Mermaids and Marines

Submitted by
uncle phil
on
Thu, 03/06/2008 - 05:36
Type
Photography
Website Updates

I've not been totally happy with my photography recently so last night I changed the exposure compensation on my camera back to +0.7 and tried using the custom White balance mode rather than the automatic setting. On the D40 this involves jumping to a setting in the menu and simply taking a calibration shot of a white (or grey) piece of paper under the lighting you intend to use.

I think the results speak for themselves!

This is the first shot I took
[url=http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/pic/uncle+phil/cutthroats/jay46.JPG.html][img]http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/gallery2/d/…]

and here is a pair of photos of the Marine Squad Leader, one taken with calibrated White Balance, the other taken a day or so before with the automatic setting and less exposure compensation.
[url=http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/pic/uncle+phil/imperium/jay52.JPG.html][img]http://www.cheddarmongers.org/prod/gallery2/d/12…]

I've also taken a photo of the complete Red Four Tactical Squad and a few more figures for the Cutthroats Album -Surgeon, Cook etc

phil

cheddarmonger

Thu, 03/06/2008 - 05:49

Permalink

Yes, the difference is huge! Great comparison shot. I'm starting to re-photo all of mine just because the camera is so far superior to my old rig.

Great colors on that mermaid!

My next step is to rephotograph some of the models I tried to photograph while using my light tent -these are way too dim. I might one day have a go at using the light tent with the preset white balance setting and seeing if this improves things.

If you go by the colour of the backcloth some of the photos I took with my old Samsung pocket camera seem to be truer to the real colour than many of the D40 shots. Then again that same camera could make the same cloth look yellow!

The difference using this White Balance setting makes is just stunning!

:unclephil

maybe try center weighted light metering instead of spot metering? And, what ISO are you shooting at? I'm kinda lucky; my rig has a depth of field preview button.

I've experimented with using both multimetering and spot metering, and taken test shots using all three modes, but for my setup at least I can't really see any difference.

ISO should be low for this kind of photography. My cameras lowest setting is 200, but if you can use 100 do so. That is what I used on my previous camera.