Photo Shop Elements and will sometimes enhance the pictures by making them sharper, lighter or darker. And for us, that's all there is to it. You don't really need the computer to clean up your pictures, you can just keep taking them until you get a good one. We have to do it sometimes as once I've left the show there are no retakes, we have to use what we have. Hope this will help some of you and believe me!

You DO NOT have to be a rocket scientist to do this. I know that many of the newer cameras that they have come out with over the past two years will do just as nice a job as my expensive one does. You can really have fun with these new cameras, I am constantly amazed at some of the shots I get.

Tom Bishop
6/9/04

One of the very nice things about a quality digital cameras is you can set them for the type of light conditions you are shooting under. Daylight, fluorescent, incandescent, clouds, etc. When you are shooting with a regular camera you need to buy special film for shooting indoors to avoid that yellow look.

When I was doing the research on cameras before I made my purchase I noticed that the reviews would state how well the camera performed under various lighting conditions. That was a big consideration in my final decision, some cameras were reported to have reddish cast, another put a purple ring around lights etc. I can't afford a professional light set at the moment so I am using halogen lights with the camera on the incandescent light setting and I am fairly happy with the results so far, the colors I am getting on the photos are right on the money.

I have two sets of halogen work lights on stands like contractors use on job sites and I am using small halogen desk lamps and a halogen pole lamp as fill in lights where needed. I am also careful to turn off all the other regular light bulbs in the area as they too are a different color than halogens put out and I have the flash on the camera shut off. Before I was letting the camera do auto focus and that was not working out as all the objects were not in focus front to back in the dollhouse. This time I have learned about using the F stop setting to get the proper depth of field.

Karin Corbin
6/8/04

One of the very nice things about a quality digital cameras is you can set them for the type of light conditions you are shooting under. Daylight, fluorescent, incandescent, clouds, etc. When you are shooting with a regular camera you need to buy special film for shooting indoors to avoid that yellow look.

When I was doing the research on cameras before I made my purchase I noticed that the reviews would state how well the camera performed under various lighting conditions. That was a big consideration in my final decision, some cameras were reported to have reddish cast, another put a purple ring around lights etc. I can't afford a professional light set at the moment so I am using halogen lights with the camera on the incandescent light setting and I am fairly happy with the results so far, the colors I am getting on the photos are right on the money.

I have two sets of halogen work lights on stands like contractors use on job sites and I am using small halogen desk lamps and a halogen pole lamp as fill in lights where needed. I am also careful to turn off all the other regular light bulbs in the area as they too are a different color than halogens put out and I have the flash on the camera shut off. Before I was letting the camera do auto focus and that was not working out as all the objects were not in focus front to back in the dollhouse. This time I have learned about using the F stop setting to get the proper depth of field.

Karin Corbin
6/8/04

I found that the best light is the natural light from outside. I love to take my dollhouses out there and take some pictures. They come out the best.

Tracy
6/6/04

For those of you who have PaintShop Pro, version 7 or 8, there are 3 "filters" which can be used to correct some lighting and colour cast problems with digital images: Color Balance, Contrast Enhancement and Saturation Enhancement.

The Color Balance filter allows you to adjust the warmth of the image by adjusting the colour cast from warmer (orange) to cooler (blue).

The Contrast Enhancement filter allows you to lighten or darken the contrast of a photo by strength and appearance - really useful if the available lighting was just not quite sufficient or your flash was too "hot."

The Saturation Enhancement allows you to increase or reduce the saturation of colours and additional help in saturation if there are skin tones present (this works for porcelain dolls also if they look too "white").

These three filters are available by selecting, Effects - Enhance Photo, then the first three filters in the flyout menu are the ones I've described above.

About "hot" images:
- If you have to shoot with your flash indoors on your digital camera, and the images are too "hot," you can also put a piece of ecru or medium pink taffeta over the flash to soften and warm up the brightness" effect of the flash.
- If you're shooting in a "warm" coloured room with lamps on, put a piece of light to medium blue taffeta over the flash and you'll cool the "brightness" effect of the setting of the flash.

Joy in Pointe Claire
6/10/04
Digest #405