A Guide to

Miniature Photography
Brian Rasmussen

just_add_magenta

(version 1.01 – updated 2024/12/10)

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Welcome!
The purpose of this guide is to help you take better pictures of your miniatures. Whether you are
painting display models or gaming pieces, I will show you how you can improve the shots you take
of your work.

The guide is based on how I take pictures of my miniature projects, but you don’t have to use the
equipment that I use, and you can certainly customize my approach to your needs. You may already
have an approach that works well for you and in that case, I suggest you stick with it but perhaps
you may get some ideas here you want to try out. Whatever the case, I hope you find this guide
helpful.

This guide is free and will remain so. Please feel free to share it with whoever you want.

One of the things I love most about the miniature painting community is that painters come from all
over the world and from all walks of life. If you enjoy this guide, please drop me a line. I would love to
get a glimpse into where this guide may end up and build relationships with painters around the
world.

Likewise, if you have any questions or input on how I can improve the guide, please feel free to
reach out.

Thanks!

Brian Rasmussen

just_add_magenta

[email protected]

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Table of contents

Welcome! ................................................... 2 Photos ...................................................... 19

Introduction ................................................ 4 Editing and viewing photos .....................19
Quick start guide ......................................... 5 Picture formats ......................................19
Shooting ................................................. 5 Taking pictures.......................................20
Editing .................................................... 5 Posing ................................................20
Equipment and setup .................................. 6 Focus on the subject .......................... 21
Light and setup ........................................ 6 Background........................................22
The right light ....................................... 8 Settings .............................................23
Camera and lenses.................................. 9 Sharpness..........................................24
Tripod ................................................... 11 Exporting ...............................................24
My equipment ....................................... 12 Developing photos .................................25
Camera basics .......................................... 13 Shooting overview .............................. 25
Settings................................................. 13 Editing overview .................................26
Camera modes...................................... 15 Using your phone camera .......................... 27
Proper exposure .................................... 16 Common problems ...................................28
How is the light measured? .................... 17 Frequently asked questions ....................... 29
Focus.................................................... 17 Thanks! .....................................................31

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Introduction
Shooting miniatures presents a couple of different
challenges from regular photography. Obviously, the
subject is tiny and in general we don’t want a
distracting background.

These shooting preferences don’t align well with how

cameras are generally configured to take pictures.
Manufacturers try to make cameras and phones easy
to use in common situations, but miniature
photography isn’t a common setup, so you will often
run into problems if you try to take pictures like you
would normally do.

In this guide, I cover what makes miniature

photography different and what we can do to address
those challenges to end up with great looking photos of our hard work.

I use a digital camera (DSLR) for my pictures, but that’s not the only option. These days everyone
has a phone with a very nice camera and using a phone is an option, but I was a hobby
photographer long before I was a miniature painter, so it was easier for me to build on what I already
knew about taking pictures with a camera.

This guide focuses on how to use a digital camera for taking pictures of miniatures, but much of the
advice applies to shooting with a phone camera as well but you will have to adapt it to your specific
phone. I have a section dedicated to shooting with a phone, but to cut a long story short a phone
doesn’t offer the same results and flexibility as a camera. It does allow you to take decent pictures
though so if you don’t have a dedicated camera, this is an excellent option.

I’ll go through equipment, setup, configuring your camera, and editing your shots. In case you are
new to cameras or just need a refresher, there is also a section on camera basics that helps you
understand the technical parts of the guide.

If you just want to get started right away, I have a one-page quick start guide on the next page, that
also works as a checklist if you want a refresher on what this guide covers. There is also a FAQ at
the end that may serve as a starting point in case you have specific questions you want answered. If
you want to read the guide from end to end skip the one-page guide and go to page 6.

Let’s get started!

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Quick start guide
Here is a summary of the steps I go through to take pictures of my miniature projects. Use it as a
quick start guide if you just want to get started or a reference check list after you have read the
guide. All the points below are covered in more depth in the guide. Feel free to skip the quick start
and dive right into the proper guide. If you use your phone, see page 27 for additional details.

Shooting
• Use two or more good, diffused lights to illuminate your miniature from all front facing sides.
Make sure you know the temperature of your lights. Prefer daylight 5000-6500K.
• Make sure you have at least 20cm from your lights to the subject.
• Use a backdrop with minimal value variation, e.g. cloth, cardboard, or cork all work well.
Place the subject at least 30cm from the backdrop, 60cm or more if you want a pitch-black
background.
• Use a tripod. No really, use a tripod.
• Make sure your camera is set up as follows:
o Use Manual mode. If you cannot use Manual, use Aperture mode (may have a
different name, so check your manual).
o Set ISO to a low value, e.g. 100 or 200 depending on your camera.
o Set your aperture to something that will give you a crisp image, for regular lenses f/8
– f/11 is a good starting point. For macro lenses somewhere around f/18 – f/22 works
well.
o Enable spot metering, in some cases weighted average may also work.
o Enable single or small set of focus points.
o Enable shutter delay or use a remote control / app to avoid the camera shaking
when you shoot.
o Use raw format.
• Place the camera lens at eye level with the miniature.
• Find the right pose, good default is “look into the camera”.
• Meter the light and set proper shutter speed. Use the exposure guide on the camera.
• Make sure only the subject and the background are in the frame.
• Shoot!
• Verify that the picture looks okay, if not readjust shutter speed and shoot again.

Editing
• Set white balance to the temperature of your lights.
• Adjust exposure if necessary. If you need to adjust it too much, I recommend reshooting.
• Make minor tweak to balance contrast if necessary.
• Make a tight 1:1 aspect ratio crop if you want to post to Instagram.
• A dark vignette works well for lighter backgrounds.
• Export to 1080x1080px for Instagram or whatever format you need.
• Save in high quality JPG or similar (adjust setting as necessary).

