Figure on Cheap Lighting
Collecting figures is a lot of fun and part of the fun is getting to show them to other people who might enjoy looking at them. Sure most of your friends will humor you, if they don’t make fun of you first, so it’s not as much fun showing off your brand new figure to them. As with many things that appeal to a certain crowd, like anime and video game character figures, sharing the joy often means going online and for that you need pictures. This blog entry is a tutorial on how to better show off your figures to other figure enthusiasts on the net by taking better photos of your collection to share.
Good photography is good lighting. A lot of people think that good lighting is expensive. Wrong. The best light source for photography is free. The sun! If you’ve got a backyard use it. Shoot in the morning or an hour or two before the sun sets for the prettiest light. Those looking for the quickest and easiest way to take pics of your figs, well there you go. But if you’re in the city or in an apartment and feel a little too funny about taking a half naked anime babe outside for a photo shoot while people walk by wondering what kind of freak totes a half naked anime babe out in public, this means you’re shooting inside.
It takes a little setup, but really all you need for an indoor lighting setup are two desklamps, a couple of big sheets of construction paper in different colors, a cardboard box, some tracing paper, and some tape. Many of you have tried the desklamp thing and gotten results you weren’t that happy with, but if you use them right, you can get some good results. The best type of easy indoor lighting is a daylight balanced (aka, full spectrum) light source, because it’s close to daylight in color and it burns relatively cool, which is a plus when shooting PVC. You can use normal lights, but just watch for overheating your figures and calibrate your camera’s white balance settings accordingly.
A lot of full spectrum desklamps are supremely overpriced, but there are cheap options out there. I bought a daylight compact florescent for a normal desklamp for about $10 USD at Lowes (they don’t seem to have it on their website, but they have them in stores). I also use a cheap one from Sam’s Club and it’s great (unfortunately they no longer sell it), it’s even better when I use it as a normal desklamp. It’s 27-watts, which is the equivalent of 150-watts of incandescent light. You’ll need about that much light if you don’t want to use a tripod (if your hands are shakey rest your hand on the table and rest the camera on top of that).
Update: Some bulbs are being called daylight, that really aren’t. The best thing to do is look at the color temperature rating on the package itself. What you want are bulbs with a color temperature between 5,000K and 6,000K to get the best color balance.
It’s helpful to have a second light from above (one that’s weaker than your main light) as a hair light, but you can use a normal floor lamp or a clamp swing arm desklamp, one of these is probably already in your house. My hairlight is a 75-watt light, so half as strong as my main light. The ratio doesn’t matter that much since you can move the light to get more or less intensity.
Anyway, the typical setup for taking a picture of your figure is:
You’ve got your main light at about a 45 degree angle from the figure and the weaker lamp from above and slightly behind the figure (ignore that stuff to the side for now). You set Mizuki down on a colored paper backdrop and you’re even in macro mode and have properly white-balanced your camera when you take your picture and it still sort of comes out blah:
It’s in focus and all, but it looks like some schmoe took a picture with a cheap-ass desklamp from Sam’s Club. The main reason is the light is hard, leaving a highlight that screams plastic and shadows that are too sharp and deep. Hard light is not flattering, so you need to soften it with a diffuser. A diffuser is pretty easy to make. Basically, all you need is a cardboard box, some tracing paper, and some tape to fix the paper onto the box.
A diffuser is a filter which you shine the light through to soften the highlights and shadows so that it blends with everything in between a little more smoothly:
Okay, so the lights are in the same exact position and so is the figure. Here’s what the diffuser does to the highlights and shadows:
Okay, the light is a lot softer now, the shadows less harsh, the glare less defined. It’s getting there, but needs something to make it less dingy. The third piece you should use is a reflector to make the shadows on the dark side of the figure a little less dark. It’s tempting to use another light on the other side, but what that does too often is eliminate shadows altogether, which totally flattens the figure making those round shapes less three dimensional. A piece of white posterboard or even a sheet of aluminum foil bouncing light back onto the figure is usually enough to lighten the shadows a little bit.
