Ben's Miniature Gallery

New Photography Rig added Sep 23, 2005
Recently, I've been taking pictures using my digital camera (Fuji FinePix A201), mounted on a tripod. The minis have been staged on a piece of styrofoam covered with paper and set on top of some boxes. While more or less functional, it far from ideal. I had to use the timer to keep from moving the camera when I pushed the button, I had to guess at the right dinstance to keep the subject in focus using macro mode, and the narrow stage was hard to fit larger minis on. Also, the whole arrangement was ugly and took up a lot of space. I started toying with the idea today of building a mount for the camera that would allow me to take more consistent pictures. First, I found a copy of the camera manual and noted the optimum focal distance for the macro zoom (8-13cm). After some rough patterning, I fished out some scrap pieces of pine flooring and marked out where the camera and stage needed to be to maintain the proper distance. I kept the camera mounted on the quick release plate from the tripod, and fabricated a bracket on the rig with a few bits of aluminum sheet. I screwed another piece of flooring on the rear of the rig to serve as a backdrop, and glued a piece of styrene sheet to that to provide a neutral white background. I did a couple of test shots to find the right height for the stage (1", more or less), then scrounged up a couple bits of MDF baseboard. Since it was already conveniently painted white, All I had to do was cut them to the right size and nail them down. I filled the nail holes with a little milliput, which I may go back and paint over later. For now it provides a good marker for the center of the stage. The flat area at the top of the stage marks the limits of the focal range of the camera. I'm still fiddling around with lighting techniques that don't involve holding a light with my other hand, but hopefully this setup will allow me to take some better pictures from here on out.
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