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Equipment and setup
You don’t need a professional camera to take pictures of your minis. A
better camera may yield better results, but before you break the bank Summary
there are better ways to spend your money.
Get two or more proper
The camera is rarely the limiting factor. lights. Prefer daylight LEDs
or bulbs.
Light and setup Daylight is 5500-6500K.
The most important part of photography is light. Even the best camera
Look for CRI/Ra of 80+ and
struggles if you have inadequate light, so save some money on the
closer to 100 is better.
camera and spend it on proper light and a tripod. Those are the best
investments you can make to improve your results. Get a tripod. Really, get a
tripod.
Light makes your camera see the details of your mini and a tripod is
helpful to make sure you don’t introduce camera shake resulting in Most cameras or phones
will do. Tripods work on
blurry photos. Lamps and a tripod cost much less than a great camera
phones too but you may
and they will do more for your results than spending additional money
also get away with just
on a better camera. resting the phone on the
Below is a sketch of my setup and as you can see, I have three light table.
sources all placed at least 20cm from the subject. I always use the two Macro-lenses give you
LED sticks. I use the overhead lamp if I need additional light. All other more flexibility, but any
lights are off. My room doesn’t have to be dark, but I don’t want other lens will do.
light sources affecting the setup, so I turn off the ceiling light and my
Use a focal length of 50-
painting lamps. That way the only light that illuminates the subject 100mm.
comes from the lamps in my setup.

In general, you want plenty of diffused light on the subject to avoid

creating shadows. Surrounding the subject with multiple light sources is
the best way to avoid shadows as the lights eliminate the shadows
generated by the other lights.

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The subject needs to be placed about 30cm from the backdrop so you minimize the light hitting the
background.

You don’t need multiple light sources, but it helps. The topmost picture on the left was taken with a
single light from above. To illuminate the subject better I moved the light closer, but as you can tell
that blows out the shadow details on the top of her hair and the bottom is still quite dark. You also
get more pronounced shadows under her face, which may look nice but doesn’t represent how I
painted her.

The second picture was taken using three lights as illustrated

above. Notice how both shadows and highlights are more
balanced, and details are more pronounced.

Ring-lights are a common option for illuminating subjects

from all sides. The advantage of a ring-light is that you have
fewer pieces to set up, but that’s also the disadvantage as
you are locked to just one configuration. Some ring-lights can
be configured to output different levels of brightness from
different parts of the ring, but I find it easier to work with
separate lights that I can move individually.

Direct light creates hard shadows, so it is important that the

light you use is diffused. LED lamps are usually diffused by
default but if you are using regular light bulbs you want to
avoid the ones with clear glass. If those are the only option,
you can place a diffuser on the lamp. If you don’t have a
diffuser, a piece of baking paper in front of the bulb helps too.

In any case, you want to create some space between the light
and the subject to allow the light to diffuse. Even with a
diffuser the light will appear too bright if you place it too close
to the subject. I usually place my light sources 20cm or more
from the subject. If the light allows it, you can also reduce the
output as needed.

You may be tempted to use a flash as a light source, but built in flashes typically produce a very
bright, direct light, that not only appears too extreme for my taste but also tends to brighten the
background too much. If you have an external flash and don’t mind additional work, it can work, but
I find it easier with small, dedicated lights.

Finally, you need to create some distance between the subject and the backdrop to reduce the
reflection coming from the background. The key to creating either a blurry or pitch-black
background is to have the camera focus on the model. For a black background we can utilize the
limitations of the camera sensor. By illuminating the subject and keeping the background dark, the
background essentially falls outside of the level of details the camera can capture and thus appears
black. I’ll cover backdrops in more detail later.

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The right light
Regardless of what kind of light you get there are a couple of things to keep in mind. Light has two
properties that are important to us; temperature and how well it represents colors.

Temperature is measured in Kelvin and for the most natural light you want to have the equivalent of
daylight. That means somewhere around 5500-6500K. Most regular light sources are warm light,
which is typically around 3000K. That’s a very nice light for indoor lighting but it skews the colors of
you miniatures. You can compensate for this in editing, but it is easier to start with good light.

How well light represents colors is called color rendering index (CRI) or Ra and without going into
the specifics is a measure of how accurately colors are reflected by the light. An index of 100 means
perfect reflection. At lower levels colors start to look more desaturated. Many regular light sources
don’t reproduce colors accurately so look for anything with a CRI rating of at least 80 and ideally as
close to 100 as possible.

In general, if your light source doesn’t specify temperature and CRI,

it is likely not a good choice. Light bulb and LED manufacturers
usually list these details for their products, but you may have to do
a little digging to find them as most people don’t care about these
properties of their light. Sometimes you can read these attributes
from the product number.

Regardless of the temperature of your light, knowing the

temperature makes it easier to get the white balance correct. If the
white balance is off, you get a cold or warm tint to the colors in your
shots. The topmost shot on the right was shot using a warm white
balance setting and not corrected. The result is that all the colors
have a cool tint, which might have a nice effect but doesn’t
represent the paint job accurately. The one below has the correct
white balance and looks much closer to what the mini looks like in
daylight.

It can be frustrating if your colors look different in your photo from

what you see when you look at the model. If that’s the case, it is
usually because the white balance is incorrect assuming you have
decent equipment. If you know the temperature, you can simply
adjust the photograph accordingly and then it becomes easy to get
the white balance correct.

In summary, you want one or more light sources that provide coverage of the entire model with
good, diffused light. Go for daylight bulbs or LEDs and a CRI level of 80+.

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Camera and lenses
Most cameras will work fine for the task, and you don’t need to buy a
top-of-the-line camera to take pictures of your models, but different A note about light
cameras require different approaches. In this section, I go over the most
boxes
common options for cameras and lenses.

For this part I focus on the different hardware options and some camera I started by using a light
lingo in unavoidable. If you need an introduction or a refresher on box for all my miniature
camera basics, I will cover that after this overview. photography. The great
thing about a light box is
Some cameras come with a built-in lens and in that case, you don’t that it offers consistent
have a lot of options, so you have to do with what you have. The good light, and you have a
thing about built-in lenses is that they usually cover a good range. dedicated setup for
Typically, you want a focal length in the 50-100mm range. Built-in lenses taking pictures. I found
are typically not very light-sensitive, i.e. they may only go to f5.6, which that it works well for
means that they need a good amount of light for proper exposure. If you taking pictures with a
have a tripod that’s not a problem as you can adjust the shutter speed white background, but I
to let in more light over time. couldn’t get shots with
Many digital cameras black background to
have detachable work at all because the
lenses. In general, level of ambient light is
you can use any lens, too high inside the box
but different lenses and the background is
come with different much too reflective.
capabilities, so let’s When you have a lot of
go over the options. ambient light, even the
smallest dust spec
Macro lenses are an shows up in your shots.
obvious choice. They I’ve since stopped using
are designed for my light box, because I
taking pictures of tiny find my current setup
subjects, which is more flexible.
exactly what we
want. They offer two
features that regular
lenses don’t have. First, they allow you to get much closer to the
subject, which is useful if you want to do close-ups of your work.
Second, they generally have a much larger working range when it comes
to depth-of-field.

