Arctic Box

I have been buying diorama bases from Amazon.

They often come with little animals and accessories.

This one just came with the photos, but I had animals and accessories from other sets.

I assume they are intended for kids school projects.

But they make a nice background for set ups.

Or the set up could be a good setting for a role playing adventure, or even a skirmish wargame.
 

Table Set Up

54mm and 60mm set up.

It was a practice run to see how much visual space I have in my new table studio.  Basement roof shows in this view.

Looks like I need to narrow the focus or extend the "sky," which is what I hope to do.

Still a pretty big space, about 8 X 3 feet.

I am very happy with the results.

Of course, I can still go outside if I need a true expanse.
 

Snow

It snows about three or four days per year here in Kentucky where I live.  This table is a wire covered table so there is no solid surface.  It's a good table to have because it is very difficult for strong gusts of wind to blow it over.  It does not accumulate snow well.  So when I read there is snow coming, I put a couple panels of wood or plastic on top of the table so it will be snow covered.  I like to take a few photos of the troops in the snow and it is easier to take the photos on a table than on the ground, unless I am doing a large set up.

My blog photos are sometimes taken as much as eight months ahead of their appearance on the blog, and this one is no exception.  I keep a backlog of photos and of blog posts so I don't miss a day even if I am too busy to post or run out of photos.

Another view outside my basement.  Photo taken at night, with about four inches, 100 cm of snow on the ground.  So when you see photos of snow on my blog, they are nearly always real snow.  If it's fake, it will be obvious because I simply used a white bed sheet, which is a poor substitute for real snow.  

Also the photos that I post are the photos I have taking using real materials and real miniatures.  While I nearly always crop them to bring what I want you to see into the center of the photo, and I sometimes correct for too much or too little contrast, I don't photo shop anything, my photos are pretty basic.  Unless I am at a museum all the vehicles, troops, planes, and stuff in the photos are almost always part of my personal collection that I have built up for the past 60+ years.

Taking Better Photos

My photo studio is a trash can, with a piece of sheet plywood about two feet by two fee square on top, covered with an old woodland forest camouflage shirt.  I can swap out a bit of Christmas building decoration cobblestone mat if need be.

The background is a piece of paper from Hobby Lobby that has clouds printed on it, it's about eight feet long and about four feet high.  It has to be very wide in order to allow me to shoot at angles other than straight ahead.

I gathered up a few rocks from the gravel driveway to break up the edges of the board.  Try and pick up some with at least one flat surface.  Just by doing a few things like this to give your photos a reasonable background makes a big difference in the final result.  Taking photos on the floor, or on the couch, or the kitchen table has too many distractions in the background. All of this set up was free except for the sky paper which was less than ten dollars.

The whole set up is near the front windows so I can get natural light to make the photos better.  I can also move all of it outside as well, apart from the background, in order to get better lighting or a different background.

Close Up

These are Marx 60mm figures, they are originals, not recast figures.  They are likely 40 years old or more.  They are perhaps worth a dollar each.  Not too hard to find online, on eBay, and at toy soldier shows.

To take photos this good I made sure to buy a camera with a macro lens, one that lets me take photos from as little as an inch from the subject of the photo.  It also has a decent zoom, these photos were taken from a couple feet away, and I zoom in on the soldiers.  That way I avoid getting my own shadow in the picture and I don't disturb the terrain.

These photos are taken outside on a bright sunny day.  Be careful of shadows.  Note the figure in the back of this picture, his body is in shadow and makes it hard to see the detail on his chest.  The figure up front is in full light and his pockets and Thompson are clear.  Watch for shadows when you set up the figures, it's too late once you start taking photos!

Hold the camera absolutely still.  The slightest movement will cause the photo to blur.  When you press the button to take the picture is when you are most likely to move.  Many people recommend a tripod or a mono pod.  I don't use those because I move around a lot and like to get in really close.  I try to take several photos of any difficult subjects and select the best one.

