Photographing Small Scale Objects
I have run the gammut between very large scale, 1:6 scale toys and now very small scale, 1:64 scale toys.
I don’t prefer one over the other. They are just different. But one thing I will note is that you can do a lot more in a very small scale when you’re working with Hot Wheels toys.
This is the Hot Wheels Rally Baja Crawler. It’s part of a series called Fast & Furious Spy Racers. I guess they are looking for any tie they can find to the movie franchise. Personally, I just like the truck and don’t care about the F&F tie.
I photographed the toy on a set I built using stones from a fish pond and some fake grass from an HO Train set.
If you look at the BTS shot below, you’ll see I included a small air blower from my camera bag to help establish how small this is.
The secret to making images work when everything this small is to get close, stop down, and shoot at subject level.
This allows an intimacy in your photos you won’t get if you do simple top-down views.
The background is very important in all types of photography but especially when you’re working so small. I typically shoot against a blue screen or sometimes just an all-black background so I can composite in different background elements.
Here I did just that and used Photoshop’s Sky Replacement filter to make it look like I photographed the truck against a night sky. I also used Boris FX Optics 2022.5 to create some additional SFX and to do a color grade.
You will need to practice before you get the elements at the right place in the frame. You need to learn how to THINK in smaller scale. It’s a challenge and it’s also lots of fun.
Remember, toys are joy.
