SINGAPORE – It’s a full house! On 3rd August, 13 participants* joined a mini-toy photography workshop run by myself as part of the ongoing Pro Photography series with library@orchard.
* 2 had to cancel at the last minute due to personal reasons.
Why toy photography?
Toys have always been a part of our lives and appear in various forms, as references and props in movies such as Spider-Man: Far From Home or subjects of films such as Toy Story.
Far from being just miniature representations of some beloved characters or vehicles, some toys have evolved to become collectibles as we ourselves age.
Some, with expert craftsmanship, have attained almost human-like realism in nature.
They have become miniature caricatures of the living and of truths – and carry with them our aspirations, our hopes and dreams that we still hold onto from our childhood.
Mix all that with our love for photography and we create a reality surrounding our own toys.
Now, with photography, we get to tell our own stories with our toys in still images fueled by our imagination and creativity.
The Toy Photographers
It was an interesting mix of participants too.
We had people from all walks of life joining us sharing the same passion for toys and photography.
Some of the participants brought LEGO characters, Gundams, Transformers and Japanese anime dolls.
Someone even brought a whole set of Singa lions from a previous National Day goodie pack!
Needless to say, even their toys are of a very diverse background!
They enjoyed an afternoon of learning photography fundamentals and lighting basics.
They also had a hand in shooting their toys using studio lighting equipment that The Art of Mezame Academy has sponsored.
The Workshop Flow
The day began with a lecture. I covered lighting basics and gave tips on getting the most out of toys for photography as well as recommended gear.
Photo by Jean
More on the creative side, I spoke about finding styles and techniques.
We progressed further into a live demo session where participants saw how I set the stage for a shoot and set lights up.
Bottom Row: Key light, combined light, pre-release image with post-processing
During the live demo, I further shared with them the importance of getting everything right in camera.
Photo by Tennant Lim
On top of that, I also showed the importance of choosing the right light modifier and using grids for the job.
Live Demo Result: Halo’s Master Chief
Here is the result of my live demo session, all touched up and cleaned up.
This was shot with my Sony A7RII + 2x Broncolor Siros L 400 + Move 1200L with 2x MobiLEDs (3x 35×60 softboxes + 1x 60×60 softbox with grids).
I did the retouching with Capture One Pro 12, Adobe Photoshop CC 2019, and the Retouching Toolkit.
3 stations have been set up for the practical session:
- Broncolor Move 1200L + Siros L station where they shot their toys with strobes
- Aputure LED panels and fairy lights where they practised with shooting their toys with continuous lights
- Yongnuo speedlights + Yongnuo YN360 II + Broncolor Siros L station on level 2 where they played and mixed lights around to get the look that they want
Photo by Jean Tan
#MEZWORKSHOPTOYPHOTO
Onto some of the works by some of the participants!
Photos by Achim
Photos by Angstyrandi
Photo by Avarielle
Photo by Haziq Nafie
Photos by Shana Walker
Photos by Fred
Photo by Fred
Photo by Fred
Photos by Gelly
Photo by Gelly
Photo by Gelly
Photo by Gelly
Epilogue
Overall, it was a fun mini-workshop for the participants.
To some, like Nicholas Ee, it was like a refresher course on lighting setups that gave new ideas.
To others, it was an eye-opener how toy photography can go to the next level with lighting.
Blogger Gelly sums it up beautifully in her post on Instagram.
I would like to thank Tennant Lim, Jean Tan and Wen Qi for assisting me for the day.
I would also like to thank Haziq for loaning his Yongnuo speedlights for the workshop as well.
Interested to join us for the next round of photography workshops? Stay tuned to The Art of Mezame Academy or join us on Facebook here.
