First entries to the LPL and a new camera

Again it's been quiet around here for a few weeks, but work on various projects has continued nonetheless. As mentioned in my last post on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog (which I completely forgot to post on here), this year I'm taking part in the so called Lead Painters League over on the Lead Adventure Forum. It's an interesting experience to actually compete with other painters for the first time and I do enjoy it quite a lot.

As a positive side effect I'm painting both more in terms of quantity and more frequently as I want to submit a new team for each of the 10 rounds. We'll see how this works out ;-)

As an aside I've shared out some cash and bought myself a new camera. I decided to spend a little more than for the last, in the vain hope it'd improve my photography skills by just owning better equipment, and went for a Canon EOS1300D. It's the first reflex camera I've ever owned and as it turns out it needs quite some more practice than my former compact cameras.

I'm still in the process of getting the colour balances right... *sigh*

But on to the pictures.

First let me introduce you to the Occulites, some small and quite fancy miniatures from a game produced by Darwin Games in Australia. These are the original metal sculpts I bought for my wife a few years back, not the newer plastic figures.

On the picture above you see my submission for the first round. It's been taken with my old camera and while I'm not entirely satisfied with how the pic turned out the colours are pretty close to the real thing, if maybe a tad to poppy. Below the same figures photographed with my new camera. 

First in my old 'conventional' set up with two daylight bulbs and some scenery in what essentially is the shelf of a IKEA 'Expedit' rack. The colours are not as poppy as on the above picture but overall I'm quite satisfied.

Second in the new light box I ordered together with the camera. The colours do look quite faded. and there's too much shadow on the lower halves of the figures. Probably has something to do with the LED strips of the box. It was even worse when I used the complete illumination that came with the box. Will have to do some tinkering in the future as I actually would prefer to use a light box. Maybe I should try using my old daylight bulbs?

The second entry I called 'The last of us' after a video game I used to play a lot recently. They're from the rather popular 'Zombicide' board game by Guillotine Games. Katja and I used to play it a lot and while we're not playing as often as before, it's still our most favourite board game.

As before, above the picture I submitted to the LPL, using my old camera and old set up with a simple photo background. Turned out quite well, even if a little out of focus on the edges and the washed out areas on the pink shirt. Again the colours are a little gaudier than actual.

Second comes the new camera with old scenic set up. Turned out well I'd say. The colours are close to the actual thing and everything is in focus. That's something I always struggled with the compact camera as there was no way to get it to zoom in properly. You more or less had to take a couple of pics and choose the best out of the bunch.

And finally the same figures in my new light box. I like this photo the most as the colours are very, very close to the actual thing. Only downer are the washed out areas on the pink shirt again. Will have to try with more indirect light distribution.

So that's it for today. I wish you all an enjoyable Sunday evening!