I’ve always liked the idea of miniatures telling a story – from service studs to trophies, even the direction their capes or smoke are blowing conjures a sense of action or place. So when we take photos, why not breathe more life into that story? A white background is all well and good if you’re submitting the photo to a magazine, but most of us aren’t making our living from commission painting. While us mortals may never see a Golden Demon Slayer Sword on our wall, we can still make cool scenes with our miniatures which tell a story.

In steps one of my favourite hobby products – photo backdrops books by Jon Hodgson. I backed the Kickstarter for these and grabbed 3 of them in A3 size. I wasn’t sure if the A4 would be big enough if I was photographing a whole squad, so I decided to go big. They’re available in retail now so there’s no need for a long wait to get your hands on them. 3 books gives me 96 different backdrops to use – I chose, fantasy, sci-fi, and ruins and tunnels. There has been something for everything I’ve wanted to photograph since receiving them.

I’ve never quite got the hang of miniature photography. Some parts are blurry while others aren’t, shadows lurk everywhere, blinding reflection spots, and highlights that I’ve spent hours on get washed out, that sort of thing. Granted, I use a phone camera, but I’m pretty sure it’s my photography skills at fault. I’m still not great at it, but there’s some handy advice from Annie Norman in the back of these books which has definitely improved my photos.

So far, I’ve been using pretty basic props – a foam hill covered with flock or a terrain piece from Warhammer 40k. I’ve found the terrain piece gives a better picture because it’s not flat like the top of the hill. Annie touches on this in her guide in the back of the books, and you see some good examples of how to set up the various points of interest to make the scene.

I’ve scattered a few images through this post to show what I’ve been doing with the backdrops so far. I think more props will add some extra life to these shots – trees, rocks, some tufts and the like. I have a large pile of Dungeons and Lasers terrain on the way from their Caves crowdfunder so that ought to provide plenty of dungeon delving atmosphere.

I hope that’s provided some inspiration, after all, stories are why many of us are drawn to this hobby. In conclusion, I think these backdrop books are great, and they’ve given me loads of possibilities for getting more from my minis. Do let me know if you’re doing something similar and how it’s gone.

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