Close-up photos with a digital: Use a tripod or set the camera on the table to shoot. Tiny wavers make your shot worse. I also recommend natural light over flash for minis.

Laurie Sisson

Photographing a mirror: I hope there's a better way than what I'm going to tell you, as I would like to have an easier method. I use one of two ways.

1.  Fake it. Take the picture head on and then play with it in Corel or program like it.

2. Take it at an angle. I place a white or gray piece of paper perpendicular to the mirror and then shoot the mirror at a slight angle so that it's reflecting the paper and not me.

Carol

To photograph mirrors "dead on," dull them with a matte spray or cover them with a grey paper cut to fit.

Alice Zinn in Pt. St. Lucie, FL

Photographing stained glass mirror: In my experience, a big mistake people make in shooting stained glass is to use a flash. And of course, there is the mirror. You are on the right track doing it at an angle, and the stained glass needs to be backlit. I would try doing it outdoors where there is light coming through the glass, and shooting from an angle to avoid camera reflections in the glass. I have to brag that when I was in Israel and wanted to photograph the Chagall windows, I got beautiful shots. Most people were using flash from too great a distance, and if it worked, it would be a real miracle. Plus, they were asked not to use flash photography, and I felt that since they did it anyway, they deserved for it not to work.

Jacqui in Hilo, HI

Photographing Mirrors: Before digital imaging, photographs of mirrors were touched up by hand. There's no way to avoid unwanted reflections if you shoot straight on. I would suggest that you make a hole in a piece of foamcore or white card stock and put that in front of the camera so the lens peeks through the hole. Shine your lights on the card instead of at the mirror. This means the mirror will reflect nothing but white except for the black hole in the middle. Since you are using a non-digital camera, get your photos developed, scan the photo and then open the image in a program like PhotoShop or PhotoPaint and use the cloning tool to "erase" the black hole. If you can turn the mirror at an angle without distorting the design, then place the white surface to the side and still aim your lights at the card, again so the mirror reflects only white. I'm recommending the white solution instead of black because I'm imagining your mirror has lovely stained glass effects that wouldn't show up if the mirror was reflecting shades of black or gray.

Sally Cook-Thomas

Camera Tips: I'm not an expert, but along time ago a friend's father gave me some tips. First I use a regular old fashioned 35mm camera with a standard lens. I use 200 speed film and I photograph outdoors. He told me to use the afternoon light [12:00]. So what I do is set up a box on a table, prop up grey paper as my background. I get as close as 12-18 inches and start shooting. Of course I keep my fingers crossed. This last time when I had my photos developed I also had a disc made. It was much easier putting photos up on my photo site. The disc came with complete instructions.

Lorraine Scuderi

Photographing things at 1/12th scale:

Decide what size prints you are going to get when you have them developed (4 x6 or 3 x 5, etc). Lets pick the 3 x 5 for an example.

On a plain blank wall place two pieces of masking tape, 5 feet apart horizontally (that's one on the left and one on the right). Tape your object to the wall or set it on a table next to the wall or somehow get it in the vicinity of the wall, between the two pieces of tape (you can place as many objects as you like - e.g. 3 or 4 pictures, and a couple of cereal boxes' maybe a book cover). Stand back a few feet from the wall. Look through the viewfinder in your camera. Move forward or backward (as necessary) until the two pieces of tape line up with the two edges of your viewfinder. Now take your picture. Have it developed and printed as 3" x 5".

If you noticed the area on your wall that was 5 feet across, is now 5 inches across on your photo. This is a reduction of 1/12 or 1 foot now equals 1 inch.

For 4 x 6 prints put the masking tape pieces 6 feet apart.

