Life in Macro: A Toy Photography Workshop (Basic Edition) at library@orchard

Posted on by Mezame

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.

Toy photography time!

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.

The lecture is detailed and even has diagrams to show lighting fundamentals.
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.

Top Row: Top light, back light, fill light
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.

I give a complete explanation of the lighting breakdown for the shot of Halo’s Master Chief to participants during the live demo session.
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.

ISO: 50 | Shutter: 1/125s | Aperture: f/11

3 stations have been set up for the practical session:

  1. Broncolor Move 1200L + Siros L station where they shot their toys with strobes
  2. Aputure LED panels and fairy lights where they practised with shooting their toys with continuous lights
  3. 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
Toy photography is for everyone who has an affinity for both toys and photography. Here is Juliana taking a photo of a Gundam.
Achim takes the stage to shoot a mini LEGO Darth Vader.
Gaven makes some final adjustments before taking his shot of the Gundam figurine.
Blogger Gelly takes her Leica out for a spin to take a photo of her BB-8 freshly caught by the First Order.
Fred usually shoots food but I guess he couldn’t resist a little bit of the Force when it’s been awakened.
I think Kylo Ren is a little too short to duke it out with Master Chief.
Optimus Prime and a Gundam robot in the same frame? Only possible at this workshop. Or if you have both figurines at home 🙂
That’s not a lightsaber but a very useful glowstick to give interesting effects if you drag your shutter a bit.
Haziq cheekily takes a photo of Optimus next to a book called “Transform”.
Sometimes I go hands on with the participants shots by assisting them with their lights. Here, we have Wen Qi assisting as well.
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

Standing tall… on a shelf in a miniature world!
Photo by Fred
Check out the bokeh on the Sony 135mm f1.8 GM lens!
Photo by Fred

Photos by Gelly

Oh look, it’s BB-8! Probably hiding from the First Order.
Photo by Gelly
Oops. Looks like he got caught.
Photo by Gelly
Looks like BB-8 managed to get away and lived to tell a tale another day!
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.

View this post on Instagram

Hello Everyone! It’s Talking Tuesday! Well, remember I mentioned about going to a Toy Photography workshop during the weekend so here I am with some of the shots I took! I brought my trusty little BB-8 which was perfect because @theartofmezame had other star wars props that came in really handy for my second shot! 🙌🏻 There were several stations with different types of lights like strobe, constant & we even went to the 2nd floor to take to take a shot that incorporates the library with the toy you brought along which is pretty cool! I practically holding BB-8 like a baby chick because I was worried I’ll lose an antenna. 😂 I had loads of fun learning about the different types of light, how the different ways of lighting your subject could tell a different story, etc & also, to clean your figurines before taking a shot or else be prepared to suffer in photoshop. 😂 What do you think about my shots? Do share your thoughts with me! . #mezworkshoptoyphoto #theartofmezame #libraryatorchard #nlb #leicasg #broncolor #orchardpl . . . . . . #igsg #sgig #instasg #igerssingapore #instagramsg #ootd #ootdsg #sgootd #sglookbook #sggirls #sggirl #sgblogger #sgbloggers #vscocam #vscosg #styleblogger #stylepost #exploresingapore #instafoodsg #sgeats #kilogrammerz #sgphotographer #sgphotography

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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.