Hey - Anlaschog: Care to share those settings? I'm still trying to find the right set-up of photo box and camera as well.

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Actually I don't use a photo box. I use my diorama set as the background. The camera is set up on a tripod and about the same level as the figure and I adjust the height and angle as needed. I kept adjusting the distance from the camera to the figure until it would focus on the figure instead of the background. A desk lamp gives the camera enough light to auto-focus onto the figure. I had to set the flash setting to low to avoid too much reflection from the background. To keep more detail, I take the pics at a higher resolution and then crop them down to 640X480.

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Got mine today. I think it will work better with some lighting from the front. This was just a shot with the two side lights and an overhead light. Mine did not come with any backdrops.

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that's a really cool, moody shot -- i could totally see that for use in a dio-story.

i'm calling this photo box a win.

i win. I Win!


whoo hooo!


//i never win anything...

///'cept for that time i won all those 25th anniversary figs from beav for donating....

////...and that crimson hiss i won in convention bingo....

/////but other than that -- nothing!

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I got one of these sets a month or so ago, and am really enjoying it.

My suggestion to everyone is to buy some brighter bulbs for the lamps that come with it. The ones that ship with it are pretty weak, replacing them helped me get some better pictures.

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I'll try this next week, when I go back to work. Thanks!

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I rigged this up with comic boards, tin foil on the sides and printer paper for a background. Works good with the flash.





Ugly 100w yellow bulb.

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You know, if you're looking to go the small and super cheap route, you can always do one like mine:




Basically all this is, is one of those plastic 3 drawer units you can find at Big Lots, K-mart, Wal-mart, etc; cut remove the drawers, cut out the drawer slides on one side (or leave them be and just use the narrow side, if you don't mind the smaller window), the apply white cloth ($1.47 at JoAnn's fabric for 3 feet of linen, which is about 1 foot more than you'll need). Tape the fabric in place with either clear packing tape or translucent duct tape. Total cost is less than $10 and it works great. Slight downside is the "floor" is sometimes bowed in; a sheet of foamcore can be slid into place to provide a level surface, though I mostly just position my figures around it.

For backgrounds, cardstock fits nicely, or you can do what I've been doing--get foam rubber sheets from a place like Michael's or AC Moore, at $0.99 a sheet. So far I've tried black, white, red, blue and goldenrod (see my customs thread over in Critiques for examples) with blue being one of the better choices. Green is next. Black really brings out details (like dry-brush) but tends to cause glare on things like faces, while white does the opposite.

My light setup is just two clip on desk lamps, with 100W energy efficient bulbs (those new kind, the twisty ones); clamp then down and aim them in from either side. What's nice is I only need a little table space to use it, and it tucks neatly under my coffee table when not in use (I wrap in in a plastic bag to keep the cloth clean.)

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