Legography. Epic photos with LEGO figures

You don't have to travel to get to epic locations. You can do without costumes, models and studio lighting to create stunning shots in the style of superheroes or your favorite films. All this can be obtained at home or in your yard.

Photographer Benedek Lampert from Budapest, Hungary was able to create some truly cinematic scenes using the children's designer LEGO. Fog, rain and smoke are not effects made in Photoshop. All scenes were filmed indoors or outdoors with suitable terrain. When shooting, water was splashed and other elements were scattered. Photoshop was used in only a few shots, as it was impossible to achieve the desired effect live.

Things like flying mud or spray, filling with smoke are very difficult to predict, so each scene took many hours to shoot. Filming the entire series took over a month.

NIKON D600 SETTINGS: ISO 100, F8, 1/160s, 50.0mm equiv., 10.0MB

Photographic skill grows over the years and is based on constant practice and experience. But sometimes circumstances develop in such a way that there is simply no time for full-fledged shooting with models. However, the more you shoot, the more your photography skills develop. It is worth reducing the practice, and this will immediately affect the quality of your pictures.

So how do you train in photography if there is no opportunity and time to organize shooting? In such cases, one can use interesting way- a photo simulator, which, with the expenditure of a small amount of time, allows you to always be in photographic tone. This simulator is shooting a scene in miniature.

Small figurines, characters or toys are suitable as materials for training. In our article, we will practice shooting miniature scenes from the Lego constructor.

At first it will seem that shooting miniatures is a fun hobby. But soon you will realize that the simulator completely allows you to simulate a real film set. You will be able to practice lighting, framing and composition, come up with interesting stories, develop creativity and simply create good shots.

Lego photography is macro

It is quite convenient for a photographer to train on miniature objects. However, in order to really good quality photos, it is better to work with macro photography. I recommend resorting to macro lenses or using macro rings. But first things first.

As a rule, macro lenses are quite expensive. If you haven’t shot macro before and are not ready to rush headlong into this direction, then a lens with a macro function, for example, Nikon AF Zoom-Nikkor 24-85mm f / 2.8-4D IF, is suitable for training shooting with Lego figures. But such lenses, as a rule, provide a not very large scale of shooting. So, the one mentioned above has a shooting scale of 1:2. Full-fledged macro lenses allow you to shoot at a scale of 1: 1. For example, if you shoot a 50-kopeck coin, then it will fill almost the entire frame with itself. Pictures larger than 1:1 are already considered microphotographs, and anything less than 1:10 is considered just a close-up.

You can work with a zoom lens that has a variable focal length. I shoot on Nikon equipment, where macro mode is only available on lenses with a fixed focal length. But this is a plus for shooting - prime lenses benefit from the ability to beautifully blur the background.

For example, one of the most inexpensive full-fledged prime macro lenses is the Nikon AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 40mm f/2.8G ED. The photos for this article use a Nikon AF Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D.

In addition, you can simply purchase macro rings - hollow tubes that increase the distance between the mirror and the lens. This will allow you to get closer to your subject as many lenses have minimum distance focusing at 50 cm, which is too big for small details. Notice if you manually change the aperture of your lens. If not, then you need macro rings with electronic filling to transfer values to the lens chip. Otherwise, the diaphragm will be in the most closed position.

And finally, one more piece of advice. You can experiment with macro right now, without going to the store. To do this, simply flip your lens to the other side. Be careful and immediately close the hole with the camera mirror so as not to collect dust. And it is in the inverted position of the lens that you approach the subject until you see how its outlines emerge. The only thing left to do is take a picture.

All photos for this article were taken on a Nikon D600 camera and a Nikon AF Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D lens. But you can shoot with amateur crop cameras Nikon D7100, D7200, D5500. There are not many macro lenses, but there is still a choice. The Nikon AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 40mm f / 2.8G ED macro lens is suitable for the camera crop. It is quite capable of producing excellent image quality.

Plots/Composition

Shooting miniatures allows you to develop your vision as a photographer. After all, all plots and composition can be transferred to our “big” world and not lose their photographic form. As a rule, at first we only have enough for photographs with figurines in the grass or on a tree. But gradually the imagination begins to require more complex shooting.

Shooting should start from the central composition, where the main subject is in the very center of the frame. If not for the setting sun and nice bokeh in the photo above, it would look rather dull.

Therefore, with each frame, complicate the composition. Pay attention to the rule of thirds when the photo is divided into 9 equal rectangles (3 vertically and 3 horizontally).

