Simple Mini-Studio Set-up for Figure Photography

Collecting figures is sure a lot of fun. Specially if you can show 'em to your friends and fellow collectors. But not everyone can come to your house to see every addition to your collection. The best way to show your collections to the world is to take photos and share via social networking sites like Facebook.

Crappy Shots with Built-in Camera Flash

You normally take photos of your collections with your readily available camera and its built-in camera flash as your primary lighting, which would probably end up looking like this.

A crappy photo taken with a built-in Camera Flash

An expensive POP Sailing Again - Usopp has just lost it's awesomeness. See how the flash washes out the colors and creates harsh shadows. It looks like a total crap and crappy photos of your expensive figures doesn't really gives justice to it's beauty and value. People will end up looking at it as just another toy.

Basic Photography Skills and Cheap Lighting

This is where we need some basic skills in photography. You don't need to be a photography expert nor have a professional grade studio lighting equipment to produce great & quality shots. I'm no professional photographer myself and I didn't attend any kind of photography training. You'll just need some basic knowledge and cheap lighting to do the trick.

You can use the best free light source for your photo-shoots - the sun. But there are downsides of using sun as a light source. First, you have wait for a good sunshine. It normally works best two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset to avoid harsh and very strong shadows. Well choosing the time of the day actually depends on what composition you would like to achieve. Second is that you cannot control the location of the light source as well as the casting of the shadows. And finally, it's hard to take photos of a semi-naked figure (like this figure below) in public without people staring at you. Not everyone would understand what you are trying to do here :)

A semi-naked POP Sailing Again LIMITED - Nami (Crimin ver)

Mini-studio Lighting Setup

If you can't do a photoshoot outside, you'll just have to do it indoors. But you need a good light set-up so as to avoid using your built-in camera flash. This is where you need a mini-studio lighting set-up. As I have mentioned, you don't need a professional grade studio lighting equipment. All you need are two desk/household lamps, a white cardboard, some tracing paper, an unused box, some large construction papers and some stuff that can be normally be found at home. The only thing that you need to pay attention to are the bulbs that you're gonna use. I'll explain it to you as we get there.

For the camera, a DSLR is always best if you want professional grade high quality photos, but it doesn't mean you cannot produce decent quality shots with an ordinary digital camera. For this setup, I'll be using a Nikon D90 DSLR, but I will also tell you what's need to be considered to make it work with an ordinary compact digital camera.

Let's see my current mini-studio setup first.

This is how my mini-studio setup looks like. This is actually my cramped computer table with my monitor hidden behind. Ignore all those irritating stuff that you see here. Just take note of these key items. The lamp on the right side covered with the box and tracing paper, the board with stand on the left side, the lamp above, the large construction paper behind the figure, and my POP Sailing Again - Princess Shirahoshi. Yah, that's one my favorite POP :)

I'll explain these key items:

Main Light Source

First is the lamp covered with the box and tracing paper. This is will be my main light source.

The photo above is a lamp with 24-watt Philips fluorescent bulb which is roughly equivalent to 125-watt incandescent lamp. This light intensity is generally adequate as my main light source since I'm using a DSLR Camera. The advantage of DLSR camera over an ordinary digital camera is that the former can let more light pass through its lens compared to the latter. Which means it can produce better shots in low-light. Another advantage of DSLR over an ordinary digicam is that the DSLR can shoot in Raw. Raw image format photos can have its exposure and white balance adjusted easily with a Raw photo processing software like Adobe Photoshop as opposed to Jpeg. I'm not saying that you cannot adjust Jpeg photo formats, it's just that Raw can be adjusted easier and produce better results.

Having said that, if you're going to use an ordinary digicam, you may need to use a brighter bulb. But don't just get any too bright bulb. Start by trying a 27-30 watt fluorescent bulb which is roughly equivalent to an incandescent bulb of 150-watt and above. You'll need this much light specially if you don't have a god-like steady hands and you're not going to use a tripod. 