That means you have better control over sharpness, and you can make
cool depth effects in dioramas and the like. I would say that a macro
lens is the best choice for miniature photography but if you don’t want
to buy a dedicated lens you don’t have to.

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The shot on the previous page uses a wide aperture to make the axe fade away in the background.
This gives a sense of added depth in the picture despite the small scale.

The shot on the right uses the same idea for a

much subtler effect. In this shot, part of the
picture is blurred which helps focus the attention
of the face.

Regular lenses can be used as well, but you may

face challenges when it comes to working
distance and the ability to control depth of field,
but they are perfectly capable of taking great shots
of your minis.

For both macro and regular lenses prime lenses

are preferred, i.e. a fixed focal length. Anything
between 50mm to 100mm will do. This range is
also what’s usually used for portrait photography
as it most accurately represents the subject. Wide
lenses around 20mm tend to distort the subject at
certain angles and zoom lenses of 150mm and
above make it difficult to work in a confined setup.

Variable length lenses or kit lenses are fine, but in general there is little or no benefit in being able to
zoom, as you might as well just move the camera instead of changing the focal length.

Cheaper lenses operate differently at different lengths, so you must take that into account when
you zoom. A prime lens is much simpler in that regard.

If you buy a lens for general photography, a variable length lens gives you more flexibility but if you
buy the lens primarily for miniature photography a prime lens is a better option.

The higher aperture (i.e. lower f-stop value) you can get the better as it offers more control, but
again you don’t have to break the bank on this either if you get proper light and a tripod. High-end
lenses give you more options when shooting under varying conditions, but for our purpose we
control the parameters, so we can compensate accordingly.

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Tripod
A tripod offers a great deal of leverage and is by far the cheapest way to get better results. The
amount of light the camera lets in depends on how much light you have on the subject, the
aperture, and time, so the easiest way to get more light is simply to extend how long the shutter is
open. Unfortunately, even the tiniest movements make the picture blurry once closing time
exceeds about 1/60 of a second.

With a tripod you can basically shoot for seconds without any camera movement, so that gives you
very crisp pictures even when you bump up the shutter time.

When you use a tripod, it is a good idea to use a remote control for your camera or if you don’t have
that use a delayed trigger, so you avoid moving the camera when you press the button to take the
picture. Moving the camera while the shutter is open will give you a blurry shot.

If you want the best options, a good camera with a dedicated macro lens is your best bet, but you
can get by with far less. Good light and a tripod are mandatory for crisp photos though.

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My equipment
You don’t have to have the same equipment as I have. In fact, you can get the same result with
many different sets of equipment. I only list it here because I often get asked about what I use.

My camera is a Nikon D750. For most shots I use a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. For larger
sculpts I use a Nikon Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 lens, which allows me a bit more working space.

I use a tripod and two or three lights. I have a regular lamp with a
daylight light bulb and a diffuser. I have two Phottix T200R LED
sticks, one on each side as illustrated above. All the lights have a
temperature of 6500K. The LEDs are configurable, so I can set a
specific temperature, and I just configure them to match the light
bulb. That way all the light sources have the same temperature.

I use Adobe Lightroom Classic for “developing” my shots. In

general, I try to capture as much as possible during the shot and I
do very little editing.

In post-processing, I set the white balance to 6500K, enable lens

correction, boost the contrast and vibrance a tiny bit. I reduce
texture a bit too. I go into detail about what the different settings do
in the Photos section below.

For some shots, I make additional adjustments, but in general my workflow is as follows:

• Import the picture and go to develop.

• Adjust the picture if it is tilted to either side and it often is.
• Crop to 1:1.
• Add my preset.
• In some cases, I mask out a pinning rod or part of a plinth, so they don’t distract.

Once I’m happy with how the picture looks, I use the same setting for the rest of the pictures. As all
the pictures are taken under the same conditions, this is a very efficient way of “developing” a lot of
shots of the subject. If I shoot the subject from different angles, I may have to adjust the placement
of the subject in the crop, but Adobe Lightroom lets you change that after you apply the settings.

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Camera basics
Feel free to skip this section if you already know how your camera works.

To many of us a camera is just a point and click device, but to shoot miniatures it helps to
understand how a camera works. If you are new to using a camera or just need a refresher on the
basics, this section is for you.

You can think of a camera as a computer. It takes some input and produces an output. The input is
the scene you point the camera at as well as the settings you set. The output is not the actual
picture, but the settings that go into configuring the camera for taking the picture. Once the settings
are locked down taking the picture is straight forward.

Settings
Most cameras have different modes. Typically, these are called auto, shutter, aperture, and manual.
The names don’t make a lot of sense to most people, but the different modes cover which part of
the settings you control and which you leave for the camera to decide. Some cameras use different
names for the same thing, and some may have additional modes, but they all boil down to how a
few basic settings are controlled, so let’s go over what those are. Fortunately, the settings are
universal and even though most phone cameras hide the details they also apply to phones.

The settings are:

ISO Determines how sensitive the sensor in the camera is. The sensor’s job is to
capture the reflected light from the scene and ISO controls the threshold for
when light signals are acceptable. As painters we should have a good idea of
what capturing light means, but we may not be used to thinking in terms of
sensitivity.

By default, the sensor is very sensitive, which corresponds to a lower ISO value
(100 or 200 are quite common). When the sensor is very sensitive, we need a
good light signal to capture the information in the shot well. When we have
enough light in the scene this produces the most accurate result.

If we make the sensor less sensitive by increasing the ISO, the sensor becomes
less picky about the strength of the light signal. This enables us to shoot under
less-than-ideal light conditions, but also introduces the possibility of accepting
less than optimal light signals. In other words, we accept a noisy signal. In
pictures this noise appears as grains making the picture less crisp.

For miniatures we want crisp pictures, and we control the light, so I recommend
setting the ISO at a low value. I shoot at ISO 100.

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Aperture Controls how wide the camera shutter opens which determines how much light
is passed to the sensor. Think of it as a pipe that can be wide or narrow. When it is
wide the pipe allows a lot of light to pass. Conversely, when the pipe is narrow
less light comes through.

