Miniatures Research

I am very interested in visual effects for film, and the history of them. When re-watching 'Star Wars' recently, I was admiring the use of miniatures for the starships, et cetera, in the original trilogy. This made me realise that I can use miniatures in still photography to create fantastical characters I would not otherwise be able to make.

Above is an image I found on Google Images whilst searching for still photography of miniatures. I found this one to be quite interesting as it uses the small size of the figures to make the strawberries look very large, whilst making the whole image look natural and "realistic".

For my use of miniatures, I am planning to capture images of figures, then "cut" those figures from their backgrounds and combine them with other images to create fantastical scenes, the likes of which people would expect to see in 'The Lord of the Rings'.

Photo-Shoot #8

I captured these images in my school's photography studio, under high-key lighting. The purpose of this shoot was to get images which I could then use to make a 'Sci-Fi Fantasy' scene with by combining them with images from Photo-Shoot #6.

My subject for this shoot was a globe of the Earth that I own.

Image #1

This image was created by combining an image from this shoot with one from Photo-Shoot #6. I chose this particular image from Photo-Shoot #6 because it is slightly out-of-focus -- when I was doing that shoot, I deliberately captured some out-of-focus shots of the landscape in preparation for having the focus on the planet. The hills in the landscape create leading lines going to the planet. With the Earth being seen in the sky, it implies that Mankind has migrated off of it to other planets. I really like this image, and it was fun to make; I now want to try combining a third image with these to create the look of a destroyed Earth.

In Photoshop, I used the 'quick select' tool to 'cut' the globe from its background, then positioned it to the left side of the landscape image. I then lowered the 'opacity' of the globe, and decreased the 'saturation' of both images. Finally, I "duplicated" the landscape image and put the duplicate version on-top of the globe 'layer', then decreased the 'opacity' of it.

Image #1 (Second Version)

I used an image from Photo-Shoot #3 (one of the lava-looking part of my fireplace) to create this effect. I really, really like this image. To make it, I imported the Photo-Shoot #3 image, positioned it over the globe, then selected the globe's shape and inverted it to delete the parts of the image that were not over the globe. I then decreased the 'opacity' of the fire image, and proceeded to increase the 'contrast' of everything. I also altered the 'hue' of the landscape image to give it a reddish tint.

I love how fantastical this image looks; it looks, to me, like something that would be seen in 'Sci-Fi' movies like 'Star Wars'.

Photo-Shoot #7

During this shoot, which I did in Wales, there were two rainbows going across a waterfall. This was quite a remarkable sight, and looked very fantastical. I decided to not only capture images, but also record video footage of this particular waterfall, as the still images could not show the fluctuating movements of the rainbows in the water.

Video #1



I chose to edit this video without combining it with any other videos or images because it already looks fantastical. Before this shoot, I had never seen anything like this before.

I chose to edit this one because the footage is steadier than the other two videos, however, it is still rather shaky. The reason for the footage being so shaky is because I did not have a tripod with me, and even if I had, I probably wouldn't have been able to use it very well due to the fact that I was standing on very bumpy and uneven rocks to get this view of the waterfall; I was struggling to stay standing myself. However, I do not think that the shakiness is all that bad. In this edited version of the video, which I edited in Adobe After Effects, I used the 'time stretch' tool to reduce the speed of the footage to about 200%, which made the shakiness look more like a first-person POV shot. Going with this 'POV' interpretation, it could be assumed that the person's who is looking at the waterfall is some kind of typical 'Medieval Fantasy' character, such as a knight, adventurer, wizard, et cetera. In After Effects, I also increased the 'saturation' of the footage quite a lot to make the greenery in the background look more "mystical", "magical", and lively. The framing of this footage is really effective as the waterfall and rainbow are positioned to the right side of the rule of thirds grid, thus making the rainbow act as a leading line to the vibrant green of the cliff-side in the background.

Overall, I am happy with this video. It is not my favourite piece of work, but I really like how beautiful it looks, and the fact that I did not need to combine the footage with anything to make it look so.

Photo-Shoot #6

I captured all of these images on the top of a hill near to where I live.

I decided to not edit any of these images on their own, as they were all taken with the specific intent of combining with images from a future shoot, and none of these landscape photographs would look very fantastical on their own.

When I conduct the shoot of the globe, I will put the combined images on the post of that photo-shoot instead of this one.

Photo-Shoot #5

For this photo-shoot, I used my friend as the model, and had him wear a black cloak with the hood up, black gloves, and a piece of metal finger armour in order to make him look like a dark knight. All of the images in this shoot were taken under low-key lighting at my school's photography studio.

Image #1 (Original Unedited)

I chose this image as the first one to edit because of its resemblance to Dmitrijs Bindemanis' images. To begin with, I wanted to experiment with trying to achieve the look he has in his images.

Image #1

This is my version of Dmitrijs Bindemanis' image of the hooded man holding the sword. As I do not own a medieval sword, or a replica, I did not give my model a prop to replace it, but just used a piece of finger armour I have on one of his fingers. The armour has skulls engraved on it, and looks like that which a dark knight would wear. I used a black robe I have as the costume for my model.

This image was captured under low-key lighting in a studio environment at my school.

In Photoshop, I 'cropped' the image, then increased the 'brightness', then duplicated the 'layer', 'cut out' the left side of the background, flipped it horizontally, then positioned it on the right side of the subject. I also then increased the 'warmth' of the image with a 'photo filter'.