Tom

Miniaturizing Pictures: here is a simple (relatively) way to miniaturize your photos, book covers, anything you can tack flat. Start by knowing what size your photos will be (3x5 for example). Now make a background of a med. grey color that is the same dimension as your photo except for in feet rather than inches... If your photo will be 3x5 inches, your background must be 3 feet by 5 feet. You can tape together mat board sheets, for example, or use a large piece of fabric (avoid shiny stuff though) Mark out the dimensions with dark ink in rather heavy lines so you can see them through the lens. Now stick a bunch of photos, book covers, wedding invitations, diplomas, whatever in the marked out space (I just use blue tac), hang the background on the wall, and step back and compose your picture. Zoom in (or move back and forth) until the marked out area just fills the frame exactly. What was 3 feet long on the wall ends up being 3 inches long in the photo- perfect scale! The most difficult part is getting the entire area evenly lit. It is easiest to do this on an outside wall in diffused sunlight. Or try a diffuser on your flash, it works wonders (even a linen hankie over the flash helps diffuse the light so it is more even) Also, 3x5 feet is a lot of room, so you could cluster the items in the middle and focus the flash there, then it doesn't matter so much if the corners are dark. Once you have the photos developed, just cut the individual pictures out and use however you wish.

Michelle A in Boston

Photo background: I use a tablecloth as a backdrop for my pictures. I can lay it across the dining room table and drape it over the back of the chairs for dolls (always assuming I can FIND the table surface, of course!) and put it on the sofa or a card table and get the DH to hold it up in the air for larger things. A dull finish rather than a shiny one, and the cloth I use most often is light blue.

Dani

Photo background: I find that the color of the background in photographing your minis partly depends on the color of the piece you are photographing. Just make sure it is not shiny, and I prefer paper to fabric, generally, as it doesn't wrinkle causing shadows. My color of choice is usually pale blue.

Alice Zinn

Photo background: I'm in favor of a paper background. Since our photos are such close-ups, the weave of the cloth always shows. I've had good luck with parchment style printer paper. The pattern is interesting without being too distracting.

BTW, I'd not recommend white. It sometimes makes it hard to get correct readings from your mini piece.

Mindy Skelton

Photo background: Regarding the query about what to place miniatures on for photos, we use pale blue or green paper for photographing our horses, a sheet underneath and a sheet propped against something behind. White gives off too much glare, but any pastel colour should be ok. It's amazing what you see in a photo that you never noticed when you were taking the photograph.....we've taken pix with leather straps caught up in the wrong place, or manes or tails looking scruffy or out of place! The camera shows it all up!

Annie Logan

Photo background: The nice thing is you have seen the best examples in miniature magazines and Photo albums. Which types of photos did you like best? The ones in a setting with a story line or the items on their own with penny to show size? Each has it's own reason to be photographed that way....what are you trying to tell people by taking this photo?

I want to give you an idea of the size because it is so small and perfect....use an item everyone can relate to easily. I want people to see how I made all the pieces work together....setting details.

Backgrounds: Fabric has a nap and even ironed out wrinkles often show....Best results from fabric...the back of my husband's wrinkle free light blue dress shirt. (no, I didn't cut it out, I left it on the hanger, draped out the tail and set up on that.)

New favorite backgrounds: calendar photos that are no gloss. Even if the photo is too small you can take it to Kinko’s to get it resized. The photo I used for the Miss 4th of July doll had as many people asking about the background as the doll!

Never use small stripes, it makes the camera go nuts. Any print will detract from your detail. Black absorbs your light. Something pale, like blue is good. I also use a piece of gaterboard with dollhouse wallpaper on it to pop behind a piece to give it a finished look. I like to set up the shoot on my desk, right in front of the window for natural light. TURN OFF OTHER LIGHTS. They will turn your film green or off color.

Put your camera on a book or two to get the height right or use a tripod...never hold it with miniatures

Laurie Sisson

Photo background: I bought gray, sage, and ecru yardage at the hobby shop.

Backgrounds should be in a neutral color - you don't want them to compete with your work). Look for the tightest weave you can find (shooting in Macro mode with a digital camera will show the weave in a piece of fabric)

The material should be washable because you will soil it in the oddest ways. (drool toothpaste as you study the effect you want to create for the mornings filming) Turn the hem and iron with ironing tape, wash and iron - don't starch, you want the fabric as soft as possible.