Aperture is measured in f-stops, and this is probably the hardest setting to

understand as the unit of measure seems counterintuitive to many. The wider we
open, the lower the f-stop value gets, so a f-stop of e.g. f/4 opens wide and lets in
a lot of light while a f-stop of f/18 doesn’t open very wide and lets in far less light
over the same time. The illustration below shows how different f-stops let in light.

When we let in a lot of light, we can capture the depth of the scene as the sensor
receives more light from objects that are closer to the camera. With limited light,
we capture less depth.

Portraits are often shot with a wide aperture as that makes the subject appear
crisp and the background less crisp because we get more reflected light from
subjects in the foreground. This produces a nice effect, that helps frame the
subject. Photographers refers to this as Bokeh which is the Japanese word for
blurred.

For landscape photography the difference in distance between elements is less

relatively speaking and there may not be any objects in the immediate
foreground, so the effect of a wide aperture is much less evident.

For miniatures, we generally want everything to be nice and crisp, so we keep the
shutter opening narrow, i.e. we use a high f-stop value. The smaller the opening,
the less light the sensor captures so we must keep the shutter open for longer to
capture enough light and that’s the last setting. For regular lenses f/8 to f/11 is a
good starting range. Macro-lenses will often support much narrower opening so
f/18 to f/22 is a good starting range. I usually shoot at f/18.

With the proper lens, you can also use aperture to create dramatic depth effects
by focusing on specific parts of the subject.

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Shutter Speed Determines how long the shutter stays open. In regular photography shutter
speed is often used to create effects like smooth looking water in a waterfall or
crisp shots of moving subjects. By keeping the shutter open longer we can
capture movement in a scene as motion blur. By closing the shutter very quickly
we freeze the action in place and can get perfectly crisp pictures of moving
objects.

Both can be used for dramatic effects, but these options are rarely useful for
miniature photography unless you add moving elements like smoke or lights.

The challenge with shutter speed is that once you get past a certain threshold, it
becomes hard to keep the camera still. If the camera moves while the shutter is
open, we get a blurry photo which is why I highly recommend you use a tripod.

With a tripod we can keep the shutter open for seconds and still get perfectly
crisp shots. We don’t need to keep it open for seconds, but it is very likely that we
need to keep it open for longer than most people can handle without the use of a
tripod.

Camera modes
Next, let’s look at how these settings relate to the different modes on your camera. In general, all
cameras have modes that let you set either shutter speed, aperture or both, and then the camera
fills in the rest. Unfortunately, not all manufacturers use the same terminology, so you may have to
consult your manual to map these to the descriptions below.

If you set your camera to auto mode (or whatever it is called on your camera), it evaluates the
scene and sets aperture, shutter speed, and in some cases, ISO based on its best guess. It isn’t
really a guess but rather a lookup based on data from a lot of reference photos. For modern
cameras and phones this works remarkably well in most cases and many never move beyond this,
but auto mode is a bit like contrast paint – easy to get quick results, but with obvious limitations. For
miniature photography auto mode can cause a lot of grief because most cameras are not calibrated
to take photos like this.

If you set your camera to shutter speed mode (or whatever it is called on your camera), you
determine the shutter speed, and the camera will adjust aperture to let in the right amount of light.
Some cameras may also adjust ISO at the same time.

Conversely, if you set your camera to aperture mode (or whatever it is called on your camera), you
specify the aperture you want, and the camera sets the shutter speed to let in the right amount of
light.

Finally, in manual mode (most cameras use this label) you take control of all the settings and the
camera doesn’t change any of the settings. This gives you the most freedom to control how the
picture is taken but obviously also puts more responsibility on you for getting the settings right.

For miniature photography, I recommend manual or aperture mode since we want to control the
crispness of the shot. If you use a tripod then slow shutter speeds are not a problem, because
neither the subject nor the camera moves, so you typically don’t have to change ISO. You set the

15
aperture to a value that produces a good, crisp image and then set the shutter speed to let in
enough light to expose the picture.

Proper exposure
How does your camera know how to fill in the missing settings? It may feel like magic, but that
would require people who use manual mode to be wizards. Alas, the truth is a lot more mundane.

Your camera has two very important functions for this purpose. One is capturing the light and
turning that into a photo. The other function may not be as obvious, but that’s measuring the light.
That’s how it determines how to fill in the missing data.

Let’s say you use aperture mode, so you set the aperture to the desired value. In this mode, you ask
the camera to figure out what the right shutter speed should be to get the right amount of light for
this aperture. To do that, the camera measures how much light it receives with the specified
aperture setting and compares that to references for ideal exposure stored in the camera. Based on
that it picks the proper shutter speed.

You have access to both the measurement and the comparison to the reference data. Most
cameras show a scale in the view finder with a bar indicator showing how far away from the optimal
exposure the current settings are. It the bar is in the middle, that means the exposure is correct
according to the camera’s calibration. If it is in the negative half, it means you need to add more
light, i.e. increase how long the shutter is open and conversely, if it is in the positive half, it means
that you are letting in too much light, and you should reduce how long the shutter is open.

Please note that the optimal exposure is a guideline, not an objective truth. Most of the time it is
correct or at least very close to ideal, but circumstances or artistic choice may lead you to pick
something else.

The best way to capture a great image is to set the exposure based on the light measurement and
then inspect the image. If the image looks correct, you are done. If you want it lighter or darker you
increase or decrease how long the shutter is open respectively.

If you want a different depth in the picture, you adjust the aperture with higher f-stop values giving
more detail and lower f-stop values less detail for elements not in focus. If you change the aperture,
the camera will tell you that you need to adjust the shutter speed as well.

For normal photography the histogram of the photo is helpful to determine if you have a good
exposure. The histogram shows the distribution of colors in the shot. For a nicely exposed photo,
you should see something resembling a normal distribution. When you shoot a small subject
against a monochrome background you don’t get this kind of histogram as a significant part of the
picture is made up of the monochrome background, so the histogram is of limited used for our
purpose.

16
How is the light measured?
The next thing we need to cover is how light is measured by the camera. By default, the camera
considers the whole scene for light measurements and that works great for most cases, but as we
have already discovered, miniature photography is different from most cases.

