TOY PHOTOGRAPHY

1. Introduction: Hello. My name is Carlos. I'm a professional photographer in I Love and I'm passionate creating images that tell a story. So in this course, if you're passionate about toy photography, you're gonna learn how to create the image that you want with these techniques. We're gonna talk about Lance's. We're gonna talk about light. We're gonna talk about certain facts. I'm gonna show you before in after some images. So to give you an idea of what you can do one of my goals of these courses to show you that how simple it is to create your photo and that you don't need a lot equipment pressure, they At the end, you're gonna create a lot of images. So I'm just excited to see what you can create. So let's start 2. Camera Lenses: Let's talk about lengths there is to maintain that you have to know about your lens. One is focal ing, which means how much your land can see. The other one is the F stops or aperture. There's gonna tell us how much your Lincoln closed or open, and this help us to create our image. There's two types off lenses, one or primes, which means that the focal ing whatever the Lincoln C will never change. And you have the semblance is where you can really have a wide view or a narrow view and get close to things. This is really important. Let's talk about the aperture aperture is gonna affect your photo because if you have a number that is really high, like F 22 your opportunities gonna be really small. You're not gonna have a lot of lights. You're gonna have to maybe bring some light, or you're gonna have to change either you sure speed or your eyes, Um, but also you won't have that bluer effect on your photo. Most of your four is gonna be sharp. In the other hand, give you linking all the way down to 1.8 some lenses can only go to three, which still okay, But if you can have a land that can go all the way to one point made 1.2 or even lower, you're gonna have beautiful effect off a bluer. You're gonna be able to decide which borrow your image is gonna be bluer, and you're gonna have a big aperture, which means you're gonna have a lot of lights. So you're gonna be able to maybe have a shorter speed. There's gonna be really high, and you're gonna be able to freeze water or explosions. And that will help Ula if the other one is the focal in the vocal is gonna help us. How much we can see one thing that really useful, you see, if you don't have a lot of space, if you have a white land like a 16 you can get really close to your subject. In this example, I have a 25 millimeters on a krump sensor, so it will be around 30 and you can get really close that you can see in the image. If I used my 85 I need to be far, far away, which this could be a down side. You were taking a four when you're doing some practical effect where you have to be closed to be able, Teoh, drop some rocks or light up. I were being really far. It's not gonna be really helpful. 10 thing if you're in a public place and maybe you have a perfect shot, but you're not closing off. Maybe you have people going in front of you and they're gonna be in the way, so that could also effect the photo that you want to take. One thing that happened with also white Land says, is if you get really close, like you can see in this image, the picture looks like is a little bit bigger. It could be your really close. I will deform your image. So just be aware of that. And with a photo lands, you don't have a problem. One thing that happened also with the Four Lands versus Weiland's is that you have a compression where the background looks closer in this image. Even if I don't have the perfect angle, you can see the three is even closer. Using 85 day in my 25 millimeter corrupt sensor on a full frame, but knowing that you can create certain affect depending on the length of your so that were really important to understand these two things about your lands I love and most of my photography. Just because I love my 85 lens is the one that I use worrying about space. Losing a wide land is your choice. 3. Let's talk composition and angles: Now let's talk about composition. The most common one is a rule after, so the rule after is like a tic tac toe. We have four lines in on every single point. Where the lines cross is is where the most important thing off your body should be. Off course. You can break this rule, but it's really good to know that as I go to start, but it's not the only one. Another really good technique is framed. Give frame your character. You don't have to walk completely around like a frame. You can just put something on the size really useful to emphasize and guide the view to the middle of the image in A to make it more in thirsting under type of composition is leading lines. Leading lines is just lines on your photo deck at the view to certain part of the image, including even get it outside to really make your composition interesting Controls on movement. So something to think about it when taking you for find those lines and something that a lot of people don't use is the colors to make sure that your photo has colors that they won't blame or If they do, they have something that pops out. You don't have to have completely the whole image, different colors, but I having something that pops out. It was more appealing. Another technique is, well, the frame and fill the frame is a little bit to me, like the angles. It's like a extreme close up. You go really, really close. You're gonna be able to see