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Digital photography for wargamers The Editor offers some useful tips for hobbyists planning to take perfect pictures of their games and collections, whether they are destined to be seen in print, on the Web, or just in their private iPhoto or Flickr collections
Y
ou should see some of the photos people send me. No, really. I’m not going to name any names in this article, but I bet they know who I’m talking about! On the other hand, perhaps they don’t, and are blithely oblivious to the sounds of wailing, gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair emanating from The Loftwaffe1 when the latest article arrives accompanied by – how can I put this? – enthusiastic photography. Now, the fact is that whilst I was encouraged to take an interest in photography even as a young boy by my late father, who entrusted me with a Box Brownie and then an early ‘Instamatic’ (though Lord only knows what was ‘instant’ about them), there is, in fact, nothing mysterious about acquiring at least a modicum of skill with a camera. Developing a ‘good eye’ is simply a matter of practice, the application of some basic science and the gradual addition of a touch of flair as you grow in confidence. The subject matter is, in fact, irrelevant, and the skills I shall demonstrate in this article are just as useful for taking snaps on holiday or on your smartphone as they are when photographing 1 As my attic studio was christened by a reader, back in the days when Battlegames was just a website – one of the first in the hobby, in fact.
My ‘Loftwaffe’ set-up. Taken using an iPhone 4S, with no adjustments at all.
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miniatures on a wargames table or in a diorama. Moreover, anyone can develop these skills. One of the great things about photography is that it is wonderfully democratic. You don’t need to have spent years studying at the Royal Academy to perfect this art – the pinnacle of excellence is accessible to all, armed with nothing more than a smartphone or a digital camera costing under £50. Indeed, the most I’ve spent on a camera was when I bought my trusty Fuji FinePix S7000 (see below) for about £400; nowadays, this same camera can be bought on eBay for under £100, which I call an absolute steal. If you want to know how well-loved this camera is, I remember turning up at Partizan a few years ago to find Richard Tyndall (Tricks), Guy Bowers (WSS Editor of course), Michael Perry and myself, all wandering round with the same camera!
Camera choice It’s possible, of course, to spend thousands on a full SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera, and there are certainly some beautiful machines on offer. Let’s look at some pros and cons.
SLR Pros: usually high quality build and durability. The lens is a separate component, so can be switched for different situations, such as macro and extreme telephoto. If you’re a keen hobby photographer whose interests lie beyond the wargames table, this might be a good investment, choosing different lenses and accessories to match the camera body. Cons: expense (be prepared to fork out £400+ for a decent one, plus any additional lenses) and, depending on the lenses chosen, weight and bulk for carrying around. Advice: choose the best lenses and accessories you can afford.
My trusty Fuji FinePix S7000 on the left; and the FinePix AV200 on the right.
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One of the most common problems encountered with photos submitted to the magazine: camera shake, causing blurry, out of focus images. If you really must hold the camera, then be sure to use the viewfinder if possible so that you can tuck your arm under the device to support it, just like a soldier is taught to hold his rifle – and learn from a marksman’s breathing, too, squeezing the shutter as you breathe out gently. Trying to hold a camera at arm’s length is a recipe for trouble.
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camera
Sometimes referred to as 'prosumer' cameras, such as my S7000, these fill the niche between the single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs) and the point-and-shoot camera. Pros: again, usually of high quality build and durability. The lens is integrated into the body, but you can buy screw-in extensions for different situations, such as wide angle and telephoto. There is a wide range of such cameras available and they represent excellent value for money. They are also less bulky than many full SLRs. Cons: absolutely none I can think of, other than lacking the top-end flexibility of an SLR with interchangeable lenses. Advice: choose a camera made by one of the ‘traditional’ manufacturers known for the quality of their lenses e.g Fuji, Nikon, Canon etc. Anything above 6MP (MegaPixel) capability is good enough for print work. Have plenty of batteries to hand.
Point-and-shoot
of the onboard software offers limited possibilities, but some are surprisingly good. Advice: once again, choose a camera made by one of the ‘traditional’ manufacturers known for the quality of their lenses e.g Fuji, Nikon, Canon etc. and read as many online reviews as you can before parting with your cash.
