How I Photograph Miniatures

In response to a question Warflake asked on his blog, I decided to post some information about how I take pictures of miniatures.

The setup:

The gesso bottle is for priming and keeps the paper from sliding

The result:

The details:

The background is a piece of 8.5" x 11" construction paper in a neutral('ish) grey.  The light is a hobby light with a daylight-balanced fluorescent bulb.  The camera is a Canon SD1300 (flash on) set to macro mode.  This works for a couple reasons:

1.) camera meters adjust the exposure based on a neutral (18%) grey overall exposure, using grey instead of white paper makes the colors of the models appear truer without much processing (I don't do any).  If you take a picture of a white object on white paper the camera will expose it so everything appears grey; and

2.) My hobby light is daylight balanced, and so is the camera's flash, so I can use them both without introducing a color cast (i.e. green fluorescent lights, or orange incandescent lights).

It works for miniatures too: