Butcher, revisited

What happens when I have a lens I've never worked with before?  I wait until the night before I like to post to my blog and get a bunch of out of focus, over exposed pictures.

All is not lost, however.  I got a glimpse of what I can achieve with a different lens, as the following pictures show.  This guy won me a gold coin in the 2010 Privateer Press painting contest.  I know I have pictures of him on the blog already, but those pictures were taken with a pocket camera on the floor of my old basement apartment kitchen.  To say the least, they were not as accurate of a representation of the figure as I would like, and I think these are a little closer to what it looks like in real life.  To this day it's still one of my favorite pieces, so he was an easy choice to test a different lens with.

If you want to take pictures of you figures and accurately represent them on the internet, you must not get discouraged when the pictures don't turn out like you want them to.  There are a lot of different factors that must be taken into consideration that can affect the outcome of your photos.  Lighting \and focus are the two biggest things I need to improve and become more comfortable with.  I'm using too much light right now, and I need to figure out a good way to position the light so it's diffused properly and doesn't wash out my figures.

I also learned not to wait until the night before I post to my blog to take pictures of 5 different figures.  I'm too tired to keep up the trial and error.  In order to really learn this camera and develop my skills, I need a good day to just get the feel of this.  What keeps me motivated is the idea of fantastic pictures of my figures, and working out a process that works for me.

Comments and questions welcome!

Spriggan

I much prefer the metal version over the new plastic one.

This is yet another model I've had for a loooong time.  I cant even remember when I bought it.  

I pushed the highlights a little further with the Spriggan than I did with the Juggernaut, and painted the pieces separately to make it a little easier.  I airbrushed the Khador anvil on the airbrush, but it looks a little more graffiti like than I would like, but it's done.  I wanted more battle damage on it as well, and I'm pleased with how it looks.

Also, I found out that every season of Daria is on Amazon Prime, so I watched the first three seasons while painting this.  I can't look at this model without seeing Daria, so I think I'm going to call it Daria.

Comments and questions welcome!

Painted Juggernaut

This guy represents a lot of firsts for me.

This was the first Khador 'jack that I painted with an airbrush, And I was a little surprised with how it turned out.  I was originally going for a drab green-brown, but the more I highlighted it, the more it took on a desert/winter camo feel.  I'm pleased with it, and I'm bouncing around the idea of painting an Epic Sorcha force in this scheme.

The second first was the sponge applied battle damage.  It's a great time saver compared to manually picking and choosing where to place the damage and it looks much more natural.  It's a handy little trick to take advantage of, and I look forward to refining it.  

Lastly, this is my first experiment messing around with a different background than what I've been using.  This helps the figure pop more, and makes the image a little more interesting then a plain grey background.  I found this background over at BlackDog Painting.  They have a few other colors that will probably be making appearances the more photos I take.  So far, working with this one, I can attest that the backgrounds are fantastic.  I highly recommend them!

As always, questions and comments welcome!