Godling: developing E6 film

The Godling envisions a masked figure and crafts a lonely world to fit them.

At the end of the month, Martin McCoy (martin.mccoy.art), Shane Brockway (7he_blindman), and Joe Aquilina (armageddon_bound) are running an interactive miniature art show called Godling. Many incredible artists have created pieces for the show, including Eli Parson (redwetskeleton), Isaac Tobin (weirdingsway), Marcello Rizza (uollas_uolsh), Brian Roussel (rojasnoirlac), Matt (squared_paints), and many others! While we chatted with Shane and Martin earlier this month about the event, I wanted to share a bit of the piece I created for the show. Rather than creating a physical diorama to display at the event, I photographed three separate scenes on slide film, which will be displayed with an old slide projector at the gallery. Slide film is more difficult to develop than negative film (Black and White and C-41 film), with the E6 process requiring more temperature-sensitive steps. Despite this, the process has always interested me because the resulting film can be viewed directly without inverting the images. The Godling show provided the impetus for me to learn to develop the film myself, cut the frames, and insert them into little cartridges so they could be viewed in a projector. The result is a piece called Triptych, in which the viewer (Godling) imagines a masked figure and crafts one of three lonely worlds to fit them. All of this is told via a slide projector as a “choose your own adventure style narrative.” Below are a few photos documenting the creation of Triptych. I hope you can visit the Godling show to see the entire piece (Selva Gallery, 1329 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, January 29 to February 1)!

Dragged into Turbolasers 125: Miniature Photography in 2025

We used speedlights more this year for our photography.

In this final episode of 2025, we reflect on our collective experience with miniature photography and discuss what we would like to do in the future!

Photography: Developing C41 color film

Rotunda.

Earlier this year, I started developing my own black and white film. It is a straightforward procedure that allows me to control the entire photography process, from taking the photos to developing the film and finally scanning it. This pushed me to shoot a lot of black and white film, largely ignoring color film. Eventually, I got the urge to go back to color, but I used a local lab to develop the film. It was only a matter of time before I started thinking about developing color film, namely the C41 process, which is the standard for color negative film. I had avoided it before because I was told it is more temperature sensitive than black and white, which can be done at room temperature. After some research, I learned that many people use a sous vide immersion circulator to create and maintain a water bath to achieve the needed temperature. This sounded like a fun experiment, and I quickly got myself an immersion circulator and some CineStill C41 chemicals and developed my first color film!

Photography: Nikon F5

Everything Falls Apart.

Over the last year and a half, I have become interested in 35mm film photography, starting with some cameras my late grandfather gifted me. In that time, I shot over 100 rolls of film, most using manual-focus lenses. I have come to enjoy the slower, more methodical pace of using manual-focus lenses and considering the best settings to get a good exposure without seeing a preview of the eventual image (unlike digital photography). Most of these rolls of film have been taken on a Nikon F2 (1971) and an F3 (1980), two of Nikon’s professional film cameras. I started to appreciate their excellent build quality, handling, and extensive line of lenses dating back to 1959. Having tried a few other cameras from Nikon’s professional line, I became interested in the Nikon F5, Nikon’s last widely used film camera before digital took over. Released in 1996 with the tagline of "Imported from the future," the camera was incredibly advanced, with a design that defined Nikon’s cameras to this day. The camera is even featured in the film The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The camera is easy to find on eBay for around $300, so I thought it would be fun to get one and try it out, knowing it could use all of my Nikkor manual focus lenses, alongside newer autofocus Nikon lenses. I found a mint copy of the camera from Japan and have been taking miniature photos with it, and wanted to share some!

Photography: Using an incident light meter for better film photos

Prepare the Ground. (Tri-X 400, Nikon F3).

Miniature photography (and photography in general) has become substantially easier with the advent of advanced integrated light meters and digital displays that preview what the photo will look like when you press the shutter. These features, common on modern mirrorless and phone cameras (and DSLRs to an extent), make achieving a desired outcome more intuitive, since you can adjust settings and see the effects in real time. When taking miniature photos using film, however, things are more difficult. With film, you do not have the luxury of previewing the picture before taking it. Most film cameras have relatively simple integrated light meters that measure reflected light and estimate the necessary setting required to obtain what it thinks is a proper exposure (often trying to achieve 18% neutral gray). These, however, can be easily fooled when lighting conditions are not ideal, resulting in meter predictions that lead to over- or underexposed images, if you do not know how the meter works. For example, when using my Nikon F3 and Minolta SrT 201, their internal meters often overexpose images of miniatures, since the scenes I try to capture are dark and moody, but the integrated meter attempts to increase the exposure to achieve neutral gray. In the past few months, I have been using an external incident light meter to get around this issue.

Photography: Developing Black and White Film

A History of Bad Men (Tmax 100; developed in Ilfosol 3 [1:9]).

For the past year, I have been fascinated by film photography, having been introduced to it from my late grandfather. Shortly after starting to shoot 35mm film, I began to scan my negatives using my Nikon Zf with a 105mm f2.8 MC lens and a Valoi Easy35. This allowed me to pay a lab to develop the film for me, but digitize and edit the negatives myself, rather than paying for the lab to scan them (and often give low quality jpegs unless you pay over $20 per roll). This reduced cost while also affording me more control over the process. Despite this, I could not escape the feeling that I should also be doing the development myself too. My grandfather would often talk about how he used to develop his own black and white film and even had a darkroom for a short while. After doing some research, I discovered that the process is relatively straightforward, only requiring a single developer that can be used at room temperature (20oC/68oF) and a fixer. To my delight, I was given a Paterson Film Processing Starter Kit as an early birthday gift, and wanted to share some of my initial results!

Captured in film: In memory of Donald Wier

In loving memory of Donald Wier (Beep): February 21, 1930- April 28, 2025.

Yesterday, our beloved grandfather Donald Wier, affectionately known as “Beep,” passed away in his bed surrounded by family. Beep often encouraged us to keep up with our art, and was always eager to see our latest creations and offer his unwavering support. While we will miss him greatly, he will live on with us in spirit as we continue to follow our passions. We are so grateful for the gift of last year to connect with him over film photography, as we learned how to shoot 35mm film on his beloved cameras, an Exakta VX and a Minolta SR-T 201. During his 95th birthday, I had the privilege to shoot a roll of Kodak Porta 800 and Tri-X 400 through his Exakta, capturing not only his portrait, but also some photos of miniatures. I wanted to share some of these photos here in memory and celebration of the wonderful person he was and the creativity he will continue to inspire us with.

Using old DSLR's for Miniature Photography: Nikon D7000

Hess Poison Breath.

In this hobby, we tend to focus on building and painting models and spend considerably less time photographing our creations, aside from taking some quick photos with our cell phones. Over the last few years I have been trying to change this and have been making a concerted effort to improve as a photographer. I started this journey with a mirrorless camera (Fujifilm XT4), but last year, after being gifted some single-lens reflex (SLR) film cameras from my grandfather, I was inspired to learn more about the process and leverage it to better document my hobby journey. This pushed me to explore the analog world of film photography and recently to print some of my photography. 

Printing my miniature photography

A print of one of my Vastarian photos on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Matt Baryta paper.

Over the last few years, I have become increasingly more interested in photography. Last year, after being gifted some film cameras from my grandfather, I was really energized to try to push myself to become better at the craft. Learning to work with the limitations of film excited and encouraged me to focus more closely on my photography, which I tried to put to good use for the Vastarian Inq28 event last November. Working with an analog medium like film got me thinking more about how photography is so often viewed digitally, on phone screens and monitors, rather than in prints like I remember from my youth. This led me to consider getting a photo printer, to take some of the digital and film images I have taken and translate them into physical media, something larger than the tiny phone screen that I use to mindlessly scroll through Instagram. After doing some research, I quickly realized, like so many things, photo/art printing is a complex affair, one that could be a hobby in of itself. Despite this, after watching some videos by Keith Cooper, I decided on starting my printing journey with an Epson EcoTank ET-8550 printer. 

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 109: From digital to film, miniature photography

Dark Angel: taken on a Exakta VX (Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.8) with Fujifilm C200 film.

In this episode, we talk about miniature photography, touching on cellphone cameras to film cameras. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different cameras and give suggestions of elements to consider to improve your miniature photography.

Vastarian: Hypatia Etranzi

I don’t fear hell.¹

Earlier this year we started to create more models for Special Operations Unit Mitsukurina, an elite unit within the Adeptus Arbites, that we created a few years ago. The unit is operational on Vastarian, trying to manage the psychic upheaval. We were able to use the two new members we converted in some games at Adepticon. Due to running out of time before the convention, I was only able to partially paint the new models. Now that things have settled down, I was able to finally finish painting the leader, Hypatia Etranzi!

Miniature Photography with 35mm film

Exakta VX (1955) next to Fujifilm XT4 (2020).

Over the many years running this blog, I have increasingly spent more time thinking about photography. Taking good photos is important to get people interested in your work, to clearly convey ideas, and to document things effectively. For most of the blog’s existence, I used my phone’s camera. And while I found success with this, I started to recognize that my phone often struggled to get miniatures entirely in focus, due to the fixed wide aperture (low F-stop, letting in a lot of light, but with a shallow depth of field, particularly if close to the subject), and the photos often looked unnatural due in part to the aggressive computational processing that was done on each, regardless of my input. This led me to getting a mirrorless digital camera, specifically a Fujifilm XT4. I selected the camera due to it being one of the only modern cameras made with “traditional” dials, like old 35mm film cameras, for the important elements of the exposure triangle: ISO (International Organization for Standardization, a measure of light sensitivity), Shutter Speed, and Aperture (this is on the lens themselves, rather than the camera body). Instead of these things being controlled electronically inside the camera, I thought the physical dials would force me to be more mindful of these settings, rather than relying on the camera to do it automatically. The camera also has the ability to use preset “film simulations” which allow one to take photos that would emulate the color science of Fujifilm's classic film stocks, like their black and white Acros. Something about connecting back to the roots of analog photography appealed to me. So far, the XT4 has been great, allowing me to learn the process of photography, both in my home space for photographing models in a controlled setting, to events, where lighting is not always reliable. Like I had hoped, the physical dials encouraged me to be more particular with the settings I was using, and how they were affecting the outcome. While I did not know it at the time, all of this experimentation and attunement to remnants of analog photography were priming me for my next step in photography, 35mm film!

Foldio - An easy solution to taking pictures of miniatures

Finally, I have a way to take nice model photos!

I have struggled to take nice photos of my models for a long time.  Between poor lightning, an old “point and shoot” digital camera, and a general lack of knowledge about photography, getting good pictures never came very easily for me.  Since starting this blog, I have tried a little harder to experiment with backdrops and lighting with mixed success, but I was still never very satisfied.  So you can imagine my delight when I learned about the Foldio, a foldable studio, over on Frothing Muppet’s excellent miniature blog.  Designed to allow for taking professional looking photos with a smartphone camera, the Foldio is essentially a foldable plastic lightbox/shadowbox with a LED strip attached that provides light from all angles.  Although it was initially brought into reality via Kickstarter, the designer, a Korean company called Orangemonkie, recently began selling them to the general public.  I wasted no time and ordered one, and to my excitement it arrived promptly.