I also crop my photos so the viewer gets a good look at what I want him to see.  Here I wanted you to see the standing rifleman.  So the other figures got cut out of the shot.  I almost never mess with any other aspects like contrast and adjusting other part of the photo.  After 15,000 army men photos on my blog, I can usually figure out a good time to take photos and get pretty good results.  About 90% of what I take gets used.

Photo Tips

One of the best things about plastic army men is that they are very versatile. 

I took a hundred or more Tim Mee WWII era American Army troops and used them for a science fiction game.

The generic Tim Mee Galaxy Laser Team works well as good guys or bad guys.  They are not tied to a specific franchise so they can be anything.  At about 54mm size they are a bit small for the 60mm Tim Mee troops, but how large is a space alien?

I like to take my troops outside.  If I am careful the chance of losing any is very low.  I do try to put them in a limited space, so it is easy to find them, even if the vegetation is heavy.

With a digital camera I can take all the photos I want and not have to worry about film or developing. I take photos from high, low, close up and far away.  Use the zoom to get in close to troops that are a little too far for the macro lens.  I also crop my photos and delete a few that turn out poorly.  Cropping the photo allows the reader to focus on the most important subjects.

I went to a nearby park.  I like to go during the week when there are not many people there.  I have taken photos at many tourist places, indoors and outdoors and never had a problem.  Indoors I usually ask permission and so far have never been denied.  The last time they even made a few suggestions!

I don't move anything around, other then trash or leaves.  I don't dig holes or otherwise disturb the location.  Most people just ignore me, I have had a few comment and they were always positive.

Taking Good Photos

Hold the camera close to the ground.  Use the zoom to get in close.  Hold the camera still, even after the click for about one second.

Check the shade, the background, the shadows before you start your photo session.  

Once you get home and download the pictures, crop them to show only the good parts.  Take lots of photos, far more than you intend to use.  It's easy to delete unnecessary photos.  I use about 75% of what I take.

Watch the background.  Sometimes you want it interesting, and sometimes you want only to focus on the figures.

Give the auto focus time to work before you take the picture.  Going too fast can lead to out of focus photos.  Don't be afraid to go outside and take pictures.  The lighting is good and there are plenty of places to take photos.

Taking Photos

60mm troops recently released by BMC, formerly from  the LIDO molds and back in production after decades.  These are great troops and stand up even without bases.

Take pictures of Army Men by getting down low and close in to them.  Make sure there is plenty of light.

Hold the camera still and give time for the auto focus to work.  Take lots of photos and later you can delete the ones that don't turn out well.  It's easy to crop photos and its a good way to make use of pictures that have an odd item on the edge.

Take the figures outside and post them in the dirt, on the lawn, or even on the sidewalk.

Take both group shots and individual figures.  Get down very low and get in very close.  Use the zoom even from a foot or two away.

It's not hard to take good photos, I manage after years of practice to take reasonable photos.

Bunkermeister welcomes readers from Canada!

Secrets of Bunker Talk Blog Photos

I like to set up a few figures and vehicles and take photos for the blog.

Get up close, many of these photos my lens is 50mm 2 inches from the figure or vehicle.

Use the focus to help you target specific parts of the scene.  Here the target is the soldier.

Without moving the camera, I focus on the truck and it changes the scene.

Using zoom can help you to get a single figure or vehicle in a larger vignette.  

This old Army shirt makes a nice bit of terrain without any real work, just lay it on a table.

Photo Cartoons

A while back I took some photos of the buildings that I was working on and some of my vehicles.

My daughter has some magic program that makes the photos look like drawings, rather than photos.

Here are a large group of WWII German soldiers lined up in front of the Reichstag.

Along with the infantry, there is a massive array of tanks and halftracks. This looks just like a graphic novel!

Here is another view of the Reichstag and it shows some of the garage too.

It is amazing what you can do with photos and computers these days.

Hundreds of troops lined up for review in front of the Reichstag.