Taking photos of miniatures with real-life backgrounds....

Fun way to combine Warhammer 40K with travel :)

On our trip to Germany and Denmark we looked for ways to take photos of our two tag-along Warhammer 40K miniatures with real-life "battle ground" backgrounds.

Some guidelines developed as we took more and more photos....

1) Be respectful.  There were many sites and monuments which might have made for compelling backgrounds.  An example of what we tried to avoid was WWII artifacts which were recovered from fallen soldiers (on either side).

2) High texture foreground which looks realistic as 40K terrain.

3) Gap in "middle" ground.  Having the foreground and background elevated with a dip in the "middle" seems to really help with this.

4) Large structure for background -- which looks good/interesting if not entirely in focus (since the focus is likely on the foreground).

Here are some of our favorite photos.  Next trip we'll figure out a way to take full squads along for larger scale battles.

Our favorite.  Taken at Reinsfels Castle, Germany.  Castle built ~ 1300AD.  We got the Space Marine and Orky on a wall with ivy.  Then, a long courtyard gap behind that.  Then, in the background one of the walls of the castle. 

Runner up?  Taken at the WWII 38cm gun battery - now museum - at Hanstholm, Denmark.  Very rough concrete to place the miniatures on.  A gap behind that.  The rising gun turret placement in the background.

This one would have been even more fun with full squads.  Took this at the Panzer Museum in Munster, Germany.  There really wasn't a way to create a mid-ground dip.  As a result, the panzer in the background doesn't seem quite as believable to us....

Took this photo in Christiania (Copenhagen), Denmark.  There are rules about photography there - so were careful to be in a place without people, their business or their art.  This was the side of an old rusted out 2-cylinder engine.  The cylinders looked very much like vats or tanks.  And, the pen graffiti on one looks like normal scale graffiti.

From shopping street in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Orky is standing on the funnel of a downspout.  Space Marine is standing on a side-walk cobble.

Couldn't figure out a way to make the angles work well enough to catch this WWI tank properly as a background.  Also taken at the Munster Panzer Museum.

This was enough fun that we figured that this must be a "thing" with others already really good at this sort of photography.  But, we didn't find any write-ups of exactly this.  (If anybody knows of one, please let us know.) 

We're heading to the beach in a couple of weeks.  Thinking that we'll take some units along and try some more photos.  Going to see if we can get beach sand to look like desert settings.

Here are some of the other articles we read about wargame miniature photography.  Looks like lighting is a BIG deal.

http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/photography/forum/topic/how-to-take-better-photos-of-miniatures/

http://www.ifelix.co.uk/phomin1.html

http://www.madaxeman.com/main/photographing_wargame_figures.php

http://www.wargamingtradecraft.com/2010/09/photographing-your-minis.html

http://www.miniaturewargaming.com/index.php/wiki/Photographing_Miniatures_From_Wee_Toy_Soldiers/