Photography Background Download

[Kurgan the Lurker]

File Name: Photography Background Download

File Submitter: Kurgan the Lurker

File Submitted: 18 Mar 2009

File Category: Tools

 

There have a been a rash of photos lately in the PCA with folks using their monitors, heavy grain wood tables and all other assortment of distracting background.

 

While there are numerous ways to solves this the easiest is to use this printable background.

 

As you can see in the screen shot it works quite well. Photo used with permission from Commander Y.

 

So even if you don't have the time, funds or motivation to set up a light box or stage this can go a long way towards improving your photos.

 

Click here to download this file

[cann0nf0dder]

Nice one Kurgan.

 

The blue is a great BG for most minis.

However, it might be good to change the colour for blue paint schemes to give contrast (I suggest yellow).

[Temprus]

Thanks to Kurgan and Commander Y for this.

[Kurgan the Lurker]

All credit to Commander Y. I just uploaded it with his permission. :P

[Merkava]

Is that all they use!!! Man I thought that was just a trick of how they set up the photoshoot.

[LoneSniperSG]

Is it acceptable to come up with a background image of our own? Say one that fits with the environment we based/painted the mini for being in. In my case, being that my tanks are all caked with snow and frost, and the Marines are standing on rocky, snowy ground, I would want to use something that showed snowy mountains or some rough, hilly area in the back. Nothing too overly distracting, I understand, but that blue thing just doesn't work for me. Edited July 5, 2009 by LoneSniperSG

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Well the blue background piece is there to help people take better pictures (instead of having a monitor or keyboard or your parents floral print table cloth).

 

Up to you if you want to use a setting background for your pictures. Creating a setting wasn't really the purpose of this background.

[Iron Phoenix]

I find that a nice sheet of plain white drawing paper works fine, and is large enough for squads and vehicle teams. that blue though does work great, particularly with more warmly toned and lighter armies such as imperial fists, deathwing, etc. I think that it's not a high enough saturation to harm blue units, but that's a matter of taste (golden tones will always make blues look stronger).

 

For particularly dark models, i recommend using a toned ground such as a hobby table or a (very clear, very plain) wooden surface, for the reason that (unless you're at least an amateur photographer) most people are shooting on automatic light balancing and on that setting, the camera will auto-balance to a very light shot. I can't even discuss this in paragraph form:

 

Drawbacks of a light background for dark models:

 

automatic cameras will choose longer exposures, which (without a good tripod) tend to shake and blur.

automatic cameras will choose higher film speeds, which create more and more grain (particularly in the darks).

automatic cameras often will have difficult focusing, and sometimes miss (too far, too close) blurring the main image.

by comparison, the models will look darker and darker if the white is not photoshopped out anyway.

going with the above, the shot will not show how the models interact with a playing field, making it hard to tell how they will look in game (ref: old imperial guard codex, cadian army photo with hundreds of units on a white ground - they look like nothing but dark shapes, but on the playing table, they are very much a medium tone)

the page will reflect under the model perhaps as strongly as the lights above shine on it, which destroy areas of shadow, flattening the figure.