El Dave Photography

From Wikipedia:

The Protectorate of Menoth, formerly part of the Kingdom of Cygnar, is a fanatical theocracy. Currently led by the charismatic Priest-King Hierarch Garrick Voyle, the Protectorate recently began a great crusade to convert all the human nations of Western Immoren to the worship of Menoth above all other gods, and destroy all heretics who do not share their devotion or lack the necessary respect for Menoth as creator of mankind.

Protected and infused with the holy energy of the ancient god Menoth, the forces of the Protectorate are every bit as capable as those driven by arcane energy. Protectorate troops are sometimes individually weaker, but their abilities combine to great effect, and they are often designed for hard-hitting suicidal attacks. Menites also have a penchant for setting their heretical enemies on fire. Prominent Menite warcasters include Grand Exemplar Mikael Kreoss and the Harbinger of Menoth. The most powerful Menite, the Avatar of Menoth, is guided directly by Menoth's divine power.

It's been awhile since I've played, but my Warmachine faction of choice was always the Protectorate. When we were trying out the four starter boxes, Menoth seemed to fit my style best. Not only did they play intuitively, they look fantastic. I'm a sucker for religious iconography (grew up Catholic), and the Protectorate has it in spades. But don't just take my word for it, check it out!

Visually speaking, Warmachine is a non-stop barrage of ideas. Each and every illustration would look great printed out and framed on my wall. The battle scenes are the greatest source of inspiration, and my only regret is that the miniatures aren't poseable. I know I could break out the exacto knife and modeling putty, but my talents don't extend that far. I can give someone a hood, aaaand that's about it.

So, about today's picture. Since Warmachine: Prime was first released, I've been infatuated with this image:

Clearly awesome, right?

When I sat down to plan out how to recreate this, I noticed a few things right off the bat. The Temple Flameguard, due to the size of the base they're on, cannot stand shoulder to shoulder. I could remove them from their bases, but I didn't want to risk damaging them (and having to buy new bases). Also, the Crusader just isn't as tall as he appears in the illustration. Most of the Warjacks have stubby, comical legs, and there really wasn't any good way to just raise him up. His knees aren't that far below his chin. Finally, and I didn't find this out until later, the smoke machine just wasn't going to cooperate at this scale.

Since I was going to play with smoke, it was back to the trusty stovetop studio. No lightbox, just the lamp above the stove and the lamp above the sink for illumination. I tried a few shots with a more pulled back perspective, trying to capture more of the army fading into the distance, but I wasn't really happy with it. I tried using the smoke machine, but that didn't look good either. Finally, I brought the focus in tight and hoped for the best.

Cleanup in Photoshop was pretty straightforward. Tweaked the color a bit to bring out the golden tones, added a soft Gaussian blur, and tweaked the contrast a little.

Now if only I had thought to dust them before I took the picture...

If you didn't believe in the EXIF before, you will today:

Camera:	Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure:	10 sec (10)
Aperture:	f/11
Focal Length:	50 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0/3 EV
Flash:	Flash did not fire

Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution:	72 dpi
Y-Resolution:	72 dpi
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows
Date and Time:	2008:06:15 09:57:09
YCbCr Positioning:	Co-Sited
Exposure Program:	Aperture priority
Date and Time (Original):	2008:06:15 09:32:54
Date and Time (Digitized):	2008:06:15 09:32:54
Shutter Speed:	-217705/65536
Metering Mode:	Pattern
Color Space:	sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution:	3210.946 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution:	3230.241 dpi
White Balance:	Manual
Compression:	JPEG
Image Width:	2816 pixels
Image Height:	1880 pixels

Be good,
-Dave

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