Also make sure that the your bulb is a cool daylight white light and not a warm white light. You'll want to get a shot with light color as close as possible as the sunlight. This should make white colors appear as white in photos which in turn will make other colors appear as what their actual colors are. Unless you'll want make some dramatic off-colored shots which is not my intention on this guide :)

A better desk lamp is the one with a swing/adjustable arm. This way you can move the light closer or away as needed. You can use any desk lamp that you have in mind but it's up to you on how you're going to adjust it's distance to your subject. The important thing is that it can handle the task.

Below is the photo of the box covered with a tracing paper which will act as a soft box. The purpose of this is to diffuse the harsh bright light coming from the main light source. Diffusing the light will produce an even illumination over the subject. You'll see the results later.

There are lots of professionally available soft box but are very expensive. I don't think you'll need those for this purpose since your subject is just a little figure. This can't be called a simple studio lighting if we're going to use that, right? Just keep your money for your other collectible purchases and just make an improvised soft box :)

It's easy to make your own soft box. Just find a box, in my case it's just a small package box from HLJ which I'm sure everyone usually gets from their monthly loots. Cut away the top and bottom part of the box. Cover the other side with a tracing paper which is usually available from any convenient school supplies stores. Attach the tracing paper with any kind of tape. And VOILA! You already have a simple and inexpensive soft box.

To complete the the main light source, just put your DIY softbox in front of your main lamp. The aim is to just let the light pass through the tracing paper.

The purpose of the box with tracing paper is to diffuse the light coming out of the lamp. It's suppose to provide an even illumination all over the subject and make the light less harsh and shadows brighter.

You may be wondering why not just cover the front part of the lamp with a tracing paper. Well, we need a wide softbox for the light to diffuse on a wide area. The wider the softbox, the better. But for a good rule-of-thumb, just make sure that your softbox is just larger than your figure.

Light Reflector

Next we'll talk about the white board with stand on the left side. This is will act as a light reflector.

The purpose of this is to provide an indirect illumination to the figure. It is usually placed opposite the main light source and facing the subject. You might be thinking why not just use another light. Well, we don't need a full illumination on this side of the figure as it may cancel out all the shadows of the subject and would end up looking flat. We need to leave all the interesting shadows that would accentuate the fine details of the figure.

Again, there are professional grade reflectors available, but we don't need those kind of expensive stuff. A normal white board will do. You can even use an white A4 or A3 sheet pasted on a cardboard. For my setup, I just make use of an unwanted and used poster board which I took from the stock room of our office. To support it is a photo frame stand. No need to buy this tho, any support for the board will do. Just improvise and keep it standing up facing the figure.

Fill Light

The second light source will be another lamp above the figure. Let's call it the fill light. As it name implies, it will fill light to the overall environment. This will provide a global illumination to the subject and to the backdrop as well to cancel some unwanted shadows.

This is nothing but another lamp with almost the same light intensity as our main lamp. Normally, you just need a global light that has a lesser brightness as our main light source. But since I can adjust the height of the lamp which in turn adjusting its light intensity towards the figure, I just used my readily available 23-watt light bulb which is actually much the same as the brightness as my main light. I won't go through "Inverse Square Law" here just to talk about the relationship between the light intensity and its distance from source :)

You just point it straight to the subject and adjust the height, making sure that it does not really outshine the main light.

So there you have it, a virtual three light set-up. The main light source, the light reflector and the fill light. I call it virtual since we actually just use only two lights. But these elements provide three lighting sources.

The Backdrop

And the last thing to prepare the setup is the backdrop. This will make your figure stand-out and your shots will look professional. You don't just shoot photos of your figure in front of your computer monitor or any other real world items. Those items will create a distraction to the viewers. You'll need to isolate your figure by placing it on a seamless background.

To obtain a seamless background, you just need a large colored construction paper and some support for it. You can even use cloth of about the same size. For my setup, I used a colored construction paper with some abstract pattern, and use my computer monitor for support.

I just attached the upper edge to the monitor and the lower edge to the computer table as the photo above. Make sure that the paper (or cloth) is in a curvy slanted position so that no fold can be obvious in the photo.

Then you can place your subject figure as below

Preparing your Camera

So that's all we need for the mini-studio setup. Let's now prepare the camera. As I have mentioned, I am using a DSLR, but this setup will also work well with an ordinary digicam. It's just that the results on a DLSR are normally better than an ordinary digicam. Well it actually depends the camera that you will be using. Even a phone camera can yield acceptable results.

