Where to Buy Miniature Figures for Photography
If you're stuck at home or looking for a fun and creative photography project, this ultimate guide to miniature photography is for you.
Miniature photography is all about using little figurines set in a scene with real-earth objects. The trick is to build an illusion of scale where the figures and the environment look life-size.
Imagine a miniature person sailing across the bathtub on a raft made from a Kit-Kat. Or perhaps a mini auto one-half-submerged in the mud with a person and a cow continuing on the roof. It's the kind of miniature photography our guide tin help you create.
Fortunately, you don't need anything special to get started.
Just a quick trip to the local toy, hobby or arts and crafts store to selection up some miniatures. If yous want to get the actress mile edifice your macro world, pick up some matching miniature furniture, vehicles and scenery.
Our guide helps those new to photography to pick up a camera and go creative straight away. Seasoned photographers can also have inspiration from our tips, tricks and ideas.
And then what are you waiting for? Get your camera out and become dandy taking pictures of your macro models!
What exercise You Need for Miniature Photography?
There are a few critical things that y'all'll need to get started in miniature photography.
Fortunately, as long equally y'all have access to a camera and lens, the remainder volition be lying around your house. We'll cover all of these in more than item in our ix tips for Photographing Miniatures. For now, hither's a summary:
- Figurines – Information technology wouldn't be miniature photography if your star models were not tiny! Miniatures can be purchased from hobby and toy stores.
- Camera – For miniature photography, an interchangeable lens DSLR or mirrorless photographic camera works all-time. A DSLR features manual settings to reach the best outcome for your photos. If you lot don't have admission to a DSLR or mirrorless cameras with manual controls, use your telephone. My tip is to hold the phone upside down to get a closer shot. The benefit of using your phone is that y'all can edit and post them directly to social media.
- Lens – A broad-angle macro lens is the best for this style of photography – or whatsoever macro lens y'all have access to. If yous don't have a macro lens, use a wide-angle lens with a brusque minimal focus distance for wider scenes. If yous want a more compressed shot, use a longer lens with either a 50mm or 85mm range.
- Tripod – A tripod helps stabilise the camera when using irksome shutter speeds, thus avoiding camera shake. Either a full peak or tabletop tripod will work for miniature photography.
- Props – Props can be annihilation from the shrubs in your garden to the fruit and vegetables in your refrigerator.
- Scenery – To build the atmosphere and theme in a miniature photo, yous'll need some form of background elements. These can be indoor spaces, outdoor settings or even painted scenes.
- Glue Stick – Equally odd as information technology sounds, depending on the type of miniatures you're using, you'll need a glue stick. A glue stick helps to temporarily stick the figures in identify. This type of glue is like shooting fish in a barrel to remove and non-permanent.
Now let's expect at some specific tips for taking photos of miniatures at home.
9 Tips for Photographing Miniatures
1. Storyboard Your Miniature Themes
If you're going to the trouble of setting up your camera, lens, tripod and lighting, you lot'll want to make the virtually of it.
Rather than coming upward with a unmarried miniature scene idea, have the time to come up up with a number of options to make the virtually of having all your gear ready to have pictures.
Sit down downwardly with a pen and paper and jot downward some of the themes you want to explore and images you want to photograph. Then, storyboard them with rough sketches of each scene and pencil in shadows, models and management of the lights.
Finally, brand a list of all the props, scenery and locations.
Once yous've developed a simple storyboard for each scene, collect the required materials so they're on-hand for the shoot.
With everything you need, you can build each scene and accept the necessary photos one at a time.
2. Dial-In the Best Camera Settings
When taking macro shots of miniatures, y'all demand to command specific camera settings to correct the exposure or amount of lite.
You lot as well need to ensure that the parts of your composition that need to be in focus are in precipitous focus. Allow's take a look at the best exposure settings for miniature photography.
- Aperture
Aperture is the diameter of the pigsty that opens within the lens to allow light into the camera.