If you place your subject against a black or white background, the average light in the scene is
heavily affected by the background. A white background fools the camera into believing that the
scene is very bright whereas a black background makes the camera think that the scene is very
dark. Consequently, the camera picks settings to compensate for these extraordinary shooting
conditions which leads to heavily under- or overexposed shots.

Newer cameras usually have some sort of automatic selection of points in the scene. It is known
under many different names and the exact details of how it is done varies from camera to camera
and is rarely explained in detail. For regular photography this is a great option as it helps the camera
make better choices, but it may not work well for miniature photography.

Fortunately, we can tell the camera what part of the scene it should consider when measuring. The
default option is to use information from everything in the frame. We can change that to centre-
weighted average or spot metering. Some cameras have additional settings, but these are present
on virtually all cameras.

Centre-weighted average considers the central part of the scene to be more important when
measuring. Typically, the camera lends more weight to about 60-80% of the central part of the
scene, so objects closer to the edge of the frame have less impact on the measurement. For some
setups this can produce a good result when taking pictures of miniatures if the subject takes up
enough of the frame.

If the subject is smaller than that and you want to capture enough background to make a good 1:1
aspect ratio crop, you can use Spot metering where the camera only considers a small part of the
scene (typically around 1-5%) around the centre for light measurement. This is an excellent option
for small, well-lit subjects. This is what I recommend using for miniature photography.

Focus
Finally, the last part of taking pictures is focus, which determines what part of the scene we what to
be as crisp as possible. Fortunately, this is simple, and most people understand this part. Focus
can either be controlled manually or automatically by the camera based on specific focus points in
the scene.

Manual focus is conceptually simple. You turn a dial on the lens until the parts of the picture you
want to focus on look right and then you take the picture. The best thing about manual focus is that
you can be sure that once you have set it, it doesn’t change. In practice, manual focus can be hard
to get right though, and auto-focus usually produces very good results so that’s the preferred option
for many.

17
Different cameras offer different modes of focusing. Newer cameras usually have a selective focus
mode that recognizes objects in the scene and automatically focus on those. Some cameras even
have face detection which helps them focus on subjects in the frame.

For regular photography you also need to think about if you want to focus once and then shoot or
have the camera follow a moving subject adjusting focus continually. If your miniatures move you
are probably doing something wrong, so I will keep this part simple and with the aim of taking
pictures of stationary miniatures.

For shooting miniatures, we just need the simplest focus mode available which is a single point.
Typically, this is indicated in the view finder by a single box that can be moved around. I.e. you can
focus on something that isn’t exactly in the centre of the frame. Typically, focusing on the eyes gives
a good result.

Some cameras have a dedicated focus button while on others you press the trigger down a bit and
the camera focuses. When you press the button all the way, it takes the picture with the settings
and the focus you just established. I have reconfigured my camera to use a dedicated focus button.
That way I don’t risk accidentally changing the focus when I take the picture.

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Photos
I’ve used Adobe Photoshop for decades and for years I didn’t
understand why anyone would consider anything else. However, for Summary
digital photography I find that Adobe Lightroom (I use Classic) is much
better because of the workflows it supports. Use software that
supports a good
You don’t need Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom to handle your workflow like Adobe
pictures, but I find that the Adobe Photographer tier offers the best Lightroom.
value for how I work with my pictures. In general, all photo editing
software can do what I do, but I find that the workflows in Adobe Get a monitor with
Lightroom are just very convenient. accurate color handling.

This guide uses Adobe Lightroom Classic as an example, but you should Shoot RAW. Export to
be able to adapt it to whatever tool you prefer. JPG in high quality.

Have the model face the

Editing and viewing photos camera and the camera
When we take photos of our miniatures, we try to make the shots at eye level with the
represent how we painted the subjects. This guide spends a lot of time subject.
going through how you get your camera to accurately capture the look of
Avoid distracting
your miniature but at some point, you will look at your photo on a
backgrounds.
computer screen or a phone. Despite all your hard work, the picture
may not look like what you’d hoped for. Light the subject
properly and turn off
This can be because you didn’t capture a good photo of your work, but it
ambient light.
might just as easily be because the screen renders the picture very
differently. For the best experience when editing your shots you should Know the temperature of
get a good monitor with high color accuracy. Many cheap monitors don’t your light.
do a great job of representing colors accurately. If you edit your shots to
Use low ISO, 100 or 200.
look good on a crappy monitor it is hard to say what they will look like on
a different screen. Use Manual or Aperture
mode to control
If you have a great monitor and you go through all the work to make your
sharpness.
pictures look great, they may still look bad on other screens and there’s
not much you can do about that. The fact is that people enjoy pictures Regular lenses shoot at
of miniatures on many kinds of screens and some of these don’t do a f/8 – f/11. Macro lenses
great job of displaying your work, but if you edit your shots on a good work great at f/18 – f/22.
monitor, you can take comfort in the fact that they will at least look great
on other good screens. Edit your shots to make
them represent your
Picture formats paintwork accurately.

Many digital cameras can capture pictures in both JPG and raw format
(the latter is typically a proprietary format, so your software must
support it). JPGs are convenient because they often look better right out

19
of the camera and can be used immediately, but I recommend using the raw format instead as it
gives you the best options for editing.

When you shoot JPGs the camera essentially develops the picture for you on the fly. I.e. it
materializes all the different options for developing the picture into a finished picture, throwing
away a wealth of information in the process. You can still edit the picture, but your options are very
limited compared to what you can do with a picture in raw format.

My process is to try to get close to perfect in-camera, so I wouldn’t typically need to do much
editing, but I don’t want to limit what I can do if I need to tweak my shots, so I always shoot raw. This
gives me the best options to correct any mistakes I made when shooting and once I am happy with
my shots I export to JPG or a similar format.

Taking pictures
Shooting miniatures is not that different from portrait photography,
with one important exception. Most of the guidelines for portrait
photography applies to shooting miniatures as well, but portrait
photography is an artistic expression in most cases. Miniature
photography can be an artistic expression as well, but typically we
want to document our painting which means that we try to make
the photo represent the subject accurately.

Entire books are written about portrait photography, so I won’t

cover it in detail, but I will give you some advice on what generally
works. If this is something you want to explore in depth, I
recommend picking up a book on portrait photography for more information.

The shot on the right shows how shooting from below can make the subject appear larger or more
intimidating. By not letting him stare directly into the camera, we get the sense that he’s looking at
something else and we are just
observers.

