How to Take Great Custom Pictures

Welcome to another one of my customizing guides and tutorials. Quite often people ask me how I get such detailed pictures of my customs. It requires you to do just a few things to get your photos turning out like professional images. This will be a pretty quick guide but make sure to read everything as leaving one step out will lead to less than average results. Also your budget will come in to play depending on if you can afford a higher end digital camera, light tent, or photo-editing program. Keep in mind these are the steps I take for my photos and there are all sorts of different ways of going about taking pictures. So have fun and let's begin!

Step 1: Get yourself a Camera with a 'Macro' feature.

This is very important. Most digital cameras these day come with them but you'll want to ask a store associate or check the box to make sure this is included in your camera's options. The macro feature (usually denoted by a little flower icon) allows the camera to focus at a very short distance away to maximize detail and make your custom stand out crisp instead of blurry.

The brand of camera is usually a personal choice and can be limited by your budget. My rule of thumb is to go with a company that has experience in making lenses such as Canon, Kodak, Nikon, etc. That way you know you're getting a great lens, as just about any company can make the rest of the camera. Back to the macro feature. It requires two things, lots of light and a steady shot. That brings us to the next steps.

Step 2: Tripod and Background.

Technically you can set your camera on a stack of books and call it good because all you need to do is keep your camera perfectly still while taking a macro shot. But if you want to get good angles and different perspectives, you'll want a tripod. What tripod you get will depend on what setup you'll be doing. I take my pictures on a table and have room in front of my light tent so I don't need a tall tripod. However if you're taking pics on a workbench up high you may want a full-sized one with extending legs.

The Background, tho not absolutely necessary, will help you get a professional picture. The most classic background is a piece of craft poster board that's curved in the back. This way the back and floor of your picture blend in as one piece looking very clean. I would choose a neutral color for the poster board, no wild designs or neon colors as that will almost certainly detract from your custom and alter the light settings of your camera.

Step 3: Choose a Light Tent or Photo Cube.

Remember I said your macro shot needed a lot of light? That doesn't mean you need to set up tons of 100 watt lights everywhere around it. A light tent or photo cube is a very simple way to achieve this. You can build yourself a tent like this one and I had one similar that I made for a very long time. However a professional light tents such as these work really well as they are made of special reflective photo material and come with an assortment of backgrounds, lamps, etc. It all depends on your budget.

Step 3: Photo Editing Programs.

Now that you've taken a picture it's time to download it into your computer and edit it. You will need a photo editing program of some sort. Free ones like GIMP, PhotoScape, or Picasa will work, you can even crop and resize photos with MS paint. But a true photo editing program like Corel's Paintshop Pro or Adobe Photoshop will have even more options. The basic edits you will want to make on your photos are:

There's all sorts of lighting tricks you can use to take some unique pictures. Check your camera's options, some have night-time mode, fireworks mode, etc. Turn off the lights and use a flashlight shining down over top your figure like a street light. Or hold up a red piece of colored plastic to the lamp on one side. There's all sorts of ways to experiment with lighting. Also depending on your photo editor you can create your own lighting effects, add borders, words/titles to the picture, and create a unique shot of your custom.

And that's about it for the guide! So a camera with Macro feature, a good background, tripod, light tent, and photo editing program will set you up for taking professional looking pictures. Remember you can make an amazing custom but if the picture doesn't do it justice, nobody will truly appreciate it. This is especially true when sending your customs photos into ToyFare or hosting them in an EBay auction. A great picture means great results!