details. So don't be afraid to fill the frame with your character. That can be really powerful camera angles. I one of the most important techniques depending where you put your camera is going to impact your image on different ways. It's really important to pay attention into the side. Which one is the right for you? There is no right or wrong because happened in the story that you're telling. But something that I want to emphasize is that you have your job is to tell the story the way that no one can see it. If you're photographing your toys and you are setting them up and you have someone beside you in there, look at the figures. They're not gonna see the picture that you're trying to do. They're gonna really see far away these tiny figures. And your job is to show what they cannot see, which is gonna be rude. Get really close. Lay on the floor, make sure that you have that angle that they cannot see. 4. Here are some tips: I'm gonna give you some tips and tricks that I used to create my photos. The 1st 1 is to set your lens to manual. Focus is really important to do that because he will allow you to control the blue in the sharpness of your image. But also is gonna boy to make mistakes. If you have a narrow, the camera will try to do that for you. And sometimes it can ruin your image. So set it up in manual. Let's talk of other action. Figure the more details they have, the best your four is gonna be. I mean, that's you give more value, even had a lot of details. Morning. They look. Riel, of course, is gonna be awesome for sure. The more detail ones, they're more expensive. Don't break your bank on the the reality that there's actually cheap ones out there that live really great. They would like a little bit of motion. And that's another thing that I want to talk about. That you are buying one. The more articulation it will be there to post, and it will give you more things to do. So try to get those, and if you cannot. Don't worry about it like I have these. These one, they don't move at all. They don't have any articulations. But I took advantage off the post so something that you can do to and it really beauty. Sometimes I actually see what my field canoe, the poll that he had and that will give me the idea of what can I shoot? So that's something important to think about it posing the same thing as sometimes you don't need wires or anything. You can just pulls your character. And one thing that I want to suggest is when you're opposing your characters, it really easy to go over here and try to pulls, and you have it. You're moving something, and then you touch something and any goes, any will happen. It will happen. You have to be patient sometime. But, uh, I used to let you know you have characters are really close. Start from the middle and try to build up around, and because you don't want to go back and try to fix something, because you're gonna move a piece and maybe gonna be hard to recreate that if I want a specific polls, I'm gonna use wires some actual, fewer sometime will have this plastic arm that will allow you to pulls it. And it's really flexible. And you can do a lot of things with this, but most of the time they don't have it. So and what I use is wires like these one is really strong. I took it from a hanger, actually issues a piece of hunger in Ah, the way. Do it like I deal with my Avengers. Yes, I just put it on my table. I used a hammer or something heavy, like like this. And you compose your car. Okay, Sometimes it is so simple thing you're doing that. Of course I know that I'm not gonna photograph the bottom. That why didn't care. And I put the players una is something away that you compose? Ofcourse. The only downside if I want a specific pulls is the wire. I like it because it's strong, so it will support a lot of weight. But I have to use my players to move it to have the specific shape so that I just can't take a little bit of time. Sometimes I use brings force. Men would give from within our wire to be able to have more heavy things or to make it, um, go higher, but that just something that you can use, One of the thing that I wouldn't use is to try to hang thing. If you have something hanging, it just moves a lot. So this could be bad for for the shot that you won, probably you don't want exactly in that place and moves or your shoulder speed is not catching up and it's gonna be bluer. So I will really recommend I used to have a stand for for proposing your your toys. You want just to shoot. And no, you thought a shopper, you don't have it or you don't have any other program that could remove the wire. You can just make sure you have an angle. Where you gonna hide the wire? Something that I use. It's also play. I have a lot of clay that I just use that I can put to pose, um, a certain way. Of course, I know I had to get rid of it'll also, if you want to do this type of effects to remove wires, the best things to have a clean plate, which means yourself or of the background without your piece. And then you put your wire or your stand, and then you put your your character, you take the picture and then on the computer, it's so easy just to remove the stand, and it will make the illusion that it's flying or having the polls you want. And I want to talk about light. When we talk about footwear, feel, let people think, Oh, my God, Lights is so expensive I'm never gonna be able to afford And it could be true. It could be really, really spent. But one thing that I want