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There is nothing more disheartening than spending forty hours on a warband, only to photograph it under the kitchen spotlights and watch the highlights blow out into chalky white. Good miniature photography is not about expensive equipment. It is about controlling three things: light, background and angle. Get those right and even a phone camera will produce images that do your painting justice.

Start with Light, Not Gear

The single biggest upgrade to your photos will not come from a new lens or a lightbox purchase. It will come from moving your setup away from the overhead ceiling bulb and toward a light source you can actually direct.

Daylight is the cheapest and most flattering option. Position your work near a window, but never in direct sun — that harsh, contrasty light will flatten detail and create ugly shadows. North-facing windows are ideal; if yours faces south, hang a sheet of greaseproof paper or a white shower curtain across the glass to soften the beam. Mid-morning and late afternoon give the gentlest, most consistent results.

If you would rather shoot in the evening, use two adjustable lamps with daylight-balanced bulbs of the same colour temperature. Place one as your key light at roughly 45 degrees to the model, slightly above head height, and use the second as a fill on the opposite side at a lower power, or simply bounce it off a sheet of white foam board.

Build a Simple, Repeatable Studio

Consistency makes your blog or shop listing feel considered, and consistency comes from a fixed setup you can assemble in two minutes.

• A curved backdrop: a sheet of A3 card or foam board taped in a gentle sweep from base to back removes the horizon line and stops shadows pooling behind the figure.
• Bounce cards: white card or kitchen foil on a piece of board. Place them opposite your key light to lift shadow detail on armour and cloaks without adding a second light.
• Black card: invaluable for dark or heavily metallic figures, creating a dramatic falloff and stopping stray reflections.
• A grey card: for setting white balance accurately, especially under mixed lighting.
• A turntable or coin: a lazy Susan lets you rotate the piece without touching it and shaking the setup.

Keep this kit in one box. The fewer decisions you make each time, the more likely you are to actually photograph your figures rather than leaving them on the shelf.

Backgrounds That Flatter Your Figures

Your background should support the miniature's colour palette, not compete with it. A cool blue-grey or muted green reads as neutral and lets warm skin tones and reds sing. A saturated red or yellow will fight everything on the model, so save those for accent shots.

For listing photographs, a clean mid-grey or off-white backdrop is hard to beat — it is honest about the paint job and easy to reproduce for dozens of models. For social media hero shots, try a deeper colour drawn from the miniature itself: a russet backdrop for an autumn-themed warband, a slate blue for a chaos force. Tonal contrast matters more than the hue itself, so ensure the background is clearly lighter or darker than your figure's dominant value.

Angles: Eye Level, Low Angle and Top Down

Most beginners shoot miniatures from directly above, looking down. This flattens the silhouette and hides everything you painted on the face and chest. Instead:

• Eye level for your primary portrait. Bring the lens down to the height of the figure's face. This gives the model presence and scale, particularly for character pieces.
• Slightly below eye level for a hero shot. A five to ten degree rise makes even a modest guardsman look imposing.
• Top down only for tokens, counters, board game tiles or flat scenic pieces where the design reads best in plan.
• Three-quarter views at around 30 to 40 degrees from the front, which reveal depth while keeping the face readable.

Take one clean shot of each angle plus a detail close-up on the face or freehand. That gives you a blog set without needing to reshuffle the whole studio.

Getting It Sharp and Well Exposed

Depth of field is the enemy. At close range, even modest apertures produce a razor-thin plane of focus, so the sword tip or a raised banner will blur while the boots stay crisp.

Use aperture priority or manual mode and stop down to somewhere between f/8 and f/16. This narrows your exposure, so drop to ISO 100 or 200 and use a tripod, cable release or the two-second self-timer. Any camera shake at these settings will show. Autofocus on the face — it is the first place the viewer's eye goes and the first place they will notice softness. If you are a phone photographer, tap to focus on the face and drag the exposure slider down slightly. Models almost always look better a quarter-stop under than blown out.

Finishing and Consistency

Shoot in RAW if your camera allows it, then make the same small corrections across every image: a touch of white balance, a gentle lift in the shadows, and a slight contrast bump. Resist the urge to saturate the colours beyond what is actually on the model — you will disappoint buyers and readers later.

Crop tight, but keep the base. A little breathing room at the top gives a figure scale and stops the composition feeling cramped. Batch your edits with the same settings so a blog post or gallery looks like one coherent body of work. Do this consistently and your photographs will become a genuine extension of your painting rather than an afterthought — which is exactly what your figures deserve.