If there is a white balance setting on your camera, calibrate it. Almost all digital camera has a white balance setting. Auto white balance can also work sometimes but this will depend on every camera. Just make sure that white colors will look white in your photos using the lights on your mini-studio. If you have a DSLR and you will be shooting in Raw, you don't need to worry too much about the white balance as you can easily adjust it on Photoshop later. But this is one simple yet important step to produce great shots, so you might as well give it a proper attention. 

To Use or Not To Use A Tripod...

Using or not using a tripod will depend on the ability of your camera to gather light and the time its shutter needs to complete the shot. The faster the camera shutter, the sharper the photos will be. Of course, if the camera shutter is slow, it will take longer time to complete a shot and will capture your shaky hands, producing a blurry photo. Using a tripod will solve the issue of your shaky hands. You may also need to consider putting the shutter on a timer shot. The purpose is to avoid camera shake that is produced by pushing the camera shutter trigger. Almost all camera has a shutter timer functions. You can also use a cable shutter or remote shutter controller if your camera supports this.

Using tripod may be inconvenient and cannot make some certain angle shot. In this case, you don't have any option but to use your shaky hands. You can still get a sharp in-focus shot this way. You'll just need to bump up the ISO setting of your camera a little. This will compensate for the exposure to allow a faster shutter speed. The downside for this is that, the higher the ISO, the faster is the shutter speed but the grainier the resulting photo will be. Which directly translates to a crappy image. So try to avoid very high ISO settings as much as possible. Just set the ISO higher, to the point where your photos does not capture any movement that could produce a blurry result.

Check other important settings on your camera before you proceed. I'll be putting up a tutorial for basic camera settings later. Yeah, later.... in a year or two maybe... just kidding :)

Let's start shooting

Make sure that there are no other lights turned-on inside the room or it will ruin your setup.

To show you how each light contributes to the outcome of your shots, we'll add each lighting element one at a time. Let's remove the relector (the white board) and the softbox first and turn on only the main light source on the right side. Then let's take a photo.

A Photoshoot with a Mermaid Princess

Please note that the succeeding photos were shot in Raw using a Nikon D90 and a 50 mm prime lens. White balance and exposure were later adjusted with Adobe Camera Raw. I used a remote shutter controller to trigger every shot.

Main light source without a diffuser

The photo above is taken only with a single light source without a softbox (diffuser). The shot is sharp and is on focus but the result is somewhat unacceptable. As you can see, the illumination is not balanced. There is an offensive and harsh bright light on the right side and strong shadows on the left side. It's irritating to the eye. This lighting may work if you are trying to achieve some dramatic effect, but that's not our aim here.

Let's now add the softbox to our main light and take another shot.

Main light source with a diffuser

See how the introduction of the softbox (light diffuser) does to the effect of the light. The light doesn't look very offensive anymore. The shadows are no longer too sharp and strong now as compared to the first photo. The left and right illumination starts to balance. The soft lights spread out and doesn't look harsh anymore. But this shot is still not enough.

Next, let's add the reflector (the white board) on the left side of the figure, and take another shot.

Main light source with a diffuser and a reflector

This shot looks a lot better now with a reflector. It provides illumination to the left side of the figure by bouncing some light from the main light source so it isn't totally cancelling out the shadows. Those mild shadows brings out the detail and the curves of the figure. There is a smooth transition from bright areas to mid-tones to shadows on the figure. Also notice that the shadows on the backdrop gets weaker but it's still a distraction.

We now add the fill light (the overhead lamp) and take another shot.

Main light source with a diffuser, a reflector and fill light

Now that's acceptable. As you can see, all unwanted and offensive shadows specially on the backdrop were cancelled except from the ones below Shirahoshi's tail which isn't really offensive anymore. This global illumination adds a uniform lighting and brightness to the shot. This is the shot that we're looking for. Princess Shirahoshi makes a pretty photo-shoot model, right?

A Photoshoot with A Sniper

Let's have another example here. This time our subject will be POP Sailing Again - Usopp.

Please note that the succeeding photos were shot in Raw using a Nikon D90 and an 18-105 mm wide angle lens. White balance and exposure is adjusted with Adobe Camera Raw.

