From the Desk: Vayl, Photos, and Prepping for 2011

In order to produce more consistent photos (angle, lighting, distance, etc) I put together this little mounting system. The idea is that it will reliably hold my standard model mounts (empty spray cans) and the old broken tripod of my camera so that I get consistent results. This will be very helpful For putting together step-by-step photos without having to drag the models into my normal photo box (which is not meant for models still attached to paint cans). So how good is this little set up? Let's take a look at my very first attempt at such photos, using my current in-progress model: Vayl.

My before picture isn't really much of a before. I'd nearly finished her at the point I had this set up ready for testing. So the before and after is of her skin. At the time of writing this, I've finished painting her, but need to construct a base for her. The robe is a little annoying in that it flows out well over the edges of a small base. I typically try to create more interesting and raised bases for warlocks, but Vayl is definitely going to require something extra unfortunately. If it wasn't for the basing needs, I'd have her wrapped up tonight most likely. But the need for gray stuff to dry and whatnot will mean she needs to wait until tomorrow.

Here's the after picture. This is the point at which I've determined what additional steps I need to make sure I take when doing these sorts of photos. First, my removing the camera from the mount caused the mount angle to shift a little, which causes some differences in the camera angle. Second, cropping separately causes some inconsistencies between the pictures. Third, I didn't mark the alignment of the model, so it's not facing exactly the same as the first photo. These are relatively easy to fix as a matter of process though by just doing some simple markings as I do the first photo.