Toy Photography — Thinking In Layers
When I design a toy photograph, it’s almost always a story board first. I sometimes draw out an actual story board. Lately I’ve gotten good at simply creating it in my brain and then following that guideline as I set up the image.
I tend to think in layers during this process. Not necessarily Photoshop layers, although they come into play during post. Rather, I think about the basic layers of any scene — foreground, middle, background. Thinking three dimensionally in photography is hard. We see in a 3D world but we work in a 2D medium.
Thinking about separating those layers and putting something interesting in each helps make the picture more like the way we see in our mind’s eye.
Here I started with a set top diorama. The cracking earth is a piece I had commissioned for an image I wanted to make of the Hulk (see below). I can stretch it in post as I did in the Ford Raptor image here. It’s the first layer if you will even though it can be seen in the foreground, middle, background.
In the foreground, I design the first piece of atmosphere. I am finding atmosphere to be one of the key elements of a good toy photo — especially if I am trying to tell a story rather than just document the toy.
I used Boris FX Optics to generate some smoke and fog in the foreground and give the viewer an idea it’s pouring out through the vents you see in the cracked earth.
In the middle sits the HotWheels toy truck. It’s a Ford F150 Raptor and it’s a great representation of an off-road vehicle.
Atmosphere around the truck consists of four layers of SFX from Boris FX. There are two layers of floating red dust, one layer of smoke surrounding the truck and another layer of what I call “dirty atmosphere.” All that layered together creates an ambiance befitting a great battle between the truck driver (an apocalyptic survivor with pistol drawn) and some unseen force.
In the background we get just a hint of the battle from the fire and more smoke that seems to be pouring out of the truck.
The truck driver is a photo of a steampunk warrior that I composited in to the scene. I tried generating him with AI but Photoshop’s Firefly AI (as good as it is) just wasn’t up to the task so I used good old fashioned compositing.
He’s dark, faded and back in the scene because the bad-ass truck is the real star. I always try to tell the viewer (using these tactics described here) what the main point of attraction is. And here it is the toy truck.
When I got everything the way I saw it in my mind’s eye, I finished the whole thing off with a pass through Topaz Photo AI.
As I always say about these images — they may not be your cup of tea, but I think it is helpful to newbies to see the thought process that goes into the making of the photo. It helps newer photographers learn this process and graduate from reacting to something in order to make a photo to creating one from scratch in their minds.
To make this image, I used a C1 Plusfrom Profoto as the light source and a Fuji X100V as my camera.
Remember, toys are joy.
