Photography
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🦄 A little bit of positivity for everyone :D |
Contents
Intro
- Do you need a dedicated camera?
If you have a modern iPhone, Pixel, or equivalent, you can already take professional looking photos. Smartphones today are powerful computers that have built-in software tricks that make up for most of their hardware disadvantages, usually automatically without you needing to fiddle with post-processing or camera settings. If you don't want to worry about the details, just stick to your phone and focus on learning about composition and basic lighting. On the other hand, get a real camera if you:
- Are interested in mastering something with a high skill ceiling
- Are also interested, even slightly, in photographing things outside of figures (landscapes, portraits, street photography, etc.)
- Are the kind of person that likes to tinker with all the settings for maximum effect
- Are willing to trudge through having shitty results until things start to click
With time and practice using a real camera, you will eventually start to have photos that smartphones wish they could take. But not immediately, so don't buyfag a $10,000 camera and then complain to us that all your photos suck. Get a reasonably priced (probably mirrorless) camera (usually within $1000~$1500 USD range as of 2024, lower if you find used) with a decent lens and then commit to using it on a regular basis, ideally with a variety of different subjects and objectives. Do this and you will one day (sooner if you aren't a complete moron), be able to share pictures of figures with us that are pretty fucking cool.
General Advice
Photography can be one of the most important parts of buyfagging, because there's nothing better than bragging about that limited bouncy ball that nobody else owns. Some people like to post review shit, others just like to show off new shit they got and some people are just bored losers looking for attention on the internet. Photography is a very subjective subject, no matter how much effort you put in and how good you think it is, there is going to be someone who calls it shit. The following guides should help limit the amount of people who call it shit, but you will still need to put in effort.
Read /p/'s guide first, especially the what camera section as it is the only resource on this page that contains information on buying a camera. This guide will not contain any information on buying a camera because it is very dependent on the purchaser and what they will be using it for. Do your own research and ask on /p/ if necessary.
If you are using a proper camera, you should be shooting in RAW if you aren't already. RAW formats will allow you to touch up the photo in editors like Adobe Lightroom and generally look better than direct to JPEG.
When posting pictures on the buyfag thread, please follow the following:
- Please post images that are JPG format, smaller than 1 MB, and/or about 1000 pixels on the longest side. This rule is good enough for /p/, therefore it's good enough for you.
- Boards outside of /p/ strip the exif data from images, possibly resulting in improper orientation. Before posting from your phone, edit and resave all images using an app such as Photo & Picture Resizer (Android) to correct it. Although the image after being uploaded to 4chan will generally not have identifying exif information, be careful about directly sharing the original image file that may still have traces of metadata such as location.
- Keep unboxing pictures to around 3-4 posts. Nobody wants to see endless pictures of the packaging and only one picture of the actual figure itself. Focus your pictures on your purchase, not how it arrived.
- Take your pictures beforehand, in order to avoid taking 5+ minutes between posts.
- Keep your body parts out of the picture, nobody wants to see your disgusting fingers/etc.
Guides
The following have been posted in the buyfag threads or gathered by an anon and are on a variety of topics.
A poorfag's lightbox
Aperture exposure and iso
Different flashes
Exposure triangle
Figure shoot tutorial part 1
Figure shoot tutorial part 2
Figure shoot tutorial part 3
Figure shoot tutorial extra
Focal length
Histogram
How do I -not- shot web
How to remove the stand in photographs
Lightbox studio tutorial
Optimum exposure triangle
Simple guide to photography
Soft lighting for figure photography
Valentine's and Xmas photography
Other Gear
The most important thing about gear is that you don't have to spend money if you get creative.
- Lighting? Use whatever lamps and shit you have around plus natural sunlight when possible (look up golden hour and why that matters).
- Shooting tent/Lightbox? We have like 3 different visual guides on making one out of the giant boxes Amico sends you.
- Backdrops/scene props? Print stuff out or use monitors and take advantage of aperture/bokeh.
There is always a way to make your photo scenes interesting or nice looking without breaking the piggy bank. So that's why the rest of the stuff in this section is optional nice-to-haves if you happen to have some cash to splurge.
- Tripods: Most cameras and smartphones have good enough in-body stabilization or software compensation and you don't necessarily need a tripod for just figure photography. But a tripod is always nice to have around, especially for studio-conditions where you want to take multiple fixed shots of different angles or if you want to experiment with shutter speeds
- Cheap option: Amazon Basics Lightweight Tripod (60-inch) for $29 USD. This will be more than enough for most of your needs. Don't go with the 50-inch since although it's cheaper, it's rated for a lower weight capacity
- Expensive option: Manfrotto Befree Advanced Camera Tripod for $164 USD. Has a bunch of much nicer convenience functions that let you configure it faster on the go compared to a cheapo tripod. Also way more sturdy with a high weight capacity that can support large lenses. Get this or another nice tripod after you've spent a lot of time with a cheap one so that you can appreciate the differences
- Lighting: Learn to use natural lighting or whatever indoor lighting you currently have before you consider buying dedicated lights. For dedicated lights, the most common basic configuration is to try and have a 3-light setup. Look up what key, fill, and back lights are. And additionally, you should try to soften the lights with some sort of diffuser, whether that's an attachment on the light or a physical semi-transparent barrier between the light and the subject.
- Cheapish option: Godox Litemons LC30Bi (2-Light Kit) for $279 USD. Gets you two decent lights with diffuser attachments and stands. Pretty good starter kit that gets you most of the way to a near-professional setup. You can work with just a key & fill light to begin with and then either buy a back light later or get creative about finding a solution to round out your lighting. (Other brand 2-light kits in the same price range or lower are probably fine too, obviously haven't been able to try all of them. Just try to find something with nice CRI ratings and adjustable color temperature)
- Expensive option: Too many to list, lighting is fucking crazy man.