So it’s a little cramped with those boxes and the posterboard reflector (the purpose of the Betty Crocker chicken and dumplings box is to hold up the reflector, fancy setup indeed), but it’s worth the small bit of effort to set up and shoot. Here’s the result of this setup:
The reflector leaves the deeper shadows pretty dark, while the larger and more open shadow surfaces were lightened up a little bit to remove some of the dinginess. It also made the transition from mid-tone to shadow a little smoother.
You can get different moods by moving the lights around or by using a shallower diffuser. Sometimes you want a harsher highlight to simulate glistening skin, for example. Sometimes you want deeper shadows. Anyway, you don’t need expensive photographic lighting equipment or an expensive camera to get some pretty decent results.
Hope I was able to help.
Comments
Leave a Reply
hub
on September 22nd, 2006
Thanks a lot for the very helpful tutorial; I’ve been struggling to try and take decent pictures of my figures but they always turn out like crap. =( Just wondering though, but how many megapixels do you recommend for the camera? Because I think I need to buy a new one as the cheap one I have isn’t very good for taking detailed pictures.
rats
on September 22nd, 2006
The number is kind of tricky and depends on the type of camera, point-and-shoot or dSLR. Too few MPs and your highlights clip. Too many pixels (for the size of the sensor) and the images have a lot of noise. Genrally, anything above 5MP avoids the clippling issue, so you’re looking at getting a 6MP camera for a point and shoot. New models are just coming out and I’m not familiar with the advances made since I bought my camera. Check out dpreview.com for comprehensive information.
tj han
on September 22nd, 2006
Wow ok this is the best guide for figurine photography. Puts my own to lots of shame. But one question, with all that “equipment” taking up space, isn’t it a bit difficult to manuvere your camera?
Tsubaki
on September 22nd, 2006
Wow. It’s funny I’m doing all of this in my studio shoot when I’m taking photos of models and it never came across to me that I could do it for my figures.
rats
on September 22nd, 2006
It can be, which is the drawback to a tabletop studio cobbled together with makeshift lighting. It winds up being easier to move the figure than it is to move the lighting and camera. There’s less freedom of movement and sponteneous action in this type of setup, for sure. For convenience you can move the lights and reflectors out a little to give yourself more space without affecting the light quality. One of the reasons I kept it tight was to limit where my camera could go to keep all the shots in a similar angle so that when I pulled back for the shot of the setup I would be in the same spot when I moved back in for the closeup.
rats
on September 22nd, 2006
Tsubaki: Like real life models? That’s cool!
Linked Up Fig Sci: Great Detailed Indoor Figurine Photography Guide at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts
on September 22nd, 2006
[...] Linked Up Fig Sci: Great Detailed Indoor Figurine Photography Guide Published September 22nd, 2006 in Figurine Science Just check out superrats’ site, Happy Soda. Especially this article. It’s probably time for me to read photography guides and websites. [...]
Adun
on September 22nd, 2006
Wow this is an awesome guide. I’ve been trying to take better photos of my figures as so far I’ve been using white cardboard as backgrounds. Thanks for the tips.
Erwin
on September 23rd, 2006
Excellent.
SbebiWan
on September 26th, 2006
Really great tutorial ! Clearly explained and with cool pictures !
For my pics, I only use indirect lights (for example, you turn the light away the fig, and you reflect it with a white surface to difuse it)
I will try your tracing paper tips next time !
rats
on September 26th, 2006
Thank you, SbebiWan, you’ve got lots of nice figures as well. Bouncing the light as you do works well.
I can’t read French, so I am sad to say I wasn’t able to read much of your blog.
Adunitisity » Figure Review: Arisugawa Arisu - Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rinbukyoku
on September 27th, 2006
[...] It looks rather nice, but it you can’t see the vibrant colours of her costume as opposed to the pictures above. But the shadow effect was nice. Though after reading up on an article posted by HappySoda, I’m going to try out using various coloured backgrounds since I bought some coloured cardboard today. Next figure review will be a Shana figure. [...]
SbebiWan
on September 29th, 2006
Thank you, I was thinking about doing a 2 languages blog, perhaps one day
Jumbo
on October 2nd, 2006
Thanks for the tips. Going to fiddle around with it and try it for my next figure shoot.