A broad aperture (such as f/1.8) creates a wide hole that lets in a lot of light and makes a shallow depth of field. It's where the subject is in sharp focus, and the groundwork will be blurry.
A narrow discontinuity (such as f/16) makes the pigsty narrow to restrict the calorie-free and let a broad depth of field. The entire photo will be in sharp focus, provided yous're not too close to your subject.
Shooting with a macro lens follows these same rules only it allows you to get super close to your bailiwick to make them appear lifesize in the photograph.
Taking pictures of miniatures with a macro lens and a wide aperture makes too thin a depth of field. Part of your subject area may exist in focus, but everything else will be blurry.
The all-time manual aperture setting for miniature photography is effectually f/5.6.
That way, y'all'll take the essential parts of the setup in focus, and the remainder is falling into a soft blur. The exposure will besides be correct thanks to the use of a mid-range aperture.
See more about aperture hither.
- Shutter Speed
To get the best looking miniature photos, you'll demand an adequate amount of lighting to expose the images correctly.
If you don't have access to a speedlight, wink or LED camera light, rely on the camera to command exposure.
Shutter speed is a setting that controls how quickly the camera sensor receives the low-cal coming in through the lens. A fast shutter speed lets less low-cal in but is excellent for photographing fast-moving subjects to freeze the scene.
A slow shutter speed lets more light in and is platonic for taking photos of a miniature subject.
See more most shutter speed here.
- ISO
The ISO setting on a camera controls how the sensor handles the sensitivity of the incoming light that hits the photographic camera sensor.
Use ISO to compensate for low lighting conditions – but too much ISO bounty can impact picture quality, so utilise it sparingly when photographing your miniatures, since y'all don't want the little fellas looking likewise grainy!
Meet more about ISO hither.
3. Employ Lighting For Correct Exposure
To make your miniature photos pop, employ a combination of natural calorie-free and lite created by a constant LED or a flash.
LED lights are popular and very affordable and can characteristic color gels or filters to modify the colour and temperature of the lite.
Wink units or speedlights take a bit more work as you lot accept to change or filter the light, then information technology'southward not so harsh in the photos.
Wink units can be fastened to the hotshoe on height of the photographic camera, or they can be placed off the photographic camera and controlled with a remote flash trigger.
Regardless of your choice, make sure that the additional light is not likewise harsh. You'll know if it is equally at that place'll be outline shadows around your miniatures, and some areas volition appear too white or overexposed.
1 way to modify the low-cal then it's not also harsh is to employ a softbox. Information technology'southward a fabric box that the wink sits inside, and an opaque material softens the lite.
(You tin learn more out some of the best softbox lighting kits here.)
Another solution is to use a lite tent (aka light box)- a popular tool for a macro photographer. These are made of opaque white fabric or plastic and shaped like a box with the front open.
The miniatures, props and scenery sit within, and the flash or LED is exterior. The material softens and spreads the light evenly, and so in that location are no harsh shadows or overexposed areas.
If you lot don't accept admission to a speedlight, flash or LED calorie-free, consider making a light box yourself, or setting up your scenes outdoors or next to natural window lite.
4. Stabilise the Photographic camera
Given that you may need to go with slower shutter speeds, you'll demand to keep your camera still to prevent shake and blurry images.
In that location are two ways to stabilise your equipment with the first being to utilise a tripod. Tripods are a standard photography tool that'south useful for landscape, portrait and macro photography.
The photographic camera attaches to the tripod via a ball-head that can tile, pan and rotate xc-degrees. Tripods are meridian adaptable, with some allowing y'all to gear up the kit as low as 4-5″ or as loftier as 4-v′.
When shooting, the other way to stabilise your equipment is with Images Stabilisation. Many cameras now feature In Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS) that uses either an electronic or mechanical function to compensate for any shake at slow shutter speeds.
Some lenses also feature Prototype Stabilisation (IS) that achieves the same outcomes.
The disquisitional takeaway from the use of tripods and stabilisation is that you can never employ the two simultaneously.
