We saw a lot of really cool photos of minis in our Companion for Kill Team Give Away! If you’re wondering how to get good pics like that, here are a few tips that we use at CfKT when we take pics of our own minis.

You don’t need a fancy DSLR camera or a light box to take atmospheric portrait pictures of your team. Just a phone which has portrait mode functionality, a few lights and a bit of setup can make a whole lot of difference.

Top down view of the terrain setup

Scene

Take your time with the setup. If nicely done, the setting can create atmosphere and help the portrait mode detect what to blur. Here are some things to consider:

Place your model in the beginning!

Keep checking your setup through your phone.

Make sure your foreground and background are well separated, e.g. by keeping distance between the terrain pieces or choosing terrain with a different color.

Keep the backdrop not too busy but interesting.

Putting the model on some terrain will help your phone deciding where the background starts — behind the foreground terrain!

Lights

No that the important part is done, let’s make sure the scene is well lit.

A setup that I found works well is with two lights of different color or warmth. Make sure the model is well lit, the terrain is not as important.

Those lights are from Amazon, but desk lamps do the job as well. I also left the room lights on to lighten everything up a bit more.

Get creative here! The colors could match your Army (e.g. blue for Space Wolves, green for Orks, etc). Check on your phone and decide what combination looks best to you!

Model positioning

The last step is to make sure your model looks interesting. Most models have an angle at which they look particularly good. Turn it around a bit, try moving your phone up and down until you hit the spot.

Since all picture will be shown next to each other, also consider what makes this model stand out from the rest of the team to be recognisable while playing. This can be special equipment or e.g. a shoulder pad!

Portrait mode

Most modern phones nowadays have support for portrait mode. Using this mode correctly can make a huge difference. It’s important that the model is easily recognised on the overview page so you can find the model you’re looking for.

Take a look below. Separating the model from its background can help a lot! Especially if the background is similarly coloured. On the left side you can easily check which model is which just with a glance whereas on the right not so much so.

Give your phone’s portrait mode algorithms the best chance on succeeding by giving more distance to the background.

Left: Portrait mode used to separate the miniature from the background. Right: Portrait mode used incorrectly and background blends into the miniature causing it not to stand out.

You’re good to go!

Now it’s time to place all your models and take your pictures.

To prevent frustration later on, look for unwanted shadows (e.g. in the face) and adjust your lights after placing a model. And check if the model is in focus!

You can take all your photos in one go and later import them into the CfKT. The app has import-from-gallery option.

Have fun! :)