RDrake
on October 22nd, 2006
Woah…now that is well and truly helpful. This is a long way off from my failed first time attempts at photography.
kaourika
on October 30th, 2006
I love your blog. =D Thanks for the tutorial!
I’m going to attempt a similar setup. However, the link to the first Sam’s Club lamp you mention doesn’t work, and when I searched further, I didn’t find it at all on the site. I don’t believe that they carry it anymore.
If it’s not too much trouble, could you please give me the name of the lamp, or at least the company that makes it, so I can search for it elsewhere? Thank you!! :3
super rats
on October 31st, 2006
The one I have is made by the same people who make the Executive Sun Light Desk Lamp in the second link. If you already have a swing arm desk lamp, you can buy full spectrum bulbs just by themselves. Just do a Google search on “full spectrum bulbs” or “full spectrum lighting” to find them. The full spectrum bulb is the important part.
Sasa
on November 11th, 2006
Since I don’t know anything about studio photography, this tutorial really made me go “wow!” If I would ever come to buy a figurine (that’s extremely unlikely though), I’ll think about this *g*
super rats
on November 11th, 2006
Don’t ever do it either, because many people get hooked on figure collecting. My sister has turned into a figure freak. It all started with some Bleach trading figs, a Roy Mustang here, a Sora there, a Renji and Rukia, some Samurai7 dudes, a Tachikoma, Kusinagi and then before I knew it, she’s ordered the EB Archer figure, Van from GunxSword, and a box of Last Exile figures.
Moe Moe Rabu » Figure Review: Arisugawa Arisu - Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rondo
on November 12th, 2006
[...] It looks rather nice, but it you can’t see the vibrant colours of her costume as opposed to the pictures above. But the shadow effect was nice. Though after reading up on an article posted by HappySoda, I’m going to try out using various coloured backgrounds since I bought some coloured cardboard today. Next figure review will be a Shana figure. [...]
uhsieh
on November 14th, 2006
Thank you, Super Rats, for this great tutorial. Gonna try it some day!
Figure Review: Ignis Indoors at Riuva : Research Institute for Unicultural Visual Arts
on November 16th, 2006
[...] Revealed: This is the set up I used. Looks familiar? It’s an exact replica of Superrats’ tutorial. I used foil for the reflector instead of the usual styrofoam, which works better outdoors. HLJ provided me with a trillion cartons for such use. I’ll have to find some way to cancel out the yellow colour of the lights though. I hope this doesn’t involve the purchase of new bulbs. [...]
Figure Review: Yamato’s Ohno Kanako « いつもバカばかし
on November 18th, 2006
[...] P.S. After reading Super Rats’ guide on lighting figures, I realized that I need to work on lighting the figures better. Hopefully, the next photo shoot will turn out better. [...]
fdgsfdg
on January 25th, 2007
hi..good site..by..
radiant
on February 7th, 2007
actually, the link to the first desk lamp doesn’t work, and the second lamp cannot tilt sideways, making it a top light only.
Really good tutorial though. Incredibly helpful. I have a rig set up now, but my so called full spectrum light is in bulb form rather than flourescent, so my pictures are still too dark. They do look much better than before though.
super rats
on February 7th, 2007
Thanks for the information, radiant. They stopped selling the one in the first link. I’ve edited the post and will update more later when I have time to dig for new links.
I bought daylight balanced compact florescents at Lowes, made by Sylvania for about $10. Oddly, neither company site lists the item. But these bulbs fit into a normal socket to turn most normal lamps into what I recommend.
radiant
on February 10th, 2007
Thanks Super Rats! What lumin range should I be lookign for? I’ll definitely keep my eye out for these at my local hardware store or something. In the meantime, check out my figure photos on my website and tell me what you think I could improve on!
radiant
on February 10th, 2007
I did some research and found out that Sylvania bulbs are -claimed- daylight bulbs, when really they aren’t. Daylight is 5500k~110000k, and the Sylvania bulbs fall at around 3300k or so, which is just slightly better than regular incandescent. I think perhaps it has a higher lumines, so it makes things much brighter. And with manual white balance adjustment on cameras, color temperature becomes somewhat irrelevant.