If using a tripod, don't employ the IBIS or lens IS – this tin can confuse the photographic camera and cause more shake. If taking handheld shots, use the IBIS and the lens IS to stabilise the shots.
Check out some affordable travel tripods here.
5. Set The Scene
Setting the scene for mini shots is a lot of fun and allows you to be creative, experimental and innovative. Information technology's similar to setting up for toy photography.
Yet, in my guide to toy photography, I used complete lego sets, Lego vehicles and Lego buildings to set the scene.
With mini photography, the scenes are usually places around the home – both inside and out. Or, you may head out to a destination such equally a beach, forest or local park.
If setting upward a photography shoot at home, consider rooms like the bath – sinks and tubs brand for bang-up swimming pools and lakes in a scaled-down globe.
Setting the scene should ever come before yous place your miniatures or props – chances are you'll knock your figures over accidentally more than one time.
It's virtually creating a unique world that appears to be at the correct calibration for the figures.
Information technology helps if you also consider the position and angle of the equipment when setting the scene. By strategically placing it and setting the angle, yous avoid unwanted background and foreground elements from appearing in the final photo.
Plus, getting down at a low angle to the miniatures helps to make the illusion of it beingness at a bigger calibration than it is.
six. Be Creative With Props
For the best miniature photography results, you want to create fun and heady scenes.
The easiest way to do this is to use everyday items as props. These props will cause wonder and please for the viewer when they see items plant around the dwelling paired with mini-figures.
There's a load of great examples of using everyday items equally props for your miniature photo.
The trick is to momentarily deceive the viewer with the scale. For case, a figure edifice a wall with sugar cubes momentarily looks life-like and in scale.
Or a figure paddling a leafage down a gutter (after the rain) looks like someone exploring an urban canal.
Experiment with lots of unlike props, including food. A mini-figure holding an axe against the peel of an apple looks practiced.
However, to take it up a notch carefully cut a triangular piece from the apple tree and place information technology; it looks similar the graphic symbol has chopped a part of the apple tree.
Search your junk draw in the kitchen or the box of odds and ends you have in the garage, and don't forget to raid the fridge or ice-box for some fun and unique props.
7. Go Crafting
If yous're feeling crafty, turn this into an art project to build and paint your own props or backdrops. In that location'south no rule that a photographer tin't as well be an artist!
Every bit part of the storyboard process, decide if you'll use the existing properties in your photograph or if you lot want to go for a painted backdrop. If there's a specific look y'all're going for, using pigment or collage is a simple fashion to attain it.
You could even print out interesting scenes from a computer. With a printed or painted backdrop, utilize a wide aperture to brand the figures in focus and the background soft and blurry.
You'll withal get a feel for the detail in the background without taking the viewer'due south attention from the star of the show.
When using a painted scene, make sure you employ colours that create contrast with the main bailiwick in the shoot.
Here are some other great DIY properties ideas.
8. Where To Buy Miniatures
Probably the nigh challenging role of miniature photography is getting your giant hands on some modest figurines.
And even that'due south non so difficult if you know where to wait – it all depends on the fashion of miniatures y'all want to employ.
Ideally, it helps if yous have small enough figures to pair well with everyday objects to build a scene.
I opted for Lego minifigs for this article as I have an excessive amount of Lego (come across my article on toy photography). But at that place are other options.
If you lot want to find a range of tiny people, piece of furniture, vehicles and scenery, a hobby store is the all-time option.
Model train enthusiasts have been using mini-figures, buildings and micro traffic lights for decades. A big function of building a model train rail is to also build realistic scenery.
Equally a result, hobby stores that stock miniature railway products volition have a vast range of the kinds of miniatures you lot'll demand. You can caput in-store or check out their websites.
Miniatures are also available from some craft stores and eBay.
While checking out the miniatures used for miniature railways, look at the fantasy figurines used in tabletop games similar Warhammer.
If you tin't locate affordable miniatures, trying using Lego – it'southward cheaper and easier to find. While the calibration is not the aforementioned as using truly miniature figures, it'southward an fantabulous place to start.
