I finally followed Superrats advise and bought some equipment for indoor figure lighting.I tried my luck with lamps i already owned before and the results were rather…lets say displeasing.Good Photography is Good lighting is one of the conclusions in Supperrats post.You may have the best DSLR and the cutest AnimeBabe on Earth but your pictures will still turn out rather unpleaseant with bad lightning.Im one of the guys that hasnt got the courage to go outside and take photos of his figures.Thats why i finally invested some money into my hobby.
You have to invest some money into it but it wont cost the world.Since i moved here just a while ago i didnt have a decent desklamp therefore I went to IKEA and bought two Desklamps called Tertial(E27,Max 60 Watt).They arent the prettiest desklamps out there but they cost only 7,50 €uro a piece and do the job fine.The next thing on my list were Daylightbulbs with a color temperature rating of about 5000-6000k.Well…It seems that the color temperature rating isnt on GERMAN Bulbs.The clerk in the hardware store couldnt help me out either so i went with a Philips 60 Watt Daylight Bulb for 2,50 €uro a bulb.I dont know if these are actually real Daylight bulbs.The Box looked like this:
If anybody has more Information regarding Daylightbulbs please leave me a message!
The Burning Question is: Does it make a difference? Its a difference like day and night!
I didnt have time to play with this setup properly but a fast shot with a 6 MP Camera turned out like this:
Its far from beeing perfect but it was a really quick shot to test if it made a difference at all.I took 5 pictures and the color and lightning remained through all the pictures the same.With my old setup the color and lighting turned out different every time,even when i didnt change the postition of the light and camera.This randomness is finally eliminated!I added a picture i took with a real camera and my old setup below:
The figure is way too much highlighted and is glossy as hell while the background isnt properly lit.Its nothing you can be proud of to post.Of course not all pictures turned out THIS bad.I was able to take some decent pictures with my old setup too, but the chance for a decent shot was about 1:10.
I will try to take some decent Shots over the weekend and i hope to post my first real Figure Review around sunday.The time for some good old trial and error has started!^^
If anybody has some hot tips about Lighting for me please feel free to criticize me!I cant get better without your help.
UPDATE: The batteries of the camera died right after i turned it on…The Figure Review will follow monday after i bought some batteries
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nice setup you have there, nicer than mine for sure
I always use 6500k lamps for my photos
you may have problem getting pure white BG with only 60 watt lamp, so go with dark BG, or pure black bg (move the figurine further from bg, so the front light doesn’t hit background) 
waiting your needa photos
I’m going to take her pictures too next week 
The Ikea Lamps can only take a maximum of 60 Watt so I didnt have much of a choice.The Lamps i bought were actually the cheapest and the ones with the highest Watt tolerance.
In used for my Nida shooting a orangish background in the end since the brown background didnt turn out as good as hoped.Im going to give the black one a try later.
Im already waiting for some nice shots of Nida from you!
Wow you have followed quite closely to the tutorial! I wished I have the time and space I need to do such setup.
I didnt have the place for the setup too,until ive got my spankin new laptop.Theres plenty of space on my desk now.
I followed rats tutorial quite closely but i think theres much room to fit the setup to your liking.
I can only recommend it.Its really worth the money
The girl in my header is Chie Yoshioka!! From To Heart 2, and TH2 Another Days! She’s gorgeous!!! I only have the uniform version, that version of her hasn’t been released yet!! :sob: It’ll probably be a while…..the kit has to come first then the PVC pre-painted figure will take longer….
woo! glad i happened to drop by and see this post (along with the link to superrats’ stuff). exactly the kind of info i’ve been lookin’ for. my stuff is painfully amateur so while i may still be a long way off from having a dedicated setup, general knowledge about what’s important in a shot goes a long way.
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Im my opinion is superrats the man when it comes to figure photography.Im always stunned when i see new pictures on his blog.
If you follow his tutorial im sure that your pictures will improve massively! Most people out there probably own a desklamp or two so it comes down to an investment of a mere 5€ to improve the picture quality.
Im looking forward to your next pictures.
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
Alexs last blog post..Going Mobile on the Orient Express