to tell you that is also true, that you can use any light. You don't need to buy anything or you don't have to have something real expensive like they don't over here. Just a light from the dollar store At Halloween one. I got this one, the hardware store. He has a demon, which is great because you can control light in ah, even Jews a lighter, which I'm gonna show you a photo that I did And, uh, you can do amazing things just when you're playing with fire fireworks, which I also use fireworks. I'm gonna give another example. When you use anything related to fire. Just be really careful. Make sure they have plenty of space and a water with you in another one that it's really common. This one. I found that it is no really expensive. I'm gonna live in the class material, but I love it because they cube like in Ah, it's actually really powerful. He has three standings in There's a cheap you can find some that really, really expensive to design with, like $30 comparing to the other ones What I like. He has so many filters and you can see you can change the color off the light so you can do a lot of things with these on designs for more advanced. And, of course, if you can afford it, I highly recommend it. I'm gonna get actually like horrible something that you can do with light. Also remember that you can create just with a piece of paper carb or if it is black is better. But to make a cylinder in, just put it on top of your life and that will help you to guide Now we're using toys, so we want to work in these miniature world and directing the light with something that we call snowed on photography. He will give you the ability to have better effects. You can use so many things around your house and I'm gonna show you a photo that I did. I'm not really proud of it because I was just playing around. I didn't set up lights or did anything. Probably could have been better, but I just was playing, seeing what I could do, just something to photograph. And I grabbed these airplane and I put some cotton and I created this image. So I want to give you some idea that you can use so many things. You don't have to buy a lot of things. If you want to create a dessert, you can use like brown sugar in the Z. Much I use flour to create the desert. I don't like it. I did the same day that I did the plane. They instead of any lights, I'm gonna remake it. But important in that you can use flour to create this effect like a dos or smoke. I just used have something that blows air that is a cleaner for my lenses and my sensor. But you can just pretty much everything, even a piece of paper, and you can create different effects You can even try to do. Like if iwas snow in. That's how it creates. Don't some of these effects, so let's go to the next lesson. 5. Let's talk about light: Let's talk about like light is the most important thing in photography. And let's talk about first natural light. Natural light is use amazing in the most important thing is free. If at any time in this course, you are worried that you don't have certain equipment or you're not gonna be able to create certain images what I really, really suggests instead, your camera take your action figures toy and you go to a party and should shoot your truth house many photos that you can and you're gonna learn a lot. You're gonna love more these type of photography. And you're gonna see how easy it is that why I love natural light, because anyone can do it. You just need your camera in your action figure to tell your story and everything nature gear to you. So really, really take advantage of that. A good deed there can give you is that you want to avoid harsh light, meaning that if it is known and you are in the middle of the part without any trees, and you had that harsh light only is you want that effect, it's not gonna be a policing light. So the best thing is shooting really early when the sun rise or really late, when the sun goes down or if you are in the situation that you are in a really harsh light day, just find a three. Find somewhere where you can put your action figures and you don't have that harsh like and I'll talking artificial like When I love a brother to official like Is that you can control it. You can know exactly where it goes and create the effect you want. You have several one like a re mention these one from the dollar trained. They long for the hardware. The's killed them, really loving it. I have more professional ones. Led lights. That, of course, really great to set up lights. Even you can use flash. You have a flash. Some flatter. They have a light on the side that you can use to. So there's a lot of things that you can do with artificial. Like what I want to talk about IHS one. You can use any light, anything that produces light, which I mentioned also fire, which bigger, really careful, so anything that create lights will allow you to create a fact in this lesson, the only thing I want to talk about this how I behave in what you can do with simple things . I'm gonna give you some examples or here where you can see that is the light from the room . These one is gonna be Jews. The window light. You can see the difference. The effect that is giving us with the window light. We can see really interesting shape. Shallows. The only problem is that I cannot move the window or the song Teoh light up more the face over here on my Hellboy But you can tell right away why light is so important If I blow the light from the window And I use