On the left are two shots of the

same miniature. The leftmost
version is shot using the light
described above for an accurate
representation of how the sculpt
was painted. Since this is a
miniature painted in black and
white, I had fun shooting it with
different colored lights as well. The one on the right is shot using a red and a green light, which
produces a cool effect but obviously doesn’t represent how it was painted very well.

Posing
We want the viewer to connect with the subject. The most straightforward way to do that is to have
the model do what every photographer has probably told you; “look into the camera”.

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In general, that means the eyes of the model should face the camera and the camera should be at
eye level with the subject. Unless you are trying to convey a specific feeling this is your best option.

The shots on the left illustrate the idea. The

leftmost shot is more distant than the one
where Mr. Piffles the Candy Seller looks directly
at us.

You can adopt different camera positions for

dramatic effect. Shooting the subject from
below is good for a menacing or powerful
subject as they appear to be bigger. Shooting
the subject from above makes the viewer feel bigger than the subject. That’s great if the subject
calls for it, but often this is not a great choice. The subject is already small, we don’t need to make it
appear smaller. The one exception is if you want to capture a subject on a base. Shooting from a
slightly elevated position allows the viewer to see more of the base but for bust this is rarely a good
choice.

The shots on the right show the

difference between an eye level
shot and a shot from above. The
eye level shot connects better with
the viewer. The shot from above
feels less connected and the
subject appears smaller as we
hover above him.

Subjects that look away from the

camera take on an indifferent or
dreamy demeanor. That is perfect for some subjects, but you need to be conscious about when you
use this approach as the piece needs to support this interpretation. For a regular subject this
approach just makes it harder to connect with the mini.

Focus on the subject

In miniature photography there is usually just one subject, but for some figures or for small
dioramas some shots are more impactful that others. You should focus on the subject from an
angle that tells the story you want
to tell.

I find that a tight crop is usually the

best choice as it allows the viewer
to better appreciate the paint
work.

On the right are two examples of

different styles of cropping. I prefer

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the tight crop as it is more impactful, and it shows details better.

If you crop the picture to include a lot of background, the subject is smaller and appears more
delicate. This also helps conceal some of your mistakes as details become harder to see thanks to
the reduced size. This can be an artistic choice, but often it is due to camera limitations, lack of
editing, or simply because the photographer doesn’t know better.

In some cases, you may even crop away part of the subject to focus on a specific part of the
subject. Shooting angles and cropping are tools to tell stories of your work so don’t be afraid to
experiment, but if you just want regular shots, I find that a tight crop gives the best result in most
cases.

Background
The important point of the background for miniature photography is that it shouldn’t distract the
attention from the subject. Black, white, and neutral grey all work well for this. Black tends to boost
saturation a bit because of the large contrast, but obviously may not be the best option in all cases.
Black is a great choice for when the model has any OSL or light effect as it really makes them pop.

White and neutral grey are good choices for a more natural display with grey yielding the smallest
impact on the subject. As white surfaces are very reflective, you risk blowing out the shadows on
the subject due to reflected light. This is especially true for light boxes that usually surrounds the
subject with white reflective surfaces and plenty of ambient light.

For a more artistic approach simple patterns or gradients work well. Prefer patterns with little
difference in values. A checkerboard pattern is likely a bad choice but abstract, concrete, wood
panels, or sand can add an organic touch to the shot.

If you use a color background you should keep

the same principles that apply to painting in
mind. You can either go with a hue that
matches the subject for a harmonious look or a
complementary color for more contrast.

On the right are four examples of different

backgrounds. The first is a playmat from a
board game. It adds some random structure in
the background but can easily become too
noisy. The blue line from her shoulder is too
distracting for my taste.

The others represent a neutral, a cold, and a

warm background that each make the subject
stand out in different ways. The grey
background is felt, the blue is a t-shirt, and the
orange is my cork painting mat.

I like to use a bit of vignette effect when using lighter backgrounds as it helps focus the attention on
the subject.

22
A popular choice on Instagram is the black background and some companies even sell specific
black backgrounds for the effect. If you have the money, the backgrounds make it easier, but you
don’t need a special piece of magic black cloth to take these pictures.

The key is to push the camera beyond its capabilities. If you

light the subject properly and have enough distance to the
background (60cm or more) with no additional light sources
illuminating the background, then the camera cannot
capture the details of the background, and it will turn black in
your photo.

The shot on the right was taken using a medium grey

background about 60cm away from the well-lit subject. As
you can see the background is pitch black and I promise you,
I didn’t edit it to look black. The camera just can’t capture
both the details of the subject and the poorly lit background.

This approach requires a little more space for your setup, but the point is, you don’t have to spend
money on a special black background.

Settings
The default for most cameras is to take the entire scene into consideration when focusing and
setting exposure. That doesn’t work well when shooting miniatures. When the background is black
or white it heavily skews the balance for regular exposure and most cameras will get it severely
wrong.

It can be hard to get good results using automatic mode. Considering that miniature photography is
a bit out of the ordinary, I recommend using manual mode as it gives you full control. Alternatively,
you can use aperture mode, which lets you set the aperture you want and then the camera selects
the matching shutter speed. Set ISO as low as your camera allows, usually around 100 or 200.
These days, many cameras even work well at higher ISO levels so if you need it setting ISO to 400 or
800 is probably fine too.

Focus and metering should be done using spot mode as average and weighted average will be
useless due to the size of the subject and the monochrome background. I usually do a couple of
test shots to dial in exposure, but I find that with spot metering it is usually correct or close if I just
follow the rules for correct exposure. For aperture mode you might need to adjust a few f-stops if it
doesn’t get it correctly.

It doesn’t have to be perfect in-camera as you can always make tweaks when developing but the
more you can do in-camera the easier it gets later. In either case, shoot raw if available to leave you
with the best options for editing if you need it.

If you use a tripod (and you really should), I recommend using either a remote control, some
cameras even have an app for this, or if that’s not available a delayed shutter. I.e. the camera waits
a second or two after you press the button to take the photo. These approaches all make sure you
don’t move the camera and get a blurry shot when you take the photo.

23
Sharpness
If you use a macro lens, you generally don’t have to do much to get the entire subject in focus and
fortunately, miniatures don’t move around like insects or flowers in the breeze. With a stationary
subject, macro lenses are easy to use. That’s one of their strengths. To get the entire subject to be
crisp, you need a small aperture. I usually shoot around f/18 to f/22. The picture on the right was
shot using a macro lens and even though the axe
extends both into the foreground and background
everything is crisp.

However, you don’t need a macro lens to get crisp

pictures of your minis. If you want every detail to
appear as crisp as possible, you can use a technique
called focus stacking.

The idea is that you take multiple pictures of the same

subject from the same position but with focus on
different parts of the subject. The first picture could
focus on the face making that crisp, but other parts
less crisp. The next picture could focus on the
shoulders and make them crisp with the face and the
rest is a bit fuzzy. Finally, a picture could focus on some equipment the subject carries on their
back.

Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and many other photo-editing applications support stitching
these pictures together to produce a single picture with sharp parts from the different shots. This
technique is great for producing very detailed shots but does require more work and special
software compared to just using a macro lens.

Exporting
The intended usage of photos affects the workflow in different ways. I primarily shoot for posting on
social media. Instagram posts have an aspect ratio of 1:1 and a size of 1080 by 1080 pixels which is
not the most demanding output. When exporting to JPG make sure you set the quality setting high,
so you don’t lose details due to the built-in compression of the format.

Instagram stories use a portrait format with an aspect ratio of 9:16 and a resolution of 1080 by 1920
pixels. I rarely post stories, so I mostly just export as described above as this works well on other
sites too.

If you intend to print your pictures or include them in publications, you need much higher
resolution. For print, you should work at 300dpi and set the size according to how big the photo
should be in the publication.

I assume that if you are reading this guide, it is with the purpose of posting on social media, so
that’s what I focus on. If you want to print photos there are great books on the subject but the gist of
it is high resolution and know your output profile so you can do proper color matching.

24
Developing photos
Some people believe that you shouldn’t do any sort of editing of the photos you take. I disagree.
Even with photos shot on film the development process impacts the final image, and it is part of the
creative process of taking pictures. I don’t see any issues with editing your photos to make them
look better and in this section, I show you what I do with my pictures in Adobe Lightroom (Classic).

However, changing your photos to make your painting look better seems counterproductive to me.
The whole point of the pictures is to document your painting effort, not to make the prettiest
pictures you can. If my goal was to produce the best pictures, I would photograph someone else’s
miniatures as there are painters who are much better than I am.

I try to get as close to the perfect result as I can in-camera, but that doesn’t mean that I can skip the
development part of my workflow. However, if a picture is over or underexposed, blurry or the white
balance is off you have more work to do when developing it. If the picture is almost perfect, you can
apply a set of standard settings and typically that’s all you need to do.

Shooting overview
Here are the steps I go through when I take pictures.

1) I establish the setup described above. Sometimes, I place the model on a manual turntable
so I can easily get different shots without moving the model too much. This is just a
convenience. You can obviously just turn the model when you shoot it.
2) I copy the files from my camera to my computer.
3) I import the raw files into Adobe Lightroom.
4) I rarely get the perfect level on my tripod, so I typically adjust the picture, so the pinning rod
is vertical in the shot.
5) Next, I crop the picture using the 1:1 aspect ratio. I use a tight crop with just a little bit of
space surrounding the subject. That way, the subject fills out the frame nicely and details
are easier to see.
6) I have a standard setting I apply (see below).
7) I may add a black vignette if the pinning rod is a little too obvious, but these days I often
paint the rod black, so it is rarely an issue. I often add a vignette for lighter backgrounds.
8) I export and upload to social media.

On the next page, I go over the steps I use to edit my shots.

25
Editing overview
The purpose of editing is to make the photograph represent your model well.

Adobe Lightroom allows you to capture any number of settings as a template that you can apply to
pictures with a single click. I use a template that does the following:

1) Lens correction. Remove chromatic aberration and enable profile

correction. Adobe Lightroom has a database of camara lenses and
how they affect the picture. By applying these settings, the distorting
properties of the physical lens are neutralized. For my lens, it is
rather subtle, but I might as well do it.
2) Set the White Balance to match the temperature of my light, 6500K.
3) I adjust Hightlights and Shadows by +15 and -15 respectively. This is
very subtle, but I find that it adds a little bit more contrast. For
regular photos, I use these much more aggressively, but with the
fixed light setup only a bit is needed to more accurately reflect the
look of the model. For models with very light skin, I often remove the adjustment of
highlights as the light skin already reflects the light very nicely.
4) I adjust Texture by -20 which softens some of the exaggerated texture. I feel that this makes
the photo look more like what I see when I look at the model.
5) Finally, I adjust vibrance with +10 which again is extremely subtle, but I feel that it adds a
tiny bit that may have been blown out by the light.

Obviously, these will not be ideal in every situation, but since I try to get the shots close to perfect in
camera, I don’t really need to do much. I would say 1 and 2 are always necessary, but the rest are
optional as they are very subtle.

Above are pictures of what the shot looks like out of the camera (I have rotated it a bit and cropped
it for better comparison) and after applying my standard settings. In addition to my standard
settings, I increased exposure by 0.33. The most obvious impact is from correcting the white
balance and in this case, I found the shot was just a tiny bit underexposed.

26
Using your phone camera
I need to start this section with a disclaimer. There are many different
phones with varying camera features, so you will have to adapt the Summary
advice below to your phone. I’m using an iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Use multiple, diffused
The default camera app doesn’t offer much control lights to illuminate your
beyond setting the exposure. However, it produces subject. Get rid of ambient
quite good results, but you leave a lot up to the light.
phone. If you want additional control, I recommend Keep good distance to
getting ProCamera. It costs about the same as two background.
to three bottles of paint and it allows you to get
Basically, use the same
closer to the control you have with a camera.
setup as for cameras.
The ideal setup for using your phone is very similar to the one outlined
Use portrait mode to get a
above. You still need to surround your subject with good, diffused light. few more pixels to work
Place your phone as close to the model as the focusing distance allows. with.
If the camera no longer focuses on your model, you are too close.
Use the lens that allows
The shot below was taken using the default Apple Camera app. I used you to fill most of the
the zoom lens (x3), focused on her face, and adjusted exposure to -1.7. frame. On my phone I use
To adjust the exposure, press the ^ in the top of the screen. This brings x3 which is the zoom lens.
up an additional menu which allows you to set both aspect ratio and For black background
adjust exposure. adjust exposure to minus
1.7 or minus 2.0. On the
A nice thing about photo apps is that
default iPhone camera app
they let you shoot directly in 1:1 aspect
press the ^ in the top of the
ratio. You might still want to crop the screen and select the +-
image, but it makes the workflow a little option to access exposure.
simpler.
If you want, you can shoot
With the minimal focus distance of a directly in 1:1 aspect ratio.
phone camera, it can be hard to fill the
Focus on face.
frame with the subject. Larger bust or
anything bigger than 75mm scale make Shoot and crop.
this less of a problem but in many
cases, you have to crop large parts of the photo away. Unless you have a
very wide subject, I recommend shooting in portrait mode to get more
usable pixels in your shot.

