Photography
Customising is a great past-time, which, unlike some other creative exploits, can draw much from many disciplines. One of these is photography. In order to catalogue, view on the move or showcase your hard work across the WWW, photography is the way to go. A badly taken or presented photo, despite your excellent customising work, can hamper how your customised is experienced.
I am not an experienced photographer, I am an average camera user, thank goodness for digital cameras. These allow you to click away until you get what you want and delete the, ahem, surplus.
Once you've decided what you want to photograph, you need to decide where and how. There will be many ways in which you can go about achieving your desired finish, I'll share a couple of these.
1st port of call is a solution by one of customising's premier champions, John Mallamas aka Jin Saotome. Access John's link below to discover his solution to photography.
2nd solution is one which John's guide inspired me towards. As I am saving just now, I am trying to keep costs down, as it also squeezes any shrapnel for custom fodder. My photography is adapted from John's step 3. Instead of using a tailored photocube, I use a window (daytime) only, which provides the light. I use some sheets of blank white printing paper to rest figure on, placing sheet behind as backdrop and one sheet to the side on the glass to diffuse some light.
Here's some examples of my process:
Picture 1 - Is my example of the standard photo using my window ledge technique.
Pictures 2 & 3 - Illustrate some of the effects which can be achieved playing with the free online functions of PicMonkey.
(Picture 2 is used in web page header).
Picture 4 - Is the picture I used for showcasing my figure within the Meet My Customs gallery.
PicMonkey also have a membership 'Royale' which has a free 30 day trial, providing additional online editing
and effect features. They also have a tutorial section, which I haven't used myself, but you may find helpful.