Smart cameras
These have flooded the market in recent years and offer image resolution that often matches or even exceeds bigger cameras. Pros: cheap! My Fuji FinePix AV200 cost me about £50 on Amazon and has 12MP resolution. There are hundreds to choose from and they can be very handy as a backup or pocket camera. Cons: extremely variable quality, and the problem is often the lens, rather than the internal sensor. In general terms, you get what you pay for. Any flash also tends to be mounted on the front so the danger of ‘blitzing’ the foreground is likely. Much
phones
The ultimate accessory and nowadays they have cameras that rival or exceed the performance of the ‘point-and-shoots’. My iPhone 4S has an amazingly sharp 8MP camera. Pros: especially cheap because it includes your phone and everything that has to offer besides the camera. In addition, they are internet-connected with 3G or wi-fi so that you can instantly send photos to friends, upload to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter or your blog. Highly portable and instant results. Cons: the lens tends to be pretty wide-angle only, so if you’re looking for clever depth of field, forget it. Like many point-andshoot cameras, the onboard flash tends to blitz out anything too close and can cause red-eye. They can be tricky to hold steady, don’t come with tripod sockets and the lens is often in an awkward spot, making photos of stray fingers all too common. Advice: excellent standby in an emergency, and the best – such as the iPhone and Android Galaxy, can produce really superb quality images. But you may want to load up with some Apps to help out, such as the amazing 645 Pro for SLR and film effects, and Camera Boost for low light. You can also produce instant ‘drawn’ effects with Apps like My Sketch.
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Much better. Mounted on a tripod, you can use the camera’s timed release, or a cable release screwed into the shutter button, to prevent shake. Now the image is crisply in focus. All the images taken for this article are presented ‘as is’, straight from the camera, with no Photoshop enhancement. The figures are1/72 Esci and Italeri plastics I painted for The Wargaming Compendium, due May 2013. The command bases are Ged Cronin painted Newlines. MINIAT U R E W A R GA M E S
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Five RULES FOR PERFECT PICTURES Whilst I am always wary of laying down ‘rules’ for anything, there are certainly some basic principles to bear in mind every time you point a camera at any subject. Allocating one to each finger and a thumb, they are: • Lighting • Focus • Depth of field • Composition • Output
lighting If I had to choose just one piece of advice to give the aspiring photographer, it would be “improve your lighting”. Lighting, lighting, lighting. Did I mention lighting? Why do you think professional photographers spend so much time and money seeking out the perfect lighting conditions? It’s because, in essence, photography IS the recording of light – photo-graphy. Get the light right, and almost everything else falls into place. Movie directors have their actors sit around for hours waiting for the right lighting conditions; theatre lighting technicians can make a tiny stage seem like a broad prairie or a tiny dungeon, all with the right lighting choices. Wargamers, on the other hand, bedazzled by the sight of painted lead and plastic, have a habit of pointing their camera in the general direction of the wargames table regardless of the available light, bemoaning their luck when, inevitably, the images produced are of a less than award-winning standard. And believe me, I’ve had more photographs plagued by bad lighting than almost everything else pass across my desk. ...but don’t go overboard by using flash without due care. The problems with flash are many – and some are built right into the camera itself if the flash is mounted on the front of the device, facing straight forward. The result when you photograph people – unless there is a special feature included in the camera’s software – is the dreaded ‘red eye’, where light bounces straight back into the lens, highlighting the blood vessels on the back of your subject’s eyes. For wargamers, the equivalent is ‘blitz’ or ‘whiteout’, which becomes increasingly prominent the closer you get to your subject, as you can see here. To make matters worse, as you can see at the foot of the inset picture, the flash mounted on top of the S7000 has created a shadow of its own lens! You can also see how dark the background has become compared to the ‘blitzed’ foreground, a double whammy.
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Even better. Some additional lighting has been added from multiple sources, including anglepoise lamps and a large piece of white card to reflect daylight back into the scene. This is especially important when you are forced to shoot towards the light, which leaves the side of the miniatures facing you too dark. The additional lighting helps the detail to ‘pop’...
Poor light is a common hazard when you live in, say, the UK, which has, to say the least, variable lighting conditions for much of the year, ranging from gloomy to dismal, with an occasional overcast thrown in. If we’re to believe the Scandi-dramas, much of Sweden and Denmark would appear to suffer the same thing. It’s also a particular speciality of some wargames shows: Partizan and Cavalier come to mind in the UK, housed in buildings that cast a particular pall for some reason. Not the fault of the show organisers, of course, and I’m sure you have your own, particularly challenging venues in mind, but there are times when it would take a Sara Lund or Wallander to figure out how best to approach the problem. Here are some simple suggestions to make your life easier:
1. Don’t
stand in your own light
Come again? No, seriously, I’ve done it myself: with precious little light filtering through the windows onto the game, get yourself out of the way of those struggling sunbeams. This is especially the case because many wargamers are of, er, ‘ample’ proportions. I don’t want to use the word “eclipse”, but you get my drift. If there are others standing around the game, then politely ask them to move aside for a moment – explain what you’re doing, and they’ll usually accede to your request.
