1/6 Hot Toys - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - Scarlet Witch Figure

ThorRagnarok · Sep 26, 2024

anyone put this HS on that third party halloween version?

borgified · Oct 7, 2024

Posted two days ago (from Reddit)

Zurdo95D · Nov 23, 2024

Austano said:
Do you have any recommendations for a lighting set up and backdrop sets for your figures? Backdrops are always the hardest I feel when doing toy photography. I have Nikon D3500 as well shot with lense 18-55mm.

Spanbauer said:
Happy to! This is what I’ve cobbled together:

This backdrop: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CYY1276/

With these supports: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098NMG2JR/

And a large webcam ring light as my main light source: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D3D266R/

With two of these for accent lighting: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MDQ3CJY/

And this set of dimmable soft boxes for fill lighting: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B9SDSK22/

View attachment 718078

Austano said:
So would you say when photographing your hot toys figures. That the webcam lighting helps capture the sharpness more than the studio box lights? Is there certain settings you have for your nikon set to? With my photo of Doctor Strange I attached. I still feel it it fuzzy and blurry to much when zoomed in. So not sure if I need to change settings on my Nikon.View attachment 718079

Raνen said:
Your aperture settings are very low. The F number I mean. So you're getting a very shallow depth of field, which is why its blurry around the edges. You need to increase that to get more sharpness.
You should also try to always use a tripod if you aren't already

When you increase the aperture you also need to modify the exposure and shutter speed to capture the light

More often than not its the camera settings you need to change so you have to play around with them, look at what you're doing and learn from your mistakes.

That shot is fine but remember that too much light can also be a bad thing. Shadows and contrast are equally as important. You're sure to develop your own style with time.
This shot for example was done with no artificial lighting. Just daylight and the appropriate camera settings
https://cdn.imagearchive.com/sideshowcollectors/data/attach/525/525641-DSC-7195-Enhanced-NR.png

Spanbauer said:
In addition to everything Raven said, i would add a few things. The studio box lights alone would create very flat lighting without much contrast, and the result would be very similar to your example image there. The ring light I use allows me to bring the light in close to the figure and position it to cast shadows in the most flattering way - and that’s the secret to bringing out the likeness in any sculpt.

And when I want an intentionally dark scene, I turn off the soft boxes altogether.

Then you of course have to adjust your camera settings so that the figure’s skin isn’t over-exposed and blown out.

You also want to take control of the camera focus point and make sure it’s always on the figure’s eyeball closest to camera. In your image it appears the camera has chosen to focus on the cloak fastener, which is part of why the sharpness of the face feels soft.

Here’s another behind the scenes. With the light this close, I’m usually shooting F5.6, 400 ISO, and around 1/100 shutter.

View attachment 718110
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View attachment 718112

Spanbauer said:
Welcome! With the lights so close to the figure and the camera exposed for her skin, the white backdrop becomes grey very quickly, but in that and a lot of my images I’ve added additional vignetting in Photoshop to make the background even darker - yep!

Austano said:
Sorry if I am miss reading the amazon links you sent. I don't recall finding the link for the tripod the mini ULZANZI VL49 RGB Video lights attach too? Do they come included with the lights?

Spanbauer said:
Ah! Yeah the little tripods weren’t included. I actually have two ring lights and the little tripod came with this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088FK5PDW/

And that other contraption is called a Gorilla Pod; I’ve had that around forever.

Wow great tips everyone

Gonna save these to my notes for future reference