Shooting Phase

Okay, this really isn’t strictly a 40K thing, but I thought it was fantastic and needed to be shared.

I love getting good pictures of my projects and miniatures, but it’s tough.  My phone camera has a fixed lens, and even my digital camera doesn’t have a good focal length for such small subjects.  I usually end up taking very large, wide photos to make sure they stay sharp and then crop them down to show the subject.

Then my lovely girlfriend stumbled across this website and realized how well it applied to my work here at In The Grim Cheapness of the Future.

Go to your local 99 Cents Store or similar merchant.  Grab a pair of +2.0 reading glasses.  Depending on the frame, you’ll either be able to pop one of the lenses out or you’ll need to give it a little snip with a pair of clippers.   However you do it, get one of the lenses free and loose.

Now, step two.  Get some regular scotch tape and fasten that lens over the lens of your camera.  Try to center it as best you can, but don’t sweat the small stuff.  If you’re pretty close to center, it’s going to work fine.

That’s it.

Helpful Hint—Really, any magnification will work, it just changes your focal length.  If you can only find a +1.5 or so, it’ll still help, it just means you might have to hold the camera back a few more inches.

The best part is, your camera’s probably going to do 99% of the work for you.  Since the new lens is outside its system, it’ll just treat it as an incoming image and process accordingly.  You may have to play around a little bit to find the sweet spot for your particular camera or phone, but not much.

Check out these two pictures of my Kroot warrior who counts as a Ssslyth.  It’s one of my first attempts, but it’s much sharper and has better resolution.

Here’s the Cryptek I made a few weeks ago.

Try it out.  You'll be amazed how much it can help.  At the worst, it’ll cost you a dollar.