Photographing our favourite toys
We all have one and spend some time either building or playing with it. Depending on what genre you love, you can display the models or toys you love. There are many and they can be expensive, but how else can you enjoy modelling and building what you own?
One way is to visit second hand toy shops. There are always some around and they give you the chance to build a collection for a reasonable cost, and also to be able to take photos to publish.
Today I have visited a local shop and purchased two items, Batman and a Storm/Sand trooper from the Star Wars many collections of films.
Firstly, what do we know about them? It’s important to have an idea of any iconic characters you want to photograph and how they can be posed so that it is easy to recognise what and who they are within the story you want to tell.
So, let’s start with the character Batman.
How do we recognise him as being portrayed? Often, it’s a dark, moody scene as he watches over Gotham City at night. So where would we want to set a scene?
You would want to see the figure in a setting where light shines on him, so we would be looking at Low Key shots. My latest video on YouTube shows how this can be done, making a pool of light bringing the subject out into focus.
But just shining a light on him and making the shadow, while it does the job, will take some work on Photoshop to make a more dramatic background to get the effect we want. There are loads of tutorials that show how this can be done, but if you can’t there are alternatives.
In the blog about lenses it shows how we can focus on a subject and use forced perspective to bring out the subject without distracting parts of the photo showing. Now, if you have the room, why not print out a background and bring the subject into the whole picture. I can print to about A3, and there are an awful lot of places where you can obtain a background to fit the mood, then place the subject forward of the background to make it look realistic. One thing to remember is that if you have used photo paper the reflections should be considered where you are placing your lights, but this effect will work whether you are using a camera or phone. So, I’ve printed a dark stormy picture on A3 and then placed the toy about a foot in front. Then with a little bit of lighting behind the toy to hide any shadows or reflections we have Batman in a scene we would expect him to be. In later blogs we will be building scenery to enhance what we have taken.
Star Wars is an iconic, well-loved series of movies and the genre has produced toys and models for many years. Taking any part of the themes and setting makes for some enjoyable model making projects. So, buying the first toy that got my attention was a Sand Trooper we see at the town of Mos Eisley where Luke first meets Han Solo. This makes a great start to a project of building the town in various guises with the toys I find in the shops. I’ll be looking for more of these troopers, the rest of the characters and I’ll make a diorama that can be photographed and displayed.
In earlier blogs I’ve talked about making diorama bases using sand and grit, and these work well with the story of an arid place like Tatooine.
I’ve also printed out a desert scene to put behind the trooper to set the mood, and over the next few blogs we can explore setting a scenic diorama of this great series of films.
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