Photographing Grogu — Behind The Scenes
I thought I’d share a background story about a very simple photo.
I love Grogu. Who doesn’t? Here I’m trying to tell part of a bigger story. This will be the opening scene. Grogu is trying to get the “magic box” to talk to him. Later he’ll be interrupted but more on that in a few days. For now, I am using part of a diorama from ExremeSets.com.
I’m relying on a 9-inch Raya Bi-Color Round LED Panel — behind the scene and feathered past the character. There is a LumeCube Panel Pro — set to red color out of camera range left of the scene and the Platypod is going to hold my iPhone 13 Pro.
I set Grogu in front of the make believe TV. I used FILMIC Pro’s Firstlight camera app and shot in RAW. I used the iPhone’s telephoto lens. Camera settings were as follows:
ISO 64 — aperture f/2.8 — shutter speed 1/120th — all controlled manually via the app.
I brought the RAW file into Adobe Camera Raw and gave it a few adjustments. Then I brought it into Photoshop. I used BorisFX Optics 2022 to finish the image. I added some static to the TV screen and some smoke coming out of the make believe heat pump on the right side of the wall.
I then used Topaz Labs Denoise AI to clean up the final image.
From a composition standpoint, you will notice the use of negative space on the right side of the picture. It is deliberate and will make sense when you see the other images in the series.
It’s a really simple photo but it was fun to think about how I wanted to do it. One of the perks of action figure photography is you get to control everything. It’s up to the photographer to build the set, light it and create the final product.
I’ll be spending a lot more time with Grogu in the future. I have all sorts of ideas for him and Mando.
P,S, For those of you who are not familiar with the Star Wars/Mandalorian story — Grogu, known to many simply as “The Child,” was a male Force-sensitive Jedi Initiate and Mandalorian foundling who belonged to the same species as Jedi Grand Master Yoda and Jedi Master Yaddle.G rogu was born in the year 41 BBY, and was raised at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
Remember, toys are joy.