2. Bring
your own light to the scene
Tricky, admittedly, if you’re at a show, unless you carry a large torch (and I have indeed seen some display games set up with those powerful lighting rigs used on building sites), but in fact there are a couple of simple things you can do, without resorting to using your flash. The first is – seriously – to wear pale clothing. I’m not suggesting that you should turn up to Triples in your cricket whites, but in fact your own clothing does affect the scene in front of you. To show how it can work against you, for some months I thought I had a problem with my camera because almost all the photos I took at shows had a strange, pinkish cast to them – until I realised that I had been wearing my bright scarlet Battlegames T-shirt! Now that I’ve given Miniature Wargames a white cover, things should improve significantly. Besides a white shirt, another useful accessory is a pad of plain white paper. You can ask the game participants’ permission (something you should always seek, of course) to
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As is often the case, rather than persist with a scene that just isn’t working, pick up the camera and move to get a better angle. Now, we have a more pleasing view of the French (aren’t you sick of the sight of backs in wargame photographs?), the British defensive line is much more pleasingly in the frame, and the composition is far better, with a dynamic sense of movement..
stand a folded piece on the table, close to the miniatures you are photographing, so that it reflects light onto the figures. If you can find a volunteer to hold a large piece for you – or even a larger piece of white card or tin foil – then so much the better, and they have something to talk about with their chums after you leave. “‘Ere, did you see that weird bloke...?” In many cases the improvement may be marginal, but that could make the difference between finding a load of wasted pixels and something that is, at least, salvageable when you get home.
3. Add
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light
When you’re at home or down the club, you have much more control over the lighting, but you need to think before you act. Now that they are being phased out, the old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs commonly found at home and which used to cast a very yellow light are less of a problem; instead, we have these new-fangled squirly eco-bulbs that take a while to reach full luminosity and when they do, give off a weak, pinkish light instead. Joy. What you need, my friends, are ‘daylight’ bulbs. The incandescent ones are still around if you hunt hard enough, and they are certainly worth their weight in lead. The light they emit is a cleaner, blueish tinge, which seems to interfere with natural hues much less than standard bulbs. If you can’t find these (often listed as ‘hobby’ lights), then some types of flourescent lamps specifically designed for hobbies and artists can be a real boon.
1. Poor
Focus Seriously, what’s the point of a photo that’s not in focus? These days, with digital cameras, there’s no excuse – you can see the results of your work right there and then on the little screen. You can zoom in on them, you know? Besides, if you’re at home, I assume that you have your PC, Mac or other device right there beside you, so plug in your camera with the USB lead, download the images and check them out. If there are any duff ones, delete, delete, delete and take them again. But what can cause lack of focus?
Refer to the captions accompanying many of the photos here. Learn your f-stops and make depth of field your friend. Sadly, cheap cameras and mobile phones are unlikely to give you this option, but even many budget cameras have ‘macro’, ‘normal’ and ‘telephoto’ settings which can reward experimentation. For most wargame photos, you’ll want a wide aperture with plenty of depth of field so that as much as possible is in focus. Confusingly, the wider the aperture, the lower the f-number! Dear old Wikipedia has a full explanation of this puzzling bit of mathematics at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number.
A simple demonstration of depth of field. In both cases, I aimed the camera at precisely the same spot in the centre of the image. The image on the left was taken using a large aperture – f.2.9; the image on the right was taken using a narrow aperture, f.8. Notice how only a small portion of the line is in focus on the left, whereas almost the entire scene is in sharp focus on the right.
One of the results of changing the aperture is the exposure time required. The photo on the left had an exposure of 1/20 of a second, whilst the one below required much longer, 1/3 of a second. As a result, more light has entered the camera and you can see a distinct colour shift between the two images, which can cause problems if you’re trying to match colours between shots.
lighting
I refer the gentlemen to the advice given above.