Regardless, I found a 2-pack set of Philips Daylight bulbs (27watts) 1660 lumines for about 12 bucks Canadian. Though not marked on the front of the packaging, the specs on it showed 6500k at 80 CRI. I tried it out and was astonished at how close it resembles daylight. A tad bit on the blue hue though, but definitely more accessable than the full spectrum lamp you recommend.
Anyway, here’s a link to an informative site about full spectrum lighting: http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/NLPIP/lightingAnswers/fullSpectrum/claims.asp
super rats
on February 11th, 2007
Thanks for the think. It’s a good read.
Sylvania has several color temperatures they list as daylight. The ones I got are listed at 5000K and are part of a line they call Craft Bulbs. It gets confusing if you go by the product name. Reading the color temperature data on the bulb is the best way to go it seems. My other bulbs were also rated at 5000K and they matched up well.
6500K is a little bluer than a sunny day which is around 5500K-5800K. I always custom white balance to nudge the slight differences back to “normal.”
radiant
on February 24th, 2007
I’m still struggling with my lighting. I’m following your tutorial pretty closely, but I’m still getting heavy shadows on my backdrop, and on my subject. I’m wondering if my light is too bright - I move it away, and the scene ends up looking too dark though. I move it closer, and subject gets too much specular.
Should I thicken my diffuse? Are you using the shiny side of the aluminum foil? Or the matte side?
super rats
on February 24th, 2007
Well, it does take a bit of practice to get it working. Different figures require adjustments. E-mail me some examples and I might be able to help you figure out what to work out.
XIIIX
on March 6th, 2007
Your tutorial was awesome for me ^^
I’m currently trying a few things on my blog, and I used the cardboard+tracing paper trick.
I still have a lot of issues to solve :
1. I couldn’t find a strong enough full spectrum light, so I used a 60w on a few pics, which is pretty dark when using the paper filter.
2. I couldn’t find a decent desklamp that can hold a strong enough light if I ever find one.
3. Space management is pretty harsh because I have to use my lamp+cardboard pretty close to the figure. Could probably be helped by finding a better lamp/light too.
4. I’m pretty newbie with my new dSLR, so I’m not used to setting a nice aperture/shutter speed. With my low light, I tried to set high aperture but then many of my pics got blurred because of low shutter speed and no tripod. I think I need to get a tripod ._.
Lol anyway, thanks alot for your help with this tutorial.
I really love all that you do ^.^
super rats
on March 6th, 2007
Is that a 60W bulb or is that a 13W florecent that outputs 60W? One of the great things about the florecents is you can put it a 27w florecent bulb in a normal lamp and get the output of a 120-140 watt bulb.
DSLR takes some getting used to.
Tripods are annoying.
If you find you’re not getting enough light, try moving the setup next to a window, using the window light as your main light (if strong enough) and using your 60W as your “reflector.”
XIIIX
on March 6th, 2007
It is a real 60W, I have trouble finding florecent bulbs around my home, especially daylight ones. I keep looking though.
With the little space I currently have, you’re right in that a tripod would be very annoying
I guess I have to try and improve the light over anything else, but I usually take pics at night so I can’t count much on natural light.
Someone told me about “ring flashes” that are sometimes used for macro pictures, do you know anything about those ? I usually don’t like much the light my regular flash cast on figures though.
Thanks again for your input ^.^
super rats
on March 6th, 2007
Ring flashes are commonly used for macro shots. I’ve never used one. I wonder if you can make one side of the ring weaker than the other, because if both sides are of even strength, I imagine they would give a very flat kind of light. That’s just a guess though, since I have never used one.
The normal flash can be great if you take it off where it normally sits on the camera. If you get a cord or a remote trigger for the flash, then you can position the flash off camera to get great light. I’ve been meaning to try this myself, but it would mean having to buy a flash.
