Some friends have been sharing their painted fig and were disappointed at the quality of the photo. If you too have wanted to show your super cool figs, only to end up with something unflattering that doesn't do justice to your work, I made this short guide for you!
I will explain the first 3 basic lights to improve the picture of this poor Nanachi and show their colors and volume as best as possible.
note: all the pictures are taken with my smartphone and have not been retouched digitally. This guide is for a scrappy, low budget, low effort studio photos that still improves massively the quality of pictures.
(putting a read more for the very tall pictures)
"What is a good lighting?" is a question best spoken in hushed tones around passionate photographers, lest you unleash The Infodump or, if there's more than one, The Debate. It is a vast and complex subject, where the change in softness or temperature of a single light can change the whole mood and intention of a portrait.
Here we're gonna keep it simple: a good light is going to be one that shows the volumes of your figurine.
To achieve that I made a small studio with a 3 point light system using 2 bedtime reading lights I got from amazon, an old torchlight, and my phone. I did that on my kitchen table, I would recommend to Not have this reflective surface as a support, but I did it in like 20min and forgot to put a sheet of paper under Nanachi.
Those reading light are nice to read in the dark, but they're also Awesome to take pictures of figs!! They are wide, which create a soft light, and you can chose between 3 temperatures (cold, warm, and daylight), and 4 levels of intensity. and they come with their own support and movable arm, they're just perfect for this. Though if you don't have that, I will explain what each does so you can reproduce the effect with what you have.
The volume of an object is best shown (in a flat picture) by the reflections of light. The first light we're going to use (labeled 1 in the setup) here is the Key Light. It is going to be the main illumination of the subject, the one that creates the shadows and shows the volume of the fig:
The Key Light works best when reproducing the sun. That means: a rather soft and warm light, put higher than the model and, very importantly, at an angle with the camera.
Avoid at all cost to have your light and camera in the same alignment! it will hide all the shadows and make the model look flat! that's also why you shouldn't use the flash from your camera, it's super strong, super cold, very sharp, and directly aligned with the camera. It's makes whole people look like cardboard cutout.
with a key light put to the side, you can already have cool pictures. Now to make it better, you can add a Fill Light. The Fill light is here to fill in the shadows. It's a much weaker light, preferably of another color, that comes opposite to the Key Light, often coming from lower than too. It's the one labeled 2 in the setup.
Here is the fill light only. It's a warm, soft light. So soft that my smartphone had a hard time taking the picture and started to auto-correct the color. Here's what it look like with the Key and Fill lights together:
Looking nice! I put the fill light at 2 of intensity, but you can make it even softer by putting the light further away. As you can see, it doesn't overpower the Key Light, we can still see the shadows and understand the volumes, but we can see better what's going on in the shadows.
In outside photography, by daylight, the fill light is mostly provided by the blue sky, that's why we tend to paint shadows in cooler colors than highlights.
Let's finish with the third light, the Rim Light. This one is completely optional, but if you can have it it makes a very neat effect. The Rim light is positioned behind the subject, at a slight angle, just out of the camera field. It's strong, sharp, usually white but you can go crazy on the colors with this one, and it serves to outline the silhouette of the subject:
The Rim Light alone can make such a dramatic effect! It's great to detach people from the background, so it's often used in movies.
Here's what it look like with Key and Rim:
and here's with only the fill and rim:
As you can see, if you only have 2 sources of light, using on as the Rim can give a striking effect. Opting for no key light, only the fill and rim, is a bold choice that will show less of you handiwork on the figurine, but can make a very very cool ambiance. Especially with the fill coming from below, it create a menacing look that would fit some cool monsters.
Finally, when you combine the three, you get this:
If you have the option, don't hesitate to change the colors of your lights too! I made a test with a warm key and a cold fill (same rim):
It's less classic and will show your painting less, but it makes a cool dual tone light.
So yeah, That's how I do! The reading lights were 15 bucks on amazon, and are very serviceable for studio photo of figurines! I hope this post can help you show how cool your work is without losing in quality at the photo step. Don't hesitate to mix things up and experiment, you can make some very very cool pictures with a very very low budget!
Thank you to my loyal assistant Nanachi for this small photoshoot.
If it helps and you have a the means to, please consider supporting me on liberapay: https://liberapay.com/Tootkin/ , it would mean the world to me!
I did a study of my cat, Jade, on stream today as a surprise little art demo.
A queen.
PSD + Step-by-Step up for Homebrewed Lemonade Patrons
https://www.patreon.com/noxquel
One of my favorite aspects of making ASMR videos is the ability to use my content to iterate and practice upon my video production skill set.
The biggest change I've made of late is upgrading my 3 point lighting setup. Previously I was copying the setup from diagrams without much thought put into lighting angle or varying strength.
With practice I've found that depth is created in the face via varying the intensity of lighting between important lights, namely the key and fill lights. Having one brighter and one dimmer adds a subtle shadow and contrast to the face that helps it feel cinematic. Dialing it in to correct amounts is something I've been getting a feel of simply through repetition.
Thank you for watching and motivating me to continue learning! Comparing progress and seeing how my new videos compare to the old is quite rewarding.
New videos coming soon! The new microphones have arrived and I'm excited to try them.
A test of 3-point lighting with soft boxes. I like how the second one came out as far as a model feature. The third is good for fitting into a scene for a warehouse.
1. 3-point lighting with the key light on the side.
2. 3-point lighting with the key light on the front.
