I’ve mentioned, in several posts, that we have been having a hard time getting good photos. One of the biggest problems has always been lighting. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad.

Recently, Alison took a couple steps back; she reviewed the manuals for our cameras, talked with several professional photographers as well as exercising her Google-fu. The result was some new camera settings and a new lighting setup. The lights are the same (turns out we already had a very nice set of lights), but we have a new light box. The light box project took only a couple hours to complete – Alison built the test box out of cardboard boxes we already had on hand (a better model will be built this winter – tape and heat from the lamps are not best friends). While there are still improvements to make, Alison’s notebook is slowly filling with results of her lighting tests. Many differences between figures sizes, painted vs. unpainted, etc.

OK, so here is a sample from her first test run with the new light box setup:

2056C - Napoleonic Lancer

The consistency in this batch of photos is much better, but this next photo is still a bit light.

2055C : Hussar, 1810 shako, attacking

We are getting closer. With a new photo session today, we should have more photos (of new figures) to share tomorrow or at least by the end of the week.