Taking better photos part 1 - easy mistakes

This is the first of a series of blogs exploring photographing miniatures.

Ideally, every picture should tell a story and catch the viewer's eye. The starting point for taking better photos is composition. This is one thing that won't vary much, regardless of the type of photography equipment used. It won't matter if you're using a DSLR or a camera on your phone, or the resolution you are shooting at. There are several artists' techniques for composition, but I don't intend to go into these here, not just yet. I thought I'd first look at the easy mistakes which can be avoided.

Getting good photos is a mix of creative art and technical skill. That said, it is something that can be learned and improved upon with practice. Photography is an integral part of my job as the editor of Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy, so I thought I'd share what little I know.

I often joke that my photographic style is 'Maxim Gun Photography'; if you take enough shots, you are bound to hit something eventually! There is some wisdom in this, and in the age of digital photography, a photographer can snap away and take hundreds of pictures. That said, it also helps to make sure the scene you are photographing is set up correctly. There is nothing worse than doing a photo session and spotting a huge mistake afterwards. Getting it right first time will save a lot of angst later.

Always take a single photo first and check the composition. It might be something as simple as a miniature having fallen over, or there's a small problem with the scenery. Detecting a mistake early on saves a lot of wasted time. I recommend viewing the picture on a monitor or laptop, as that will greatly help spot mistakes.

At first glance, the picture above looks fine. You have Germans fighting Soviets across a bridge. The error I made was not checking the miniatures I'd borrowed before placing them on the table. One photoshoot later, it was pointed out to me that one of the miniatures was completely wrong! Can you spot him?

The scene itself is far from ideal, composition-wise; the bridge is parallel to the viewframe, and you can see the line between board and river.

In this next picture, I made another simple composition mistake. There is an issue with the lighting, which is coming from the right, but this isn't the main issue. I'll discuss light direction in a future blog. Can you tell what the main issue is?

All the troops have their backs to the camera. The viewer cannot see any details of their faces or shields. The end result is a photo that does not really say much. It would have been so much better if this picture had been taken from the front.

The next photo shows a battle scene. At first glance, it looks fine. There are some nicely painted Egyptians, so what's wrong with it?

Upon closer inspection, this picture suffers from being too cropped. Just imagine how much better the scene would be if the photograph had been taken to show the entire unit or more of the action.

Our next image is of a single miniature. Again, the picture is 'okay,' but it really doesn't say much. The figure looks lonely. If the intention was to showcase the painting style, this would have been better with a white background, as then the emphasis is on the figure; otherwise, it gets lost in the background. However, just imagine how much more dynamic the picture would be with some additional miniatures and more of the scene included. The same would be true of a single unit of miniatures or a vehicle. In isolation, the picture means nothing and would be best on a white background.

Hopefully, this blog will give wannabe miniature photographers food for thought. In my next blog, I'll discuss what makes a good photograph and good composition.