The set-up Shoot your miniature Scene

Get set up to shoot the backdrop for your mini-me

01 The backdrop

We used an array of old books placed on a vintage writing desk as a backdrop for our project. Books are a good choice as you can scatter them around the frame, but you could also set up any kind of miniature scene you like for, so get creative!

02 Posing doll

A small posing doll not only aids us in visualizing the finished image and perfecting the composition, it also casts realistic shadows that we can use later on. A small artist’s posing doll like this is ideal, but you could also use a toy action figure.

03 lamp

We’re using a tungsten lamp to light our scene here. We’ve positioned the light behind and to the left here, which gives us atmospheric backlighting. A second weaker lamp near to the camera position provides a little fill light.

04 Tripod

A tripod isn’t essential, but it frees your hands to perfect the composition and gives you the option to drop your shutter speed, use a low ISO and vary your aperture – helpful for shooting with the quite weak light from a tungsten lamp.

05 camera settings

Use any camera mode you like. But, if you’re using a tungsten lamp like us it’s likely you’ll need to get set up for a long exposure, which means using a cable release or self-timer to prevent shake. We’re in Manual at 2 secs, f/9, ISO100.

06 Focus distance

We used a wide angle of 24mm for our shot here, which exaggerates the perspective. When the camera is this close to the subject (we’re at minimum focusing distance here) then depth of field can be quite narrow, even at higher f-numbers.