At any hobby shop you can find small blocks of wood. Paint them, with acrylic craft paint in a color as close to the background fabric as possible. I use a two-step stepstool to set up a photo shoot. The fabric drapes over it, the blocks of wood assist in placing my item and viola! We're on our way. Check my website for the results.

http://www.beckyholliday.com

Becky

Digital Cameras and backing up files: Colin raised some good points about digital cameras and I'd like to add a couple of things. I use a Fuji floppy disk adapter for my memory card instead of having to use a cable to transfer my pictures from the camera to the computer. It's as convenient as having a floppy disk in the camera and since I have 2 computers, I don't have to move around a cable. One of the reasons I didn't choose the Sony Mavica was that the floppy wouldn't hold many photos and the memory card does.

I don't like to have a lot of unnecessary files on my hard drive because it slows down disk defrag and virus scans. I store any photos I might want to use in the future on one of those free webhosting sites such as Geocities or Fortune City. They do require that you have an actual webpage on their server and I make up one.

Carol, S P Miniatures

Digital Cameras: Several excellent points have been made by others, but one thing I would add, in addition to the resolution size and storage issues, is the battery type and length of use. Some digital cameras have batteries that are not rechargeable and run out fast. Other cameras have rechargeable batteries. On the Mavica I use, the battery is rechargeable and lasts me about 2.5 hours of actual "picture taking." I usually get about 30 pictures to a floppy, and take about 5 floppies in the camera bag when I travel - that's per outing, per 2.5 picture taking hours of battery life.

Storage: I store on floppies, hard drive and CD burner. One thing about floppies and CD storage is that if your hard drive crashes, and most of them eventually will, you don't have to pay a computer geek a fortune to "try to" restore and retrieve the photos.

The best digital camera to use really depends on what you will be using it for. If you are going to do 8 x 11 quality printouts, you not only need a quality megapixel digital camera, but plenty of money for the photographic paper which is still somewhat expensive! Although the megapixal cameras have really come down in price and are becoming quite affordable for many, the photo paper is still somewhat pricey.

If you are only doing web images or hard copy prints 3 x 3 inches, my husband has an Aptik "pen camera," the size of a ball point pen, with 2 AA batteries that takes 80 digital pictures transferred through a usb port on the computer that sold, after rebates, for under 100 dollars!

The really good news is that the digital cameras are coming down in price and there are a lot of good ones to select from.

Wilma

Camera Opinion: I have a Sony Mavica FD81. I have had it about a year now and I know I use it at least 3-4 times a week. It is so much fun to just pop a 3 1/2" floppy in and away we go. No downloads and you can view what you have taken from the camera if you choose.

All of the http://members.aol.com/fayrewinds/genstore.html photos were taken with it and then resized and sharpened using Paint Shop Pro. One thing I did not do was load the software that came with it.  I have a tendency to use what I understand. LOL

Mabes

Sony is currently the only one that makes a digital camera that uses floppies.  The MD 88 has the best zoom.

Tom Berkner

Cameras: I do not know of any digital camera that can duplicate the advantages of a film (35mm) camera at this time. I use a 35 mm Minolta; regular color film at about 200 ASA. For miniature work I use close up lenses, which allow me to get as close as perhaps 6", which is great for detail. Disadvantage is loss of depth of field.

Dr. Bob

Digital camera: I just purchased the SONY MVC-FD83. It has floppy storage, 6 x zoom, a macro mode, and an interpolated image size of 1216 X 912. T camera also supports limited mpeg movies. 15-60 seconds depending on image size. There is a higher model FD88 that supports a 1280 x 960 and has increased zoom . Both support sound with the mpegs. I took a picture for my website, its not bad but I think I can improve on it. my website is
http://billsminiatures.homestead.com/. The picture is of a doll sitting in a hutch table. It is in the furniture section.

bill