Figure photography tips ?

Yo,

you don't have to use a DSLR, unless you want quality photo then go for one, these days you can pick up a good standard DSLR.
As you already seen everyone here takes photos everywhere indoors to outdoors, long as you got good enough source of light, your picture will turn out impressive and Scenery always makes your photo look good.
Then take multiple shots and make any adjustments then you have a good selection and dyou can choose the best image and submit the post.

Have fun!!

I suggest that you build yourself a photobooth.. Don't forget to scavenge for 2 or so desk lamps.

Use the manual settings of your camera, turn the "AF area" focus to manual as well, use the lowest ISO possible and set the aperture at 4.3

I use a point and shoot myself (a Canon PowerShot A590 IS).. And here are shots of my Full Armor ZZ Gundam and http://www.flickr.com/photos/41601287@N08/4615308511/sizes/o/,Gundam Unicorn%%.

So yeah.. You don't really need a D-SLR for decent macro shots..

You don't need a DSLR to take good photos, a point and shoot is sufficient or even some mobile phones can produce good photos. In fact, a point and shoot have a better advantage in taking macro shots compared to a DSLR since a point and shoot is able to produce a greater depth-of-field.

The most important thing is having an adequate amount of light on your object. Never use direct flash as the light output is too harsh, bounce them if you really need to use flash.

As for camera settings, determine your camera's highest ISO setting which produces minimal noise, you don't really need to shoot at the lowest ISO setting.

Have a good source of light. Best is natural light bulbs ( Atleast for me ) Use the lowest amount of ISO when possible from 100 to 400. Use a tripod if you got shakey hands. Take multiple shot of the same angle you want a picture of. Since the other shot can be better then the previous. Also check the settings of your white balance. Being on Sunny or cloudy can make a lot of difference. Also I would stay away from flash unless you got a external one where you can point it to a different direction or got a "bouncer" for it.

haha You have a very good camera model, so take the best out of it!
I have a Canon Powershot A570 IS and my tips to take best pictures is be carefull with light source and illumination (In darker areas check the ISO but be carefefull because at higher ISO you get Higher grained photos.
Also a tripod may help you for macro pictures or outside photoshoots to prevent blurry images.
Now Im using a DSLR but still have and use my 570.
^^
Check out my flickr pool: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phossil

You don't really need a DSLR camera to take high quality figure images. A camera is a camera and its up to you to the image out of it ^^. A higher quality camera may help but its up to what you want out of a camera & figures. Tripod will help you out as well as people mentioned.

And what is the place that suits us to take outdoor figure shots?

Outdoor shots? Try a backyard, a garden, a statue exterior shot, a safe water fountain, a park, whatever else you have around you. Just don't let the people giving you weird faces get to you and don't rush your shots because of them :P.

Oh, and don't leave the house with the camera on it's last bar.

i use the previous version of that camera, check out the many tutorials i have done.

http://otakudan.com/search/label/Photography

I'm also just getting into photography and I really recommend getting a book to help you. I bought a book on exposure and I'm learning so much from reading it. There's a ton of books out there and it'll help you pick up techniques.

Of course, experimenting with your camera and taking pictures will also help you out. One of the best forms of learning is by making mistakes. You take some photos, see where you went wrong or what you would like to improve and then find out how to do that. By reading more up on the techniques you'll be able to do that yourself by visualizing what you wanted/expected and what you ended up with.

I don't take many figure photos so I might not be qualified to comment... but heres my take. The photos you take aren't necessarily limited by hardware. Comparing a DSLR to a cellphone camera isn't really fair to begin with but what you are using is a dedicated camera so it should have the features necessary. The trick to taking good photographs is experience and light. As you take more photographs and experiment around, you can crop the frames better and get a feel for what angle suits your subject best. A straight on shot can sometimes be boring. Spice things up by positioning your subject or yourself higher or lower. Lighting is a major limiting factor for taking pictures. If you are taking photos indoors, you probably rely on artificial lighting. I find it doesn't produce quality pictures and having point light sources doesn't look as nice. You might want to make some defusers such as hard white boards to reflect light or tissue paper to spread the light. I prefer using sunlight. On a bright sunny day, I've never had problems taking photographs. Finally for hardware, you might want to probe around the options menus. The three photos you've posted are quite grainy. To fix that, try to aim for a lower ISO setting. It makes the sensor less sensitive to light meaning each picture takes longer to take but it reduces the graininess. For budget macro shots, avoid DSLRs. I've tried to do macro shots using a DSLR without a macro lens and it is hard... I've never actually tried a macro lens before though I really want to. If you are running on a limited budget, you might want to stick to a point and shoot... also, have a stable surface to mount or place your camera on. Tripods usually work for level subjects but have a beanbag around when you need the camera on the table or ground. Play around with your camera and use/abuse it for all that it can provide. Sometimes, it may surprise you with some beautiful shots!

Ah guess your in the same boat as me ^^ (no DSLR) I recommend plenty of light, pretty low ISO, and steady hands if you don't got a tripod or some sort. Pretty basic stuff but if your camera lets you manually input stuff than you should get better results. Also pictures are always better if you take them at angles ^^ Outdoor shots should be taken when sunlight is pretty strong, but gardens, parks, rooftops, beaches, whatever is around is suitable for photography ^^

If you view my previous post, you can tell that I'm a man of Natural Lighting. So SLR or no-SLR, you can NEVER go wrong with natural sunlight, a white/yellow wall, and a white table/platform!

Really thank you for all the tips!