I really like this image as it looks very clean and well-framed. When cropping, I tried to line where the subject's eyes would be with the upper horizontal line of the rule of thirds grid.

Image #2 (Original Unedited)

This image was chosen to be edited due to its similarity - in terms of framing, lighting, and pose of the model - to Bindemanis' work, yet it being more personal due to the model in this image opening his arms out as though to imply that he wants his enemies to "come at him".

Image #2 (First Version)

Similarly to Image #1, I used Photoshop to increase the 'brightness' of this image, then I 'cut out' the left side of the background, flipped it horizontally, then positioned it on the left side of the subject. I did this to achieve a "clean" look again, and the use the lighting on both sides of the model to frame him.

Image #2 (Second Version)

Whilst looking at the first version of this image, I thought that the pose the model is in could also look like that of a sorcerer or mage summoning something like fire. So, I took to Photoshop again and imported one of the images from the photo-shoot of the fire I did previously (Photo-Shoot #3). To make the fire part of the image of the hooded man, I simply set the 'layer mode' to 'screen' and positioned it accordingly.

I like the fantastical look of this image as it bears resemblance to imagery that would be seen in 'Fantasy Medieval' MMORPG and RPG computer games. This image, therefore, might appeal to PC gaming audiences.

Image #3 (Original Unedited)

I chose to edit this image because of the strong stance the model is in, and how it also resembles a mage, or something of the like, character from a 'Fantasy Medieval' computer game.

Image #3 (First Version)

For this first version, I imported, using Photoshop, one of the images from Photo-Shoot #3 and used a 'soft eraser' tool to remove all of the flames except for one chunk which I positioned over the model's hand. I then 'erased' the flame where the fingers of the model are, which gave the look of the model holding said 'flame' in his hand. After this, I increased the 'brightness' of the 'layer' of the hooded man, and decreased the 'saturation'.

Image #3 (Second Version)

I felt that the first version of this image was somewhat bare, so I decided to return to it and import another image from Photo-Shoot #3. I set the 'layer mode' of the newly imported image to 'screen', increased the scale of it, and then lowered the 'opacity' and 'saturation' slightly.

Ultimately, I like this image, and I think that it works well with Image #2 in a 'Fantasy Medieval' set.

Photo-Shoot #4

In this shoot I hoped to capture images which I could combine with future images to give the effects of lightning auras and magic/powers. However, I decided to edit some images from this shoot on their own, purely to see what I could do with them as individual images, in terms of the 'Fantasy' genre.

This shoot was partially inspired by the images by Nejron Photo which I analysed.

Image #1 (Original Unedited)

I chose this image because I like the amount of lines of light, and the zoom of the lens which doesn't make them too big or too small.

Image #1 (First Version)

Here, in this first version, I change the colour of the light by using the 'hue' tool. I changed it to a purple colour, which for some audiences can relate to the 'Star Wars' franchise, as in some of the games, books, et cetera, some characters can shoot purple lightning from their fingertips.

Image #1 (Second Version)

With this version, I used the 'plastic wrap' filter to make the image look like glass or ice. Consequentially, this also made the "lightning" look like cracks in the glass/ice. Creating this version proved to me that I can achieve completely different images by just experimenting with only one tool in an editing program.

Image #2 (Original Unedited)

I decided to edit this image as, again, it has lots of strikes of light, and also because the aperture was larger for this one, thus making it brighter.

Image #2

To create this version, all I did was simply add a 'gradient overlay layer' in Photoshop, and used the default multicolored  'gradient'. The "lightning" being several different colours gives a fantastical look to the image.

Photo-Shoot #3

Initially, I planned to do this shoot in order to capture images I could specifically combine with the skull images from the previous shoot. However, whilst doing this shoot, I realised that the log in my fire place, with the "ash" effect beneath it, resembles a bridge going across a pit of lava that would be seen in a 'Fantasy' tale such as 'The Lord of the Rings'.

I have edited two of the images from this shoot on their own, without combining any other images with them, in order to experiment with the kind of fantastical effects I can create with just these alone.

Image #1

With this image, I hoped to give the impression of magic sorcery by adding a green 'overlay layer', then using a 'soft eraser' tool to remove parts of it, making it look as though the flames are a mixture of red and green ones.

I chose to edit this image as I liked the logs being in the shot, but the depth-of-field being shallow enough to make them out-of-focus -- this put the focus on the flames, which is what I wanted.

In terms of how others may view this image, I think that they will interpret the "sorcery" theme, for the most part, as green flames like this can be seen in several famous films, including the Disney classic, 'Sleeping Beauty' (the sorceress, Maleficent).

Overall, I really like the effect I have achieved with this image, and I am now excited to see what the scenes I can create when combining these images with others.

Image #2

I really like this image because of how dynamic it looks.

First of all, I chose to edit this one due to the strong saturation of the light on the bottom of the log; it creates a nice highlight which implies that a pit of fire/lava is beneath it. The flames in the background, out-of-focus due to the shallow depth-of-field putting focus on the log, make one feel trapped when looking at the log as it is "surrounded" by flames, and has a fiery pit below it. On top of this, I added the effect of sparks gliding through the air to furthermore create the implication of "heat". I created the "sparks" effect by using the regular marquee tool to select the particles underneath the log, then selected the 'layer via copy' option. I then 'duplicated' the 'layer' several times, positioned them accordingly, used the 'replace colour' tool to change the background colours to black, then changed the layers to 'screen'.