"Karen" aka Gothic Devil Girl Photoshoot at 望み - What is that you desire?
on April 3rd, 2007
[...] referred to super rats’s tutorial on “Figure on Cheap Lighting” and ‘built’ a little photoshooting studio of my own. Headed to the local [...]
valho
on April 29th, 2007
nice tutorial, thanks to your tutorial now i can take proper photos of my collection, they are nowhere as good as yours but i am learning
Lights, camera, action! Part 2 « Toys Workz
on May 1st, 2007
[...] Note: The setup of this booth is based on super rats’s tutorial on cheap lighting [...]
Figure Review: Alter's 1/8 Fate Testarossa « z0mgwtflol
on May 4th, 2007
[...] wanna thank super rats for that tutorial he wrote on figure photography. The lamp behind the diffuser is an Omni GXHO31 (couldn’t find [...]
Phamous… » Blog Archives » 1/8 Ignis - Jingai Makyo
on May 24th, 2007
[...] with her and she provided good practice in photoshooting. I (like so many) used the tutorial on Happysoda.com which helped me a lot. I modified his difuser box and built a custom one to achieve stronger light. [...]
mukyaa.com · Darker than Black Background
on May 29th, 2007
[...] pictures that will folow, I’ve only used the number 1 lamp, the diffuser, made according to super rats tutorial, and some white paper as reflectors, supported by a mini tripod design easel (since I [...]
Obsessive Plastic Lurv
on June 16th, 2007
[...] had no dedicated lights for better lighting. Learned not long after from super rats most AWESOME tutorial that overheads, sides and a diffuser are very necessary for taking photos. *cue for super rats to [...]
Phamous… » 1/8 Ignis - Jingai Makyo
on July 3rd, 2007
[...] with her and she provided good practice in photoshooting. I (like so many) used the tutorial on Happysoda.com which helped me a lot. I modified his difuser box and built a custom one to achieve stronger light. [...]
Figure Attack! « xenblog
on August 1st, 2007
[...] shop for some figure as subject and materials for my D.I.Y indoor fake studio lighting (thanks to HappySoda for this :)). I stay in a typical Japanese city apartment and there is no backyard for me to use [...]
*USELESS THOUGHTS* » Blog Archive » Re-taking Sumomo Akihime Pictures
on August 15th, 2007
[...] this morning after reading HappySoda’s tutorial on how to take pictures of figure on cheap lighting, I decided to get another desk lamp which the body/neck comes longer than the desk lamp I am using [...]
Unmemorable Peon
on August 21st, 2007
Thanks for the awesome tutorial! Gonna try this out as soon as I get the right equipment.
Now, another question: graphic packages. I imagine it’s pretty tempting for a photographer to tweak a little here and there to get the ultimate image, so I was wondering if you ever use graphic packages to tweak your figurine shoots? Or do you take a WYSIWIG approach and try to get the best possible effect straight off the bat?
super rats
on August 21st, 2007
I use Photoshop Elements (the cheap version which came with my tablet), but all I do most of the time is an Auto Contrast and sometimes I’ll clean up obvious dust flecks. I feel it’s better to get it as close to right as you can before doing any editing.
Good luck and have fun with it.
Ok, I lied. « Almost A Hero ~ Weren’t We All?
on October 8th, 2007
[...] President Ritsuko of Genshiken fame. It was also the first figurine I shot using the excellent lighting tutorial over at Happy Soda; as you can see, there are some minor issues, but I think it was a decent first [...]
Got Time? Like Reading Nonsense? Follow Me! xD « Obsessive Plastic Lurv
on November 14th, 2007
[...] tutorial, Phamolous’s two tutorials here & here, as well as super rats’ offerings here & here. Check out my blogroll as well to just simply view lovely photographs and grab some [...]
Mecha_Trueno
on December 31st, 2007
does anyone know how well this works for figurines inside glass cabnets? i.e. without the construction paper but still doing the tracing paper and reflector method. does it end up reflecting off the glass? the cabnet im using is the ikead detolf
super rats
on December 31st, 2007
It depends on the angle of the lights. It can be tricky to avoid reflections, but it can be done. Also, a circular polarizer filter helps cut down on reflections.
