Inch-high club
Capture surreal scenes with miniatures
While surfing the web, I came across Tatsuya Tanaka’s Miniature Calendar website (www.miniaturecalendar.com). I was fascinated by his miniature scenes using everyday objects, so I thought I’d give it a shot myself.
I use my Nikon D5500 with a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. As most images are shot from waist level, it helps that my Nikon has an articulated screen, which I can swivel out to view without stooping to look through a viewfinder. I then use manual focus on the figures using the zoom feature on the LCD screen.
The setup for the scenes is a small infinity curve studio that I put together using a foam board and some A3 card placed on a small table. I light this with a 64-LED light, which is mainly handheld, enabling me to make small adjustments before releasing the shutter.
Due to the low light from my LED light, I always use a tripod and remote shutter release as I usually shoot at ISO100 to achieve minimal noise in the images, resulting in a slow shutter speed.
The figures are mainly sourced from the Internet – or anywhere that sells them, such as model shops. I have approximately 200 at the moment, but I’m always looking for different types of figure for new scenes. If a certain scenario springs to mind I make a note of it on my phone because, at my age of 67, I’ll more than likely forget it in a couple of minutes!
This brings me to my first image, entitled ‘Time Travel’
[1]. I was about to throw away an empty crisp tube when I realized I could make use of it.
With a green card simulating grass, I shone a bright light through it to resemble a gateway from another time and set up the figures to look like they were surprised by the mother and child running through the ‘gateway’.
Sometimes though, I’ll be shooting at home and it’ll take me a long time to get set up. For example, my wife received a tiny sample bottle of perfume so I decided to use my figures to create the ‘Perfume Launch Party’ image [2]. Most of the figures wouldn’t stand up on their own, so I had to use soft wax on their feet to stop them from falling over. An LED light was shone from the right of the picture to produce the shadows and an extra light was used on the bottle to illuminate it separately. I used dancers, hosts, passers-by and photographers for the scene to make it look like a party.
I always take a few figures with me when I shoot landscapes in case I see a possible set up. On one such shoot I spotted a picnic table, so I placed a car with the figures on the table as if they were enjoying ‘A Grand Day Out’ [3] – I always try to use figures that match the situation.