Lego is readily bachelor from toy stores and supermarkets.
Some miniatures come with a base, so they stand un-aided. Others, similar Lego, don't – only you can attach a minor Lego plate and so frame information technology out of the picture or hide it under sand or gravel.
ix. Edit Out The Dust
I've photographed a lot of cameras and lenses for my reviews on Shotkit. I've also photographed a lot of Lego for toy photography.
A tough lesson I learned shooting these genres is that dust is everywhere, despite my best efforts in keeping my camera and lenses clean!
I do my best to gently brush information technology from the surfaces of my subjects before I accept the shot. Merely, it's unavoidable that in that location'll be loads of dust when I check the photos on my computer.
Fifty-fifty the cleanest surface volition attract grit just from y'all moving between your miniatures and camera.
Fortunately, you can take intendance of spots later when using editing software such equally Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop.
In the Develop tab of Lightroom, just under the histogram, is the Spot Removal tool. It allows you to identify a small circumvolve over the spot and so select a spot-free circle from the epitome to replace information technology with.
I recommend changing the radius of the original circle to precisely cover the spot. As well, it's worth zooming in on the image for authentic dust spot discovery and removal.
20 Miniature Photography Ideas
One of the all-time things nearly miniature photography is that at that place'south no limit to creative possibilities.
Y'all tin can pack upwards your mini models and head out into nature or to the local beach for the perfect photo. If you're housebound, have a look around yous for dozens, if not hundreds, of possibilities.
Utilise generic miniature figures bachelor from hobby stores and online marketplaces. Or, you can purchase themed ones such equally cleaners, constructions workers and skiers.
Position the themed miniatures on the stage, such equally the mountain climbers scaling a stone.
Here'southward a bunch of others to build on:
- Figures climbing a mountain of ice cream in unmarried-file with a flag at the height.
- Stand up a figure inside the freezer with a shallow depth of field.
- Place a figure on a curled leaf floating on a puddle in the garden.
- Drop a surfing effigy in your morning basin of cereal.
- Position a sitting figure on the edge of a plank of forest – it'll look similar a boardwalk.
- Team up construction workers standing on a computer keyboard.
- Identify figures sweeping upwardly spilt salt from an overturned salt shaker.
- Conform workers to build a wall with sugar cubes.
- Set upward structure workers exploring your camera and lenses.
- Accommodate clumps of broccoli equally trees for a effigy to walk under.
- Position a pile of potatoes similar giant boulders for your figures to explore.
- Create a horror story by one-half submerging a figure in a squished tomato.
- Organise cleaning figures placed in a puddle of milk.
- Arrange a pair of figures working on a small-scale weed in the garden.
- Identify a figure sitting on the border of a beer bottle submerged in sand.
- Use a piece of white bread to represent a small isle to identify your figures on.
- Put a golfer hit a sprinkle from the height of a doughnut.
- Lay a coffee mug on its side and set a cafe scene complete with miniature figures and cafe piece of furniture.
- Identify snowboarding miniatures using the inside of one-half a coconut to shred.
- Consider taking a photo of a mini car parked on the beach with the dominicus setting in the background.
Last Words
The matter I honey most about miniature model photography is that it allows you lot to employ creative methods and take astonishing pictures of everyday objects.
You lot create an illusionary world where the calibration is all out of whack!
Macro worlds are a lot of fun to build and fill with intricate details to develop a story for your picture. I guarantee that if you post a macro world flick to social media y'all'll get a lot of love.
What'south more than, you already accept everything you lot need sitting around the house – specially if you accept kids that similar picayune figurines. At virtually, you'll make a quick trip to the store to grab a few packets of Lego minifigs.
My tip is that if you're stuck at home or looking for a fun project to undertake with the kids, miniature photography is the style to go.
Accept you ever tried shooting with mini models? Do you lot have any thoughts on ways to set fun mini-scenes for a tiny model to occupy? Do yous have a favourite photograph of a macro world where tiny models live?
Share your methods, comments and questions below and become office of the conversation. Happy shooting!
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