Photography Tips
for SportsPicks Customizers

I set up this tutorial to help out the guys who customize McFarlane SportsPicks (SPs). You guys do a great job customizing the figures, but then you fail to showcase them with good quality photos. Your work is so good it deserves better!

This tutorial provides some basic information about photography in general and studio photography specifically. It is intended to give you enough ammunition to create good quality photos of your custom SPs. I'm not going to turn you into a studio photographer, but I will improve your pictures with this information.

Specifically, I'm going to discuss:

Equipment - what items you'll need to shoot pictures of your SPs

Shutter speed, aperture, depth of field and how it all fits together - There is a difference between stumbling into a good photo and controlling the shoot so you know what you're going to get. A big part of this difference is understanding shutter speed, aperture (and depth of field) and recognizing how to use these functions to deliver exactly what you want in the picture. This will help all of your photography, not just your SP portraits.

Shooting your SPs - I'll talk about a basic light setup, some creative ideas for lighting and positioning and some things to watch out for.

As time permits, I'm going to add to this tutorial to tell you how to modify your photos on the computer once you've taken the pictures, to make your final shots look even better!

For now, however, you can start on your journey to improved pictures by learning about what equipment is required.


Index - Equipment - Shutter speed, aperture, depth of field - Shooting your SPs