There is a very convenient function of turning on this grid directly in the viewfinder itself. To do this, you need to go to the user settings menu, select the "Shooting / display" section, and in it - "Viewfinder grid display" (the menu may differ slightly; in this case, this is the Nikon D600 camera menu).

With this grid in front of you, you can think about framing and the rule of thirds. The point is to place important element frame along one of the lines or where the lines intersect. At first, you always want to put the main subject in the center of the frame. Placing it off center, following the rule of thirds, will create a more compelling composition, so try to stay away from patterns.

Subject is always very important in photography. Don't be the shutter button operator, come up with a story for your shots. It is important that the photograph makes the viewer think, fantasize. That's when your picture will be different from the household. This training develops creative thinking, after it you will begin to improvise and think in plots with real models in full-fledged shootings.

Another important technique is defocus, that is, the use of depth of field, when the main semantic object of the photo story is in sharpness, and the rest are blurred. This is a great way to add a sense of depth to a frame. Therefore, you can use objects that are in the foreground to blur.

An additional compositional technique that should not be forgotten is rhythm. This concept is called a sequence (more than two) of objects that are identical in shape. Rhythm actually surrounds us everywhere: houses, lamps along the road, trees in the park, ears of grass. By including it in the frame, you organize the space of the picture, make it easier to perceive, and also add dynamics. Also use lines, they force the viewer to follow them. In the photo below, a lot of lines create green twigs; following their trajectory, we all the time come to the main object.

Setting up the light

Working out lighting schemes on miniatures is simple and affordable, because you can use ordinary lamps at home for lighting. To illuminate Lego figures, for example, there are enough flashlights. You can easily work out the lighting scheme on the figure and then transfer it to real life.

Here is an example above: the photo "Writer in his office." For shooting, two light sources were used: one comes from the window, and the second source fills the foreground.

Is it possible to transfer this scheme to real life? Yes, we can use the light from the window and illuminate the model with a second light in front or even with a constant light from above.

Such work will give you the opportunity to theoretically work out lighting schemes; experiment and get great results.

experiment with location, shoot outdoors and at home;
invent plots, play scenes from everyday life;
remember the composition, try to constantly change something in the frame, do not take the same type and similar shots;
try different schemes Sveta;
be inspired by other people's work, there are a lot of them on instagram using the #lego hashtag.

Conclusion

You can create all the necessary locations for shooting with miniature objects without leaving your home: our desk it will easily become a superhero showdown zone, and the kitchen will become a landing site for foreign ships.

It all depends on you and your imagination. Practice compositional techniques on the figures, and over time you will easily transfer them to our Big world. And perhaps you will be carried away into your microcosm and subject photography.

In childhood, many dreamed of acquiring a Lego constructor, then it was chic.
Now, only the lazy one does not sculpt from this constructor, and so professionally, as if he had been doing just that all his life.
I propose to look at objects made from the Lego constructor.

1. Model of the aircraft carrier "Harry Truman" from Lego. Its length is about 5 meters, height - 1.2 meters.

2. This model was created from more than 200,000 blocks, and the ship weighs more than 160 kg. It took more than a year to create this model.

3. On the flight deck, in the hangar, as well as inside there is electric lighting, and also - movable elevators, radars and a motorized catapult!

4. Lego Frigate Nebulon B2 from Star Wars.

5. Fully functioning 32 propeller eight-cylinder engine. Three hours to build and over 2800 Lego blocks. Has illuminated accents.

6. Chief Master of this creation - Pascal Lenhardt is working on his masterpiece - the Berlin Palace. The scale of the model is 1:45, it is created from 400,000 Lego blocks. And although the reconstruction of the original building is still delayed, its model was assembled on January 6, 2012.

7. Unofficial set from the game "Portal 2" from Lego.

8. The ship "Millennium Falcon" from "Star Wars" from Lego.

10. But BDSM Lego for adults.

11. Roman Colosseum from 200,000 pieces. One part of the model shows the Colosseum 2000 years ago, the other shows its current state.

14. Lego necklace.

16. Workers of Johor Bahru rest next to a human-sized Lego figure. Asia's first theme park dedicated to the popular building block was built entirely from 1:20 scale Lego blocks. It features 17 countries and cities from across the region, including Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Brunei, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, China, India, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The park will open in September 2012.

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Legography. Epic photos with LEGO figures

Lego photography is macro

Plots/Composition

Setting up the light

Conclusion

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