I picked up a simple motorized turntable and photography light tent, and it's amazing how much of a difference it makes to photographing miniatures & paint jobs. I should have done this way sooner. If you're curious, I'm recording on iPhone, using Halide for the still shots, and FiLMiC Pro for the video — manual focus and exposure controls are a must.

I am no great painter, but my most recent stuff — from 2015 — is passable. As proud of my rudimentary paint jobs as I may be, seeing them in person, I have never had a good way of photographing them and sharing them online — everything always looked pretty mediocre through the lens of a camera. I think having it spin 360° shows it off in a way that photos or videos never could. Everything looks so much more professional and I love it.

With the light tent, the stills I'm getting out of this are better than I could have imagined. These look almost like product shots; it is hard to believe that these were taken on a phone.

It's kinda like being able to really see these miniatures for the first time; it makes me super enthusiastic for the next time I take up the painting brush, for now, I finally have a way to share.

I figure the turntable will also be useful to show off the larger things I build from plaster casts too, as it really accentuates the detail on the pieces. My light tent is a little on the small side for large plaster rooms, but I'll figure something out.

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A glimpse behind the scenes reveals just how basic all of this stuff is — the cheapest things I could find on Amazon to do what I wanted.

It definitely highlights the importance of investing in the right tools for the job; we already have amazing 4K60 cameras in our phones, but a good mic for recording or a decent lighting setup for making photos or videos make all the difference.

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