Heterochromia - 12 things Pip should read or watch - Day 4, 5 and 6: Currently favorite blogs
on January 11th, 2008
[...] are worth to look at, even when you actually do not collect figures like me! Greatest find: * A tutorial on lighting figurines, very detailed and interesting. It makes me want to take figurine pictures [...]
Kanpai! Celebrate Otakudom » Takamachi Nanoha by Alter
on January 13th, 2008
[...] visiting HappySoda, a blog written by Super Rats whose site I found off of Dannychoo.com, I learned how to set up a cheap, yet effective, lighting rig and went to work on my first steps to a more [...]
free
on February 2nd, 2008
greatings…
Agree…
How to take proffessional indoor photos. « Project O.T.A.K.U
on February 12th, 2008
[...] Read here on what you will need and the basic set up tips: HappySoda [...]
Kanapox
on February 25th, 2008
This article was writen 5 months ago, are you still using this setup? I found an interesting take on this matter with another approach. With the proper mods, I bet you could do something quite interesting. Check this out:
PVC Light box / light tent:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/03/pvc_light_box_light_tent.html
super rats
on February 25th, 2008
That’s interesting, thanks for the link. I might try something similar.
mrdeus
on March 7th, 2008
Thank you for the tutorial! I recently started buying figures and I’m semi-interested in photography so I’ll take your tips and try to set up my own mini-studio
The rest of your site is great too!
Jerome
on March 16th, 2008
Would this also for for gundam kits?
super rats
on March 16th, 2008
You can use it for just about anything the around the same size as a figure.
Jerome
on March 16th, 2008
sir, could you post the exact equipment you used for the “studio”. lights (type et al.) camera, type of paper..
I would really want to make one.
super rats
on March 18th, 2008
Well, what I use now is different than in the tutorial, but in practice is the same. All you really need are some desk lamps, preferably swing arm to give you some options.
I use 5000K “full spectrum” compact florescent bulbs. If there’s a Lowe’s near you, they carry it, as do many art supply stores.
For paper I use construction paper, poster board, scrap book paper, wrapping paper, and fabric. You can be pretty versatile with what you use.
Jerome
on March 19th, 2008
Hi!
1. I just bought a 22Watt daylight lamp 1200 lumens at 6500K spectrum as my main light. Do you think this is enough?
2. I also have bought tracing paper for my light diffuser. For my reflector I also bought construction paper..would this paper serve as my reflector or should i use another type?
3. I only have N95 classic as my camera..do you think it would do justice to the gundams/figures?
super rats
on March 19th, 2008
1) It’s enough light if you have a tripod or the anti-shake on your camera is good. With one light you’ll probably need the reflector as the second light. You might have to adjust the white balance on the 6500K bulb. I’ve never used it, but a couple of people have told me it gives a cold cast.
2) Any white paper will do. I use whatever is handy index cards, printer paper, etc.
3) To display stuff on the net, you really don’t need a fancy camera at all. Just about anything over 4 mega pixels should be enough to get smooth color for web display.
It takes a little bit of practice to get decent results, so if it doesn’t work out at first keep trying different things to see what works and what doesn’t.
Dashiel’s Flash Memory Storage » Blog Archive » Photo Studio under construction
on March 20th, 2008
[...] websites that I’ve went through as far as gundam/figures photography. I patterned this from Happy Soda’s figure cheap lighting and Goufys lightbox tutorial. Here are the materials i [...]
Jerome
on March 20th, 2008
I have shot my pictures using the 5megapixel setting. Would it do justice if the pics were resized using Irfanview..or do you recommend other image editing programs?
super rats
on March 20th, 2008
I haven’t tried that many programs, but I think most would be okay for basic editing like resize, brightness, and contrast. I use Elements, which is the stripped down version of Photoshop. There’s a few open source alternatives like GIMP. I think Google even has a basic image editor.
Gary Bartholomew
on March 26th, 2008
If you do tabletop photography check out these reflectors, they adjust with magnets.
http://www.lightrightreflector.com Food photographer love them
Gary B
Jerome
on April 1st, 2008
Oh by the way, does your secondary light have a tracing paper too? Or is it only your main light?