Cropping your photo means that you throw away pixels and limit what
you can do with the picture, but if your goal is to just post on social
media, you are fine.

27
Common problems
Miniature looks small Make sure to shoot at eye level. Shooting from above
makes the subject appear smaller. Use a tight crop.

Miniature looks too dark You probably don’t have enough light. Most cameras and
phones need extra light to properly expose small subjects
like this. Make sure your subject is well lit and expose
accordingly.

Background objects Miniatures are small so it is easy to confuse the viewer

with a busy background. Painting desk photos are great for
telling the story of the artist, but if you want your miniature
to be the focus of the shot the best thing you can do is to
get rid of irrelevant objects in the frame. Place the mini
against a background. Black, white, single color, gradients
or subtle patterns work best.

Miniature is blurry This is probably the result of using a handheld camera or

phone. Depending on your light setup you may need to
leave the shutter open for longer than you can hold your
hand still. Even the tiniest movement will make the photo
blurry. The best advice is to use a tripod and a delayed
shutter.

The colors look wrong Assuming you have a good monitor, this is most likely due
to incorrect white balance. If you know the temperature of
the light the subject was shot under set the white balance
to that value. If you don’t, the auto white balance may get
you close, but you will probably have to adjust it. If you use
different lights, a grey card can be helpful to determine the
correct white balance, but I recommend getting light with a
known temperature for easier workflow.

Part of the miniature is out of You may have focused on the wrong part, you might have
focus too wide an aperture, or both. For the best result focus on
the eyes of the subject. If this doesn’t produce a crisp shot
try reducing the aperture, i.e. increase the f-stop value.
Remember to adjust the shutter speed accordingly if you
are using manual mode.

28
Frequently asked questions
Q: Do I need an expensive camera to take photos of my miniatures?

No. A better camera will likely improve the photos, but if you have good light and a tripod to keep
your camera or phone steady you can take good photos.

For more info see Equipment on page 6.

Q: What settings should I use when taking pictures of my miniatures?

That depends on your equipment. This guide has some advice but in general you need to instruct
your camera to not do what it usually does. Cameras are usually not set up to work well using
automatic mode for this kind of photography, but both cameras and phones can be controlled to
produce good photos of minis.

For a refresher on how your camera works see Camera basics on page 12.

Q: How do you create pictures with a black background?

The key to taking pictures with a pitch-black background is to take advantage of the limitations of
camera sensors. Your eyes are a lot better than even the best cameras and while you can see both
your miniature and the background, you can create a setup where the camera simply cannot see
the background and thus renders it black. If you place a well-lit subject against a non-reflective
background that is far away from the subject the camera cannot capture details of the background.

See the section on Backgrounds starting on page 20.

Q: How come my picture looks great in the camera preview but not on my monitor/phone?

All screens are not created equal. Some monitors or phones just don’t reproduce pictures very
accurately and there’s little you can do about that. Your best bet is to make sure your equipment
can handle the colors correctly. That means that anyone looking at your photos on good equipment
will likely see what you see. However, people with crappy monitors or weird settings will see
something else.

See Photos on page 17 for more information on taking and editing pictures for the best results.

29
Q: What file format should I use for my pictures?

For the best result, you need two formats. For posting on social media, JPG works fine, and many
cameras can shoot in JPG. However, if you do that you make it harder to edit the pictures first. I
recommend you shoot in whatever raw format your camera supports. Unfortunately, raw formats
are proprietary so your editing software must be able to handle your specific format. Adobe
Lightroom supports a wide range of formats by default, but other editing software may not.

The advantage of raw formats is that they capture a lot of information that can be altered later
without throwing away details. When you set your camera to shoot in JPG, it makes a lot of choices
on your behalf and throws away all the additional information. On top of that, JPG uses destructive
compression which means that you lose quality every time you save the picture. So, shoot in raw
and export to JPG for the best results.

See Photos on page 17 for more information on taking and editing pictures for the best results.

Q: How large should my pictures be?

That depends on what you want to use the pictures for. If you are posting on Instagram the picture
needs to be 1080x1080 pixels for the best result. If you intend to print your pictures, you need to use
a resolution of 300dpi and better and then determine how many pixels you need based on the size
of the output. You need a lot more pixels if you are making a magazine cover than a business card.
Furthermore, if you are printing pictures you need to understand color profiles as well, but that’s
beyond the scope of this guide.

See Photos on page 17 for more information on taking and editing pictures for the best results.

Q: Should I use a flash for taking pictures of my minis?

You can but it isn’t easy to get right. Unless you have dedicated equipment for this, I would not
recommend it as built-in flashes produces a much too direct light that is difficult to control.

For more information see Light and setup on page 6.

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Thanks!
I hope you found this guide useful. If you did, please let me know.
Likewise, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I can be
reached on Instagram through my profile just_add_magenta or by mail at
[email protected].

I received a lot of useful feedback from my fellow painting students on

Tim Marsh’s Discord server. Thank you, guys!

Malte Dueholm Baadsgaard has taught me much about painting, and he

provided a lot of useful feedback for this guide. Thanks, Malte!

Magnus Fagerberg is a fantastic painter that I had the pleasure of hosting

for a workshop in Copenhagen. He got an early draft of this guide and prompted me to add a lot of
details on how to use the camera. Thank you, Magnus!

My friend and fellow photographer Jacob Djurhuus helped me get a lot of the technical stuff in this
guide right and offered a lot of additional input for my education. Thanks, Jacob!

My good friend, fellow painter, and master of the written word Sebastian Flamant provided great
feedback on narrative structure.

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