figurines - how to improve

[contacted]

[noobie alert]

my bro just bought some figurines from taiwan and decided to snap some of them.

found them lacking "ooomph"/"x factor"...

what can i do to make them more dynamic? better poses? any effects? motion blur? bokeh?

any suggestions of a small DIY studio? maybe a white colour vanguard sheet?

Cam: D70
Lens: 18-70(Kit Lens)

Samples:

:sweat:

any advice is appreciated

 

[~Arcanic~]

looks a bit noisy... u using a very high iso?
try a tigher crop and a smaller f stop maybe?

tighter crop will help to bring a zoom in kinda feeling, smaller f stop helps to blur out e bg too. oh yeah, an external flash will help quite a lot too, or any other alternative light sources.

 

[contacted]

looks a bit noisy... u using a very high iso?
try a tigher crop and a smaller f stop maybe?

tighter crop will help to bring a zoom in kinda feeling, smaller f stop helps to blur out e bg too. oh yeah, an external flash will help quite a lot too, or any other alternative light sources.

yeah, pumped it to 800 i think...

mmm, guess lighting have to play an impt part, was just using my ceiling lamp

 

[denniskee]

is the limbs of the figure adjustable, if so, post them.

for your 1st shot, notice her legs looks static, is in stand at ease stunt. try adjust them to running, jumping position.

as for the noise, since your subject is static, dont need to push to iso800 lar. long exposue also can, it will not run away or move what. also, mount the camera on tripod to eliminate camera shake.

you push to high iso because your need faster shutter speed to help freeze the motion of a moving subject or prevent camera shake.

 

[contacted]

is the limbs of the figure adjustable, if so, post them.

for your 1st shot, notice her legs looks static, is in stand at ease stunt. try adjust them to running, jumping position.

as for the noise, since your subject is static, dont need to push to iso800 lar. long exposue also can, it will not run away or move what. also, mount the camera on tripod to eliminate camera shake.

you push to high iso because your need faster shutter speed to help freeze the motion of a moving subject or prevent camera shake.

hee because lighting no good... no tripod as of yet...

lowered the ISO then tried with flash... tried to move back as much as possible, I'm using the built in flash.

tried with some motion blur...

before

after

thanks to dennis and arcanic for your inputs :thumbsup:

 

[besh]

Your picture looks "yellowish"(am i spell correctly, anyway.....),
you shoot it purposely with that?
or you didn't change your D70's white balance from Auto to others ?

Dennis is right, dun go for high ISO, it make ur pic a lot of noise,
try to shoot at f/8 f/11, i think it should be ok.
If you shoot with flash, maybe a diffuser help to decreased the HARDNESS of the lighting.

**kit lens can't really zoom into the character.
try it out.

 

[denniskee]

very dynamic, she doing a high speed cornering or going into a sllide in position. :thumbsup:

 

[Bluestrike]

I believe that a good background can make a lot of different to those that you have now. The subject face is oso not clearly light up in the picture above.

A good old Hoya +4 or something close-up filter might help you bring the subject closer to you. If you had not have a macro lens already. Add a piece of tissue or two in front of the built-in Flash for better diffused light.

just my few cents....

 

[~Arcanic~]

very dynamic, she doing a high speed cornering or going into a sllide in position. :thumbsup:

Drift! Drift! :bsmilie:

anyway, try to improve ur lighting a bit more. if u dun have a tripod, try using a table or anything u have to place ur cam over for longer exposure.

 

[radedward]

Use the the 70mm end of your lens and try to get as close as possible.
There's too much open space

since it's a small model, use a table lamp for lighting, preferably one which can be adjusted, so that you can control the lighting position. You might also want to use tracing paper to cover the table lamp maybe to diffuse the light.

you can also do something with the background.

Get a vanguard sheet or table cloth as a backdrop or shoot out of a window with the night sky behind so that you automatically get a dark background.

and if you can afford it, get a tripod then don't need to pump the iso so high.

Happy shooting.

 

[denniskee]

Drift! Drift! :bsmilie:

Ah, "Initial D".

 

[av98m]

You can also use a black t-shirt to get a black background:

 

[mega32]

Majong Paper also can for white background

 

[Long Thai Bean]

Wah ... I see a lot of G-Kit lovers in CS also ...
Very tempted to go and dig up all my kits also to start doing some "model" shoots ...
Maybe we should have a diroma and landscape with G-kit shoot in a studio ...
Any ideas and suggestions?

RGDs

 

[contacted]

:lovegrin: thanks so much for all the replies and suggestions... will try getting a longer exposure and probably find some kind of support...

black t shirt is great idea... easy to find and quite "mouldable".

sigh if i have the space in my roon, i want to set up a small studio for these kind of figurines... get some small lamps from ikea... heh maybe when i get married and have my own hobby room... ;p

sorry but this is a newbie question, what does a close up filter do? i'm guessing it increases the minimum focus distance? i just have to find the correct diameter of my lenses(18-70 and 50 f/1.8) ? or izzit better to get an adapter to reverse the 50mm into a macro lens?

 

[contacted]

heheh after getting some inspirations from the replies here, managed to do a make shift studio.

Ingredients:
Plastic File
Black T-Shirt
Beanie Cushion

Results:

 

[denniskee]

great shot, wah, 1 day improve so much liao, can become pro in 10 days already.

 

[mega32]

Fantastic :thumbsup:

As the saying goes: " Its the photographer and not the equipment ". :bsmilie:

 

[kazuya]

These are what I shot with my Benq DC2300.

 

[kazuya]

1 more pix.

I'm hoping to get a d70 real soon, as I'm tired with the lack of manual control on this cam.