Lighting

The first thing you need to do, is find a light source.
We do not want to use flash, unless the flash is separate from the camera. Since most people do not have separate flashes for their camera, and because flash photography is more complex, I will not describe how to take a picture with a flash.
Instead the natural lighting from a window works better anyway. You can use a lamp or two instead if it is at night, but I find diffused sun-light better.

Place your mini scene on a table, facing the window.
Put your camera on a tripod, in front of the miniature facing the window.
You will need white paper or card, to put under the scene, and behind it.
Set your camera to a macro setting, so you can zoom close.
Set your camera for the highest quality image.
Now frame your shot. Try to zoom as close as you can, while keeping the image surrounded by the white back ground.

Here is My Catachan Infantry Squad



See how the white is surrounding the scene. This was as close as I could zoom, to fit the whole jungle terrain piece in. I could of shot the guardsmen with a pure white background, but the jungle piece brings them to life.

Composition

Also take note to the composition of the models. Each is placed precisely, in a pattern that draws the eye into the picture. You do not want to have a head or a gun of a guardsman in front, to be aligned with a head from a guardsman in back. This merges the two into an unrecognizable blob. Each model must be placed with care.
Also the angle the camera is to the scene is important. Lower angles, bring you closer you your subject but prevent objects in the back from being seen. Higher angles make the subject more distant, but offer more to see.

Depth Of Field

Depth of Field is the amount of the photograph that is in focus.
For automatic cameras, the
Portrait Mode--- offers the least amount of focus. This is good, for a 1 model art shots, it blurs the background. But this may not be good for advertising shots.
Landscape Mode--offers the most depth of focus, but some cameras may not allow you to zoom close.
The best way is to manual set the depth of field by the camera aperture setting. Low end cameras dont have this setting.
These 2 shots I took was on a camera with no aperture setting, so I could not get the depth of field I wanted.
But the depth of field that I could get is satisfactory in these images. The blurred guardsmen in the back, bring more attention to the front men, while at the same time bring meaning to the image as a whole. Still the image may have been better with more depth of field.


Here is my Second Image of my Catachan Heavy Weapons Squad.





When you look at this picture, the closest HWT (Heavy,weapons Team) catches your eye. The line from the closest HWT draws the eye to the farthest. Also the line from the farthest rock, to the closest rock, draws the eye to the center HWT. All this. keeps the looker, looking at the picture.
Align your models in shapes and patterns that keep the eye in the picture.

Take some shots with the timer on, so you do not cause any vibrations to distort the focus. Also take some shots with your EV settings up 1 stop. Your camera may read all the white and underexpose the image. So take shots of each setting, then put them into your computer.

Photo Editing

Put your images in your photo edit program, and pick the best one. The one that will need little editing improvements.
In your photo program, change the levels (brightness/Contrast), of the image.
Put the highlights up high enough to make the background white
Adjust the Lows, and the mids for deeper contrast.
You may want to take out a little blue, and make the image warmer.
Now Sharpen your image if it needs it.




Summary
To sum up.
- First thing you need is good lighting, don't use flash. Diffused sunlight from a window works best.
- Frame your shot. Keep your scene surrounded by a solid background, pick a good angle, that fits everything in clearly.
- Compose, you shot. Make sure everything in the image is placed with care and meaning.
- Edit your photo's. Most likely you will have to do some kind of photo editing. Send every image through this stage.


I hoped I helped anyone having problems taking pictures of their works of art. MWG needs some good advertisement shots.