[Freebuild] The Old Fortress by the Fiord

[Hemar Seldim]

The spring had come to Mitgardia. After a long and bitter winter Hemar and Midger headed out to the coast. The old outpost that once stood proud guarding the Mitgardian inland had been destroyed during the civil wars and were now a reminder of the fears of war and corruption. They were doing their best to rebuild it with prime logs and stone from the nearby mountain to once again make sure that no foe would sail in unnoticed. With the knowledge that the few summer months soon would be over and the darkness would return, they set up camp and got to work.

Edited Sunday at 09:10 AM by Hemar Seldim
Typo

[funemlefox]

Nice build. The clear cheese and horns make for some nice ice touches. Shame we can't see a lil more. 

[Hemar Seldim]

1 hour ago, funemlefox said:

Nice build. The clear cheese and horns make for some nice ice touches. Shame we can't see a lil more. 

Thanks! I had some trouble uploading the pictures, I will try to add some more.

[Grover]

Great build and a nice intro!  I really like that you have the perspective at eye level of the mini.  It really helps draw in the viewer into the scene.  You have a nice backdrop and water in the foreground, and as @LordDan mentions, the clear cheese wedges look great on the water.  You have some nice technique on the rockwork too, which is somewhat challenging for the small builds such as this, and you did a nice work with the SNOT there.  

1 hour ago, Hemar Seldim said:

Thanks! I had some trouble uploading the pictures, I will try to add some more.

I see that you have uploaded to eurobricks directly. The images here are limited because it is not a hosting service and the images are usually meant for avatars etc.  We usually use third party image services, such as flickr, for hosting our pictures. Imgur is apparently having trouble with the UK and maybe elsewhere too?  A few people have their own websites and host their own images, which is also acceptable.  Images must be directly linked (no redirects) and they require secure connections now too (https).  Let me know if you have any questions.

As for photography, I like that you have the depth of field shallow in this photo, which focuses on the rockwork and the hooded mini, slightly blurring the fig behind him and the tree, so it draws the viewer's attention to the part of the image you want them to focus on. The tree in the back is very nice, and I like the slight blurriness since it also implies more detail that you mind fills in.  You may already know this, but @Gideon was kind enough to point it out to me when I began, which is you can get a wider depth of field (meaning more of your build will be in focus) by holding the camera back and zooming in on an area, rather than holding the camera closer.  One other aspect I learned was that you usually need more light than you think you do when you first start out.  Over the years, I eventually built a cheap light box then found a real one on sale one black friday, but getting more light on a build even without a light box helps a lot.

One more part I'd like to point out that I enjoyed about this build is your choice in colors.  You did a great job limiting your palettes to a small range, meaning you didn't use 5 greens, multiple greys, and multiple browns. You used a couple of browns, which helps distinguish wood from mud, and stuck to the normal green, which is great. I sometimes see builds with green, dark green, sand green, bright green, etc. and it looks disorganized. Limiting your color selection within a given color family is a big help and you did a nice job here.

Thank you for putting this in the free build registration! Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more of your builds!

[LordDan]

Looking good! I usually prefer an overview so we can see more of the build, but as @Grover pointed out having the perspective at eye level and shallow depth of field helps a small scene like this shine and leaves the rest to your imagination. I'll also second Grovers point on getting more light / a light box. I struggled for years to get decent photos as someone who is not an expert at photography, and then bought a lightbox and it made getting good photos significantly easier ( until you start building too big and it no longer fits in the box )

Also @Grover you mentioned the wrong person 

[Grover]

1 hour ago, LordDan said:

Also @Grover you mentioned the wrong person 

About depth of field? I thought that was Gideon who pointed that out to me back in ... 2016?  Of course, my memory from 10+ years ago is failing now!

[funemlefox]

If you haven't got a light box at the moment. Then taking pics outside is a good way of getting some more light. Not in direct sunlight but just out of it. And a white sheet or something to help the build stand out. Cheap way to start. 👍