Natural light v Artifical light

[Paul]

Just had a thought,
if a figure is painted under artificial light is it then better to photograph it in artificial light, and same goes for natural light, or doesn´t it make any difference, wether it was painted in artificial then photographed in natural light, or the other way round ?
(Hope I´m making sense)

[Benno]

It could be different. Most artificial light is 'yellow' while natural light is 'blue'. This might change the colors a bit. That's why you need to photoshop pictures that are taken with artificial light, to change the 'yellow' to 'blue'.

[Maurice]

Or you could use a daylight lamp, which is rather expensive though.

[despertaferro]

Just a small specification, Benno: daylight is white. The light bounced at the sky is blue.
We can say that artificial light as yellow dominance and sunlight with Sun has not dominance while in shade has blue dominance. But most cameras can be set to make white balance at any circunstance. So, if the camera is correctly set for the apropiate tipe of light, would'nt be any color dominance wherever we take the picture.

[ModernKiwi]

Yes your camera can be set to accomodate the yellowness of artifical light, but I still find that pictures taken under this light require more processing afterwards.

On the other hand, pictures taken in raw sunlight look very harsh and the shadows can hide too much detail.

[Benno]

What I meant was that when you take a picture inside a house with 'normal' artificial light the picture is a bit yellowish and when you take a picture outside it's a bit blueish.

Some people say the best pictures must be made outside but they could just as well be made inside with artificial light(*) and some color adjustment in Photoshop. When you make pictures inside you need to decrease the 'yellow' of the picture and make it more 'blue'.

I agree with what ModernKiwi said, the light outside can be very harsh, something that doesn't always work on small scale figures. Artificial light can be adjusted to soften shades or make them more stark.

Making pictures of your miniatures isn't that easy. It's not always that you press the button on your camera and the perfect photo is taken. I normally take around 20-30 photos and end up with two I could actually use. Experiment with different angles, distances and lights, just as you experiment different painting techniques. Also experiment with Photoshop or other photo edit software. Read tutorials and try them out.

There is only one important rule when take pictures of your miniatures, never ever use the flash.

*With artificial light I don't mean the light in your room, but some extra spots. I use two cheap IKEA desk lamps for example.

[The Grumbler]

Paul you make perfect sense

You should be using a daylight spectrum balanced bulb in your painting light which is set at 5600k This is the "temperature" of natural daylight but not direct sunlight.

It certainly makes a difference to the finished paint job when using a daylght bulb for the purposes of taking photos. As Modernkiwi has pointed out when taking pictures the camera has a white balance setting that you should set for taking pictures indoors depending on your artificial light source. This should be set according to the light source being used. Normal incandescent globes put out a yellowish caste to the picture and flourescent lighting puts out a blue caste. The camera should compensate for this but the results are rarely satisfactory in my opinion and you need to do lots of photoshopping to correct it. Using a daylight balanced bulb requires that you set the white balance to neutral.

Photographing outdoors can work well especially in the northern hemisphere where the light is less harsh than down here. See some of Thomas Durrschmidts winning painting comp entries. All were photographed outdoors using natural light and look really good, but he would have painted the figures indoors.

It's really a matter of personal preference but I would recommend painting using a daylight bulb and then photographing using the same light source or outdoors so long as the sun is not too harsh. You will save yourself a lot of post picture editing this way.

This is what I do and post image processing for me involves adjusting light levels and a bit of sharpening and thats all. You should not need to adjust colours

Hope ths helps answer your question and that I haven't "raved on" too much

The Grumbler

[Paul]

Many thanks to you all, I assumed my question would seem a bit stupid but now I see that I´ve been missing a `trick´with the presentation of figures. I´m amazed that not only does one have to paint well but also how in depth the photography has to be as well.
Again, thanks to you all for the tips and advice as hopefully I´ll be getting an up to date camera soon

[Pat]

In the graphic industry they use daylight fluoresant tubes. every year they have to buy new ones and they throw the old ones away. just go by your local printer ( a real one not a copyshop) and ask them for the old ones. its the only way to judge colors properly.

[T. Dürrschmidt]

Photographing outdoors can work well especially in the northern hemisphere where the light is less harsh than down here. See some of Thomas Durrschmidts winning painting comp entries. All were photographed outdoors using natural light and look really good, but he would have painted the figures indoors.

The Grumbler

Yes, Grumbler is right. I´ve never painted a figure in natural light. I always paint in the evening hours with the use of a daylight lamp (bought at "Tchibo", not too expensive). I take pictures mostly outside in the sunlight. But even clouded sky or the dark sky before a thunderstorm can provide special moods and character to a picture. I don´t care too much about "right" colors and my photo sessions outside mostly last a few minutes. I take about 30 photos and keep the 10-15 best of them. Very simple. I don´t use photoshop, I have a simple "HP-Imagezone-program", which was provided along with my printer. I cut and resize the photos with this program and sometimes I play around with some effects the software provides.