Making Toy Photography Gifts for Holidays and Special Occasions
Your toy photography can make the perfect, unique gift. Whether it’s Christmas, Valentine’s Day, a birthday or graduation, this is your chance…
Category: How To…
Basic Lightsaber Effects How-To
If you are a Star Wars fan, and a toy photographer, you’re likely going to run across an image that contains lightsabers. You may be wondering how such effects are made. There are many ways to create lightsaber effects, however the way I use is to simply do it in …
Toying with Bright Ideas: A Light Diffuser on a Budget
As I have mentioned before in previous posts, lighting in photography is king; without it, we don’t have photos.
Fitting Toy Photography into the Busy Times of Life
When life gets busy, does your toy photography get left behind? Teddi Deppner shares her top 3 tips for keeping your toy photo mojo alive!
Toying with bright ideas: layered light
In today’s post, I want to show you a technique that I use a lot for my toy photography. I call it the layered light method and was introduced to it by Justin @justineastmanmedia, a very talented digital artist and toy photographer. I’ve used it for several photos that I …
Making things with Light Stenciling
I’m super excited to share this technique with everyone. Dubbed ‘Light Stenciling’, it’s a trick I’ve used in multiple shots, and I’m always floored by the results. It’s easy to pull off, doesn’t require a ton of gear and can add a really cool effect to your toy photography. What …
5 Cool Toy Photography Tools For $15 or less!
When I first got started in toy photography one of the biggest challenges was determining how to create a scene for my photos. At first, it all revolved around the toys. It is “toy” photography after all. Which LEGO figures do I want to be together in this scene? Or …
Shaking it Up – Adding Action with Camera Shake
As toy photographers, we go to great lengths to avoid camera shake. From using tripods and remote shutter releases, to holding our breath during an exposure to avoid unintentional camera movement. The rule of thumb is that the steadier your camera is, the cleaner your image will be. Thankfully, photography …
Getting That Gritty Star Wars Look
If there’s one thing I could point to that makes the Star Wars aesthetic so unique is its gritty, lived-in quality. So, as a photographer of Star Wars toys, it should come as no surprise that I’ve started to experiment with achieving that look myself.
Cool Cat: A Portrait Session
This portrait session with Catwoman just happened. I had set up for something entirely different, and when that picture did not quite work out, I just started toying with this action figure. While trying different poses and arranging the light, I had a couple of thoughts I would like to …
Stranger Scenes: LEGO Particulates of Evil
Four Bricks Tall takes us behind the scenes of this photo of the Byers house in the Upside Down with floating LEGO particulates of evil.
Playing with Fire – Making Fake Flames
Inspired by James Gibbs‘ “Toying with Bright Ideas – Playing with FIRE!“, I wanted to put together a post for those, like myself, who are a bit more timid when it comes to mixing fire and toys. Real fire is extremely dangerous to work with, not to mention the hazard it …
No Money For Lights, No Problem!
Awesome Light = Awesome Photos Amazing light has always been something that attracts people to photos.
How To Choose? Selecting the Perfect Photo From Your Toy Photography Shoot
Subtle differences in angle, light, pose, and crop can make a huge difference in the emotion and story conveyed by your photo.
Adding Z-Axis Motion
One of the ways to add energy to a photo is to introduce a sense of motion.
Making a Splash
Sitting at the bar down by our lake, drowning my sorrows, lamenting not making it to Utah this year, it dawned on me that I’ve never really taken many toy photos in the lake’s water.
Endor: Behind The Scenes of a Six Image Narrative
I created my recent Endor series as a challenge to push myself and see if I could create scenes that were based in a more real-world setting compared to my usual brick-built backdrops.
All the World’s a Stage – Part 3
”Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” (George Eastman) In parts 1 and 2 of this series I covered the design and building of a lighting stage and its associated lighting …
The Toying with bright ideas series: Using the Sun as your main light source
So over the last little while, I have been watching a lot of Teletubbies, I find it rather relaxing… No, actually my youngest has become addicted. Now whether you have kids or not, you are all familiar with Teletubbies. So after watching a few episodes, I noticed something had changed …
All the world’s a stage – Part 2
“If all the world’s a stage then I want better lighting” – Rob Coles If you have not yet read part 1 then this post may not make a lot of sense. Feel free to pop on over to part 1 then return here. I’ll wait, I promise. If the …