My setup consists of 2 light sources both daylight at 6500k. One is 22W and one is 15W.
New Photoshoot Lightening Set Up « Wcloudx (kumo)’s Blog - Ramblings about Anime, Gunpla, & More!!
on April 10th, 2008
[...] lots of website/blogs, for some advice on the lightening. In particular, I just want to thank Super Rats for the awesome (and cheap) tutorial on this [...]
Lsio
on April 27th, 2008
Thanks a lot for this great tutorial.
I was about to build a lightbox, but saw your article and like your method more, so went out and buy all the materials I needed and built this little studio. I have post some pictures in my blog. Feel free to take a look and give me some feedback. Thank you.
DIY Photo Studio x Photo Shoots «
on April 28th, 2008
[...] I stumbled across a site called Happy Soda’s recently, and was amazed by the quality of the pictures and backdrops. A tutorial is available on the website (link here). [...]
.::. GSC Akatsuki Mishiro « .:: A Kid’s World ::.
on May 4th, 2008
[...] research on how to snap better photos. Stumbling across an excellent figurine photo taking guide at Happysoda, I decided to give it a try. Before this I did try using the method with Fate/Zero and Tsuraya, but [...]
Figure Review: Hiiragi Chihaya « z0mgwtflol
on May 17th, 2008
[...] the shoot: This time, I used the same cabinet, but with a diffuser (many thanks to super rats for that tutorial from eons ago), which resulted in the softer lighting; therefore, less shadows, better light. [...]
Lauren
on June 10th, 2008
Just checked this out on tomopop.com and you’ve inspired me to share my collection! Thank you!
super rats
on June 11th, 2008
Lauren, photographing toys is almost as addictive as collecting the toys.
link love 06-11-08 | words
on June 11th, 2008
[...] photographing your anime and game figures. [via tomopop] And somewhat related, taking better photos for etsy and [...]
Latest Thought - Page 720 - Anime-Planet forum
on June 12th, 2008
[...] indoor lighting for when i take pics of my figures. im using to the webistes below as ideas HappySoda Figure on Cheap Lighting mukyaa~ Darker than Black Background __________________ check out my blog at [...]
New Photo Booth Setup | The Geek Review
on June 26th, 2008
[...] weekend posting. Trying to remember where I got the the layout for this setup from. Found the link Happy Soda gives a good explanation of the ways and wherefores of set up and he always does great shoots. His [...]
Hirvine’s moments » Blog Archive » Reinforce Zwei
on July 6th, 2008
[...] second shoot, following both tutorials of HappySoda (light and blocking light). I also followed up the tips from Shino who I think is from the lololol blog. [...]
Übung macht den Meister at Flying Pussyfoot
on July 6th, 2008
[...] schwammig.Aber man soll aus der Not ja eine Tugend machen und deshalb habe ich mich ein wenig mit Superrats Beleuchtungstutorial zu [...]
PhilAnime.com » Blog Archive » Vash the Stampede (black version) by Kaiyodo
on July 16th, 2008
[...] http://www.happysoda.com/archives/88 http://www.riuva.com/?p=345 [...]
Anonymous Coward
on July 23rd, 2008
Thank you so much for this article!
This has been so helpful!
Your photos look great! My fav was Emma Ai! YUMMY!
世界一最強のメイド?! Saber « いつも いつでも いつまでも
on July 30th, 2008
[...] a little more self conscious than usual after reading posts by blowfish (flying pussyfoot) & super rats (happy soda). Someday I really want to make some progress with my shots but for now I gotta [...]
Blood on the mirror
on September 26th, 2008
Thanks so much for the Tutorial.
I might need this in the event I have playsets for my figures!!
*bookmarks*
My problem is always lighting..it blurs up my pictures so I have to take them in the day.
Catch is I want to hopefully be able to take night photos for…photoshoots that happen at night.
Thanks again!
Eugenio
on September 29th, 2008
Thanks a lot for this tutorial. I did a photoshoot to my figures some time ago and it turned out kinda disastrous. With this I can try again and I’ll surely get better results!