2. Camera
shake
See the advice given in the caption at the top of page 37 and invest in a tripod, monopod, bean-bag or bendy ‘gorilla’ thing. For a few quid, your problem is solved forever.
3. Confused
camera
When you press the shutter halfway, the camera will usually beep to let you know that it has ‘locked on’ to a particular target in the centre of the frame. If you then move the camera, or don’t wait for the beep in the first place, then you get what you deserve and the little imps inside the box go on strike.
Depth of field
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More fun with depth of field. Once you’ve got the hang of things, you can make deliberate choices to enhance your photographs and tell stories without needing any Photoshoppery. Here, we have a nice, crisp photo of Sir Arthur Wellesley with his aide-de-camp from the Light Dragoons in attendance, somewhere near Salamanca in 1812. Nice pic, nicely composed, lit and shot using an aperture of f.8. Job done? But now, see how much more dramatic the shot becomes by reducing the aperture to f.2.8. The duke and his aide now seem to ‘pop’ from the background, which has become blurry and less distinct – and thereby ceasing to compete for our attention. With the drummer on the right less in focus too, he ceases to draw the eye. Our attention is right where it should be, on the great commander himself.
Here’s another example of the kind of thing you’ll encounter in most wargame situations. Here, our lone light infantryman seems remote from his colleagues in the line behind, even though the distance is in fact just a couple of centimetres. this can be useful if you want to focus the viewer’s attention on a particular miniature because of its (ahem) superlative paint job or interesting uniform or equipment details.
The same shot, but switching back to f.8. Now, the relationship between the ‘light bob’ and his colleagues behind is much clearer and we sense that they are closely supporting him, rather than leaving him to his own devices. Note that the level of detail affects not only the figures, but the groundwork too – and even the buildings in the background. In effect, a wide aperture ‘compresses’ space, making distant objects appear closer.
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Composition Okay, this is where I start to get arty-farty. Achieving a balanced composition – or, for that matter, a deliberately unbalanced one – is largely a matter of trial and error. Practice, practice, practice. However, a trio of simple tips:
1. Look
for an angle
Literally. Most photos taken straight-on to the subject are boring. Move to the side a little and look for diagonals, which help give the impression of movement and action.
2. Think
in thirds
Divide your framed image into horizontal thirds. If the subject is in the middle, it creates a solid, unmoving impression (which might be fine if that’s what you are after). Shifting the subject to one side gives a Ä to Å ratio, which is technically unbalanced but curiously pleasing. Divide the vertical space in the same way and you're really getting into something interesting.
3. Near
and far
Pictures often work well with something large in the near foreground framing something smaller, further away, implying depth – just like looking through a window.
OUTPUT Most cameras and smartphones will save your images as JPG (also known as, and pronounced, JPEG) files. Some high-end cameras can also save in RAW format, but unless you really know what you’re doing, stick to JPGs. JPG files are what is known as a ‘lossy’ format, which is to say that they achieve their compression by dumping data. So, technically speaking, your image is already of a reduced quality the moment you save the file. For use on the internet – such as on your blog, or Facebook or Flickr – JPG files are just fine. Save them at 72dpi (dots per inch) in RGB (Red, Green, Blue) format to the size you want. BUT always keep your original image safe and only work on a copy by using the “Save As...” command, NOT the “Save” command!2 Web images are measured in pixel dimensions. For use in print – such as in this magazine, the requirements are quite different. Files need to be 300dpi at the final size they will be printed. In addition, they will be converted to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and black – the K stands for ‘Keyline’), but to prevent any unintended alteration, leave that to me (or the designers of any other magazine). Clearly, therefore, files only intended for the internet can be much lower resolution than those for printing. Take the light infantryman on the left, for example: for this magazine, the dimensions are 58.333mm x 63.5mm at 300dpi, making it 1.97Mb; if I only needed it for the Web, I could reduce this to a high quality, ‘progressive’ JPG of just 13.3Kb! However, if I was silly and didn’t keep the original, there would be no turning back – the reduced version would look ghastly in print. In print, we use PSD and TIF(F) formats which are lossless and retain their quality. We can also accept PDF files.
CONCLUSION The joy of digital is that you can experiment as much as you like for no cost, so experiment! It really is a numbers game: the more you take, the better you'll get. 2 You may remember GIF files too, but they’re hardly ever used nowadays. A more common alternative is the PNG file, but unless you’re a web designer, stick to JPG.
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