How to photograph the Malisaurus Rex – Malifaux Dinosaur Commission.

Malisaurus Rex Malifaux

It’s amazing how different a miniature can look with a different backdrop.

Sign up to our Youtube channel to keep up to date with vlogs, live streams and showcases! 

Grey, black or white? Which is the best backdrop? Well, it depends on the project.

Grey backdrops

Grey offers wonderful colour fidelity, but oh man is it boring to look at. The visual interest is all on the mini, which is good for displaying works without outside influence.

White Backdrops

White offers the cleanest of backdrops but can neuter some of the colour intensity unless you manually adjust the colour settings in a photo editor. Great for step-by-step photos, or promotional materials where you can easily crop the background out.

Black Backdrop (the secret power).

Why do black photos look better? Why do they enhance a paint job so much?

You can hide in the black. I’ve used a single light source in a lightbox that shines directly at the mini. The shadows correspond to this light source giving the miniature a naturally occurring deeper shadow. Most of my work is also set in rather bleak environments, so a black background suits the tenor of most pieces.

This was a killer commission to work on. I’ve been painting so many space marines I feel like I’m becoming a one-trick pony. My inner monologue reads “PAINT POWER ARMOUR YOU SOB!” Getting the chance to stretch my artistic legs was a welcome relief.

I’ve filed the process of course. And I’ll be posting this up, but these posts/tutorial materials don’t seem to go down that well. Non marine armoured stuff gets a third of the usual outreach that an Astartes does. But to hell with it, for ART!

commission
Miniature Painting Course Library.
Become a patron at Patreon!

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *