redZedz kamra gubbinZ

Stuff wot I found useful for taking photos of likkle lead men, and which is dirt cheap.

(I have no idea about technical jargon, so this 'guide' might not make any sense.)

• A digital camera with macro capability.
• Three lamps.
• A 'Light Box'.
• Re-chargeable batteries and a charger.
• Photoshop/irfanview- photo edit software.
• Coffee and fags.(optional). First off you need light box, make one out of wood beading and Grease proof baking paper, costs about £2.50p.

The finished article

You can buy a Tripod or 'make' one, I use wooden blocks and bluetac.  You need something steady to hold your camera.

DA KAMRA STUFF

These are random things which help

• Aperture is the 'F' number, set it high as possible 6+
• ISO speed as low as possible.
• Shutter speed- this is what I constantly change when taking pics, it lets light into the camera (I think) if your pix are under/over exposed it's usually this setting which can correct it.
  White Balance- manually set the WB every session.

THE 8 STEP PLAN TO EASY RECOVERY.

1. Put your camera where your going to take the pix from.
2. Turn the lights on and get a White Balance. put your figure in the box.
3. Roughly focus on it so that it fills as much of the camra view as possible.
4. Now change the shutter speed, until you can 'see' the figure clearly, your now half way there.
5. Switch the Macro function on.
6. Manually/automatically get the figure in focus.
7. Take picture.
8. Take some more pix with a different shutter speed, this will correct under/over exposure.  I usually take 5 pix.

EDITING

Use photoshop etc to make a 'perfect" image crop your pic to get rid of useless space.

• 're-size' your image
• Use the 'Levels" function to brighten/darken the pic.
• use 'SAVE FOR WEB' to reduce memory size,
• most sites accept 80-130kb per pic.

OTHER BITZ WOT I KNOW

I.E. 'darkens' images so compensate for that using the 'Levels' function.
using 'Sharpen' in PS increases memory size by about 25%.
If you have any questions ask some-one who knows.