We'll add the lighting one at a time again.

Main light source without a diffuser

Again, observe the harsh lights and strong shadows

Main light source with a diffuser

The soft lights and shadows

Main light source with a diffuser and a reflector

Slight illumination on the left side of the figure

Main light source with a diffuser, a reflector and fill light

A nice final shot :)

As you can see, you can achieve great shots with just a simple light setup.

Any Digital Camera Can Produce Acceptable Results

Oh, you may be thinking that this only works on a DSLR, right? Well here's a sample shot with an Olympus TG-610 with some simple white balance and exposure adjustment on Adobe Photoshop.

Shot with an Olympus TG-610 digital camera

Not bad eh? It may not be as great as the results of a DSLR but it's still a pretty decent shot. My TG-610 camera isn't really a high-end one. It's actually made specifically for underwater shots. Your camera may produce a lot better shots than this. The results may vary depending on the quality of your camera. You may just need to meddle a little with its settings. Who knows, you might just haven't figured out the full capability of your camera yet.

Background Options

You are not limited to only large construction papers for your background. You can try any interesting backgrounds that you can think of. In fact, you can even use the background paperboard that comes inside the box of the figure, like the one I used on the shot below.

That pink background with sun rays-like design is the one that comes inside the box of POP SA - Brook. The only limitation of this background is that you can't do a full body shot since it does not cover the whole figure completely, specially in the feet/base area.

Changing the Mood

With these lighting principles in mind, you can alter some of it to change the mood and compose some dramatic shots. Below is another lighting setup example.

It's the same lighting setup, but this time, I'll be using a dark blue backdrop paper. Notice another cardboard on the softbox. I will be using it to cover the main light and prevent it on shining onto the background. The fill light (lamp above) is turned on just to show you the complete setup, but it will not be used.

I'll turn off the fill light now and remove the reflector. The lighting will look like this:

As you can see, without the fill light and with a board preventing the light from shining onto the dark blue backdrop, the background of the figures are totally black. Only a small amount of light is illuminating both figures and it looks interesting.

But you'll need a long shutter speed and a low ISO setting to pull-off this kind of shot. Why? Because a low-light setup needs a longer shutter time to gather all the light it needs to complete this shot. If you use a high ISO settings, the grains will be too obvious in dark photos like this and will end up crappy. And because you'll be needing a long shutter time, you'll need to put your camera in a tripod.

Again, I'm using my Nikon D90 DSLR. I haven't tried this lighting technique with an ordinary digicam, but I will try it sometime and update this post later. You can try it yourself though, and share you're results with me. See the shot below

This is what I achieved with this light setup. A simple yet dramatic effect. Both figures looked immersed in the shadows, specially Sanji. You can't really tell that the backdrop is actually dark blue. This is a great shot but I wanted to achieve a different effect.

I will add the reflector now. See the resulting photo below

See how the reflector adds up to the effect. It adds some light and isolates the figures a little from the background. It's still a low-light shot but the introduction of a faint light makes the figures pop out and some of it bleeds onto the backdrop, revealing it's true color. Another simple yet great shot.

Being Creative with Lighting and Backgrounds

The shot below is done with the same lighting technique as above. I just swapped the positions of the main light and the reflector. Main light on the left-side and the reflector on the right-side. Why? Because Usopp is mostly facing left and I wanted to have more lighting on this side. The background is just a simple A3 printout of a graphic I found on the internet. But since A3 is quite small for a POP, my shot is limited to the upper body portion only. Prepare more ink on your printer if you'll be using this kind of background a lot :)

POP Sailing Again - Usopp

Once you have grasped the basic lighting principles, you can try different lighting positions and compose some interesting shots. Experiment with your set-up and your shots. You just need to be a little artistic in doing so, which you'll have to learn yourself :)

You can try it on your own figures and hope you can share great photos like this to your friends.

POP Neo-DX - Ghost Princess Perhona

That's all for now. Hope this tutorial helps you produce great shots. I will post more photo-shooting tips here on my blog as I learn more from my experiences in the future.

Remember to share your photos on my Facebook page. Happy photo-shooting :)