This will be the first part of our figure photography tutorials.

We always make it a point to record our custom work. We have been using photography for the past years to do this and we must admit our skills in taking studio photographs has greatly improved. It’s not like we are any close to the level of a pro-photographer, however it’s good enough for us to take decent figure shots and certainly is good enough for the hobby

To be able to take good figure photos, the first basic rule is Proper Setup. A home DIY table top studio will do the trick (if you could get a permanent site rather than the kitchen table, mom’s dresser, the toilet (loco ss did this before!)… it would be good cos it would take time to setup sometimes).

Checklist of items that you would need is a table (duh…), backdrop(s), table lamps (2 or more) and light diffuser (box or frame type, DIY). Set them up as shown in the photo below

Backdrop
Backdrop is something essential for figure photography, it helps make the fig standout from the background. Get matte ones (vs glossy) so it does not reflect the lights. It’s recommended to have a few choice of different colors available. This is for instance, if your fig is bright in color (i.e. Desert Marine), you may want to use a darker backdrop and if you are shooting a black ops fig, its best to use a lighter backdrop… coz a black fig on a black blackdrop, you are shooting nothing but “Black” …. unless you need the effects to tell a photo story and that’s a different story for another tutorial ya? Let’s take a look at the sample shots below:

Lighting
Let’s proceed now to the lighting. When we take our photos, we use 3 table lamps (we got ours from Ikea). The bulbs are Philip’s Cool Daylight 18W. Positioning of the lamps – one lamp on top as overcast lights and 2 lamps at the side (left and right). Make sure there’s enuf place to put in the light diffusers.

DIY Light Diffusers
Why do we need them? Well, in short, they help diffuse the lights so that you won’t get any harsh shadow or blown spots on the figure. From the first photo, you will noticed we have 1 boxed and 2 framed diffusers. To make them, just cut a square hole (on the bottom of a paper box or center of a plastic board), and cover the hole with white paper (preferably thinner than A4 papers). Voila~!

Let’s looks at some sample shots taken with this DIY studio:-

That’s all for now, hope this is good enuf for you to get started. Stay tuned for our next figure photography tutorials. Cheers~!