this life gonna put on top off my Hellboy And you can see right away how interesting the light is And if I move it, you can see how, how Just by moving in a little bit, you create another light on our shadows On my help, you figure in a like that I can create certain type of mood. So I'm gonna do like a camp fire. I'm gonna first I'm gonna show you with this light. There's like it really big toe had to put a far away. But it's the only thing that I'm using. And you can see that I will have probably You have to go to for a shop, change the white balance for a little bit more, uh, yellow affect fire on digitally. But you can see how the light is behaving in how other images coming up. Now I'm gonna use fire fire. I would use plain around with these line. Just turn it on and I just I was moving it. One thing What? I was talking about having different plates. When you're using light or anything else, the best thing is first clean plate and then you play with the fire. And like that, you're gonna be able to remove. That was idea was going to remove my hand in these from the picture. You can tell right away how great I love how the flame had that. Like going to the face into the body. And I'm gonna use these tiny light. One of the things that I did is that I tried to put some rocks, some things to cover. Of course. I was a little bit lazy they have enough to cover. I could have probably going grab more, but I didn't. But you can actually build completely something around it to a board have in the bottom in just use the lighting, like you can see is pretty decent. The same team, maybe a condemned for a shop, a lot of changes Put a Adan or fire. So now we're gonna see the last image. Something that I did in also, that you can do. Yeah, take four rules and then put them together over him. Going to take a photo of the marshmallows. I'm gonna take several one several poses, and then I'm just gonna add them. And I think it looks interesting. I'm gonna try to compose my image. I have a few things to do to make it look the way I wanted, But I hope this senate the out thing that you can do 6. Simple example (Firework): in. I know I use a lot of leisure tell effects. I want to show you some images that are straight out of the camera. I haven't indeed them at all. And if you're worried that you don't have for a shop or that you don't want to deep them, I want to show you how you can shoot your images in create amazing ones, which is practical effects. Remember that you can use water, the flower pretty much anything over here I'm gonna use just fireworks. And if you want to freeze a moment, remember to have your shorts, but really high. If you're a beginner and you don't want to worry about the light or it's hard for you, just sure outside, take advantage of natural light and you will have amazing photos. I'm gonna show you a simple set up. Introduce these two figures in my stand made of a hangar It really easy. Like, you see, I just played my Pikachu. I'm gonna play the bottom off my stand under the rock and sometimes take me seconds sometimes take me a little bit longer, but you remember to take advantage of anything that you have around you Sometime I go pick up branches, sometimes more rocks. So overkill like you see, took me seconds in. Ah, could just should this image in I'll be fine. You have to set up your camera on continues shooting. Depending of your camera, you're gonna have a certain amount of photo that you can take continuously. So just practice. No, your camera. And that will help you to make sure that you don't meet your shot there. So many fireworks out there. I use crackle in bulls because they're easy. They're small and remember, with fireworks, use water, being ready for anything in over GM Korean all. I'm trying to light it in to run on my camera. I have my 85 millimeters, so I'm a little bit kind of far away, and you can see I should right away before that lotion. And you can see these images that a camera took. You remember to know your camera to know how much you can shoot before the camera stops. And over here just going to show you where I put my fireworks that you can see is in the middle in ah, far from my Pikachu and I know. My other figure is up in the air, so it wasn't going to really get damaged. But it's something is really, really important that you know that if you put any type of fireworks really close to your actual fear or toy, it will get damage. He will get burned. So just be careful. You know, my images have put them too close sometimes, and I regret doing that. I learned by experience. But if you put it far away in an angle, you can create great images. So you something to think about it. So this is one of the image that I came straight out of the camera and I really like it. And there's a 2nd 1 You're gonna have multiple images to shoes from. Of course. Sometimes I love, like four or five. You don't have to stay with only one. These ones are my fever. In LA you can see it's just trail the camera. I can just crop them and use them, post them share with the world. And of course, I couldn't help myself and I d from digital effects, combined them a little bit over dated over here and just wanted to do it. But like I said, Eve, you only want a straight of the camera. Just use those images and enjoy your photography and Julie shooting, and you will come out with amazing images. 