Weapon of Choice: Light Cube

   One thing that, at some point, really matters all along modellers' and painters' track is to share their works... but it's not easy to capture our models at their best. New generation smartphones can help us take good fast shots, some easy programs on the web help us correct the major mistakes but what about a showcase? We're all net travellers and we find perfect model shots wondering if ours will be ever so well presented.

   Well... you need tools. Equipment. Assuming that you already have a reflex camera, the second step is to get a Light Cube. 

    I received my light cube for my birthday and it was one of the best presents I ever had; next day I started taking shots like a madman because, I assure you, this is a really enjoyable toy for a model painter.

    Don't be scared... reflex's price is quite high, you know, but the cube (with the proper lights) is veeery cheap!

    First of all you have the Cube itself, in a very comfortable small bag: 

Initially it's not so easy to find a way to fold the cube back in the bag but with some practice it will become way better

   Big lights, on their provided bases, with height and position adjustment. Just to know I use 135w power and 5500k color temperature.

Here you can see their power... Cat is not provided

Final form

   Four background colors, black, white, blue and red.

   Of course as we already said you need a good camera and a solid base:

   In my case i had to lift up the cube because my reflex base doesn't go under a certain level... and having a cube of 80x80 (one good for armies and not only single miniatures) sometimes I need to put something under the objects to raise them at the camera level.

Subject is ready to be captured

   Take as many shots as you need trying different reflex configurations and positions; take your time, once I build the cube I spend all the day making photos.

   I use almost minimum aperture and a very high shutter speed (around 1 second), pic can help:

   Once you're done capturing load all your photos on a good program, for example I use Lightroom (just one step behind Photoshop). With Lightroom you can achieve very high standards, and the skills you need are very low compared to its bigger brother.

    Here we are... after few hours of work you can have showcases for plenty of miniatures!