The student news site of Mother of Divine Grace in Ojai, California
Miniature+Photography

Johnny Howe

Miniature Photography

Not everyone can have a massive set and special effects.  Most of us can’t afford giant cameras or crazy costumes and props.  Fortunately, there is a way to cheat.

With miniatures, you can sometimes arrive at a similar result to the real thing.

Using tricky camera angles and editing techniques, the tiny models come to life.This method is so effective and cheap that is has been used by professional film crews for decades.

It’s much more efficient and safe to blow up a model than a real building.

I’ve always been fascinated by models.  I used to spend hours with my blocks and linking logs building the Alamo, or Helms Deep, or whatever.

My sister got pretty tired of lending me her camera and getting it back with hundreds of pictures of tiny plastic soldiers on it. Pretty soon, I started bringing my models outside.  These were “rush jobs” because they had to come inside at night.

I figured out how to use the features of the yard to make things look more to scale.

One of my greatest achievements was the chimney project.

Those of you who have wood-burning fireplaces are familiar with that little door in the chimney that leads into the little tunnel for the ashes.

In the summer when it was mostly empty I constructed a scaffolding tower  out of the linking logs.

Then I positioned my lego men in the structure and pretty soon there was a thriving mining colony in our chimney!

Once the model is in place, you can finally get the camera out. I sometimes borrow someone’s phone, but I normally use a regular digital camera.

I did a lot of close ups for the lego mine to pick up all the little details.  (See the slideshow at the top of this story.)

When I put them on the computer, I ended up turning them all black and white to accentuate all the dirt and grit which makes it look more real…except for the lego men obviously.

I have found that I prefer to shoot miniatures in the dark.

That way the surrounding area is hard to make out and it’s easier to disguise how gigantic it is.

I can also control the lighting.  I can change which way it’s coming from or add different colored lights.  I can therefore control where the shadows fall on the scene.

Johnny Howe

This is very helpful because I can cover up plastic seams and brand logos.  I can further control color and lighting when the pictures are transferred to the computer.

Johnny Howe

The biggest problem I have is inclusions.  That is something that gives away the scale.

Johnny Howe

I will often be editing the pictures on the computer and notice that serial number on the guy’s arm, or the colossal dead insect in the corner.  A lot of times it’s our photobombing yellow mailbox.

Eventually I hope to get a slightly better camera and some more convincing figures, but in the meantime I’ll just have to improvise.

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