7. Simple example (setup): and in this section we're gonna shoot a simple photo. We're going to do a simple set up. I'm gonna use my channels, figure it is gonna be punched. Nobody an Avenger, but by bad man who doesn't want to see that when you're for rafting objects or toys that have different sites is that the schedules and match? The best thing is used angles off course over here. Could use a lot of wires or larger stands to make sure my bad man was flying across the scene in punching tennis. But the reality is that take too much time and I don't have the time. I also want to show you that how simple you can set up and create an image without the need off anything. There's gonna be another image is straight out of the camera, so you don't have to play around in photo shop or do anything extra, so there's gonna be really weird, but I'm gonna use standards. I'm going to use his leg in his arm, has a stand. I'm gonna pull my badman using him. I'm not going to care about the legs or how we're looks, because I'm just gonna focus in shoot the faces. I'm going to use my stand and I'm not gonna worry about making perfect the shape of the cape. I just want to show you how simple by adding this will give you movement and it will make your photo looks way better. Well, I have my scene, So basically the first thing is adding the key like the key light Just mean that is the main light is the brightest light on the scene is the one that's gonna lead. The main character could've usual the light from the room, But having a lamp, having a flashlight, having this light led panel having a light that you can move around will help you shape these light around your cultures. And you remember the light depending where you come from is a powerful tool and way to tell your story. I could deliver like that. It looks good, but I'm going to use a second light. I'm going to use a cube. I just get this cube for this class, and I'm just loving. It could abuse it on the side of Tanner's behind to create room lights, human users on my scene and create this kind of interview type of room, but I'm gonna use it just to leave the background. I have I just sat blackboard on the back and I'm gonna use my light without blue jail. And this will help me separate Mike Main Carter's from the background. So they will help me a lot to give that. And I really like how it's looking. Take a lot of chart to make sure that you have the light and everything. The right position in the angle that you want or here we're doing this stead Shots in are realizing that the handle is punching is actually open like kicking. Grab a gun. And I don't want that. So I have to flip everything around because on the other side, he actually has a fist, which is going to sell this image that I want to do something that I was amazing. Just pay attention and see the screen. It was really, really amazing how it was just sleeping up, setting up my seen again, and I didn't realize what the camera was looking at. Um, amaze how the camera was seen. This shot and it's perfect is exactly what I wanted this happened kind of by mistake in a flipping everything around, make the shot that I wanted, But I want to keep shooting. I want to just move around. You should be using a manual focus on your lands in When you move around, you can lose that range. So just make sure to so mean and make sure that dream is sharp. And like I say, even if you already have a good photo, it doesn't hurt if you go around. If you just try to have different angles over here, I'm gonna have my shoulder spit really, really fast so I can grab my camera and I can hand hell and go around have angles that it couldn't get from my tripod. So something to think about it. You remember If you change anything, you're gonna have to change other savings or add more light like you can see, this was really simple. You can use these had your project. I'm really interested to see what you can come up with. If you choose this option, you set up your seeing you some light. If you don't have any type of like yours used the light from the room or put it close to a window and you can create interesting thing. So I'm hoping to see your images and like always, just enjoy your photography. You have fun. 8. Final Thoughts: we have reached the end of the class. I hope everything was useful and really recommend to take notes. If you haven't done it, just go back and re watch videos. It really useful when you're planning, you should to have these notes. It will help you to practice his techniques. The really basic there, so many out there. But remember, you're not only learning to shoot always in telling a story, but you're learning about photography. So you can apply these techniques to any other type of photography food, photography and landscape, even portrait. So practice practice practice is gonna be a point that you won't have to think about it. You're just gonna go shoot in? Your brain is going to see the composition is going to see the angle that you want and you're gonna be able just to enjoy more this photography. And I know that I use a lot of digital effect on my photography. How did your image how to do some effect is my next class or look for that one? If you're interested, I will answer any questions, check the file I'm gonna catch with this class and a pressure you created more than one image. So please, depending where you use. If you only did natural light, please share with the group. Your for can be wonder Inspire other people to create these amazing type of photography So keep shooting and see you next time.