Mandalorian date night

Today’s sweet couple was based on a Mando/Indy mashup and Willie Scott, with the latter two from the LEGO Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom set 7682 Shanghai Chase.

A fun bit of trivia: the famous Shanghai nightclub at the beginning Temple of Doom is named “Club Obi Wan” after our favourite bearded Jedi Master. See:

I didn’t have a vintage 1930’s white convertible, but the LEGO Speed Champions 1974 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.0 makes for a nice background nonetheless.

Behind the Scenes

I enjoy sharing a look at the process behind my work and my creative journey.

Photography has long been my passion. With the level of technology available to us today, it’s easier than ever to take a technically competent photograph. And yet, some images still clearly ‘work’ more than others.

With LEGO photography, where we can often control almost every aspect of the scene, I believe that investing time and mental energy in the creative process can help make that difference. So I consider four fundamental things in making an image:

• The Idea
• Light
• Subject Isolation
• Composition

The Idea

In Star Wars canon, strictly devout Mandalorians never remove their helmets in front of others. This is the way. But surely they still have social lives? So I thought it’d be fun to imagine a Mandalorian spiffed up for a night out. And my most elegant minifigure couple is Indy and Willie, so another mashup came together.

Light

My preferred style is low key photography with soft lighting: predominantly dark and dramatic scenes, with light emphasizing only specific areas of the frame and with smooth transitions between light and shadow.

This is a fairly typical lighting setup for me:

• Main light: Litrapro with softbox, positioned with a Platypod gooseneck arm and Ultra tripod base
• Background light: Litrapro with grid, positioned with a Platypod gooseneck arm
• Reflectors: DIY with folded recipe cards, to provide fill and to help soften the light

Subject Isolation

The subject is ultimately what the photo is about and there should be no doubt in the viewer’s mind as to what it is.

I considered the pair to be the subject, and gave them equal emphasis in terms of framing and lighting. I also used depth of field to isolate them from the car, shooting wide open at f/4 instead of my normal f/8. See the difference:

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Composition

I try hard to get as close to the final image as possible in camera. To help with this I compose in live view with my mirrorless camera’s rear display, using a crop mask and grid overlay. It looked almost exactly like this:

I composed using the rule of thirds, using his visor as an anchor point. As a supporting contextual element of the story, I used the cars headlight as another. I’ve filled the frame beneath the pair with their reflection, both for balance and for aesthetic purposes. The blurred car in the background adds context, without distracting from the visual story. Finally, I’ve left the remainder as negative empty space.

Tech Stuff

Instead of sharing the technical settings for this one photo, I’d rather share my standard operating procedure for, which can be applied to all of my LEGO photography with but few exceptions:

• Tripod mounted mirrorless camera set to ISO 100 and triggered with 2 second delayed shutter
• 120mm macro lens shot at f/8* and manually focused using magnified live view
  • Note: as mentioned above, today’s shot was made at f/4 to minimize depth of field in order to improve subject separation from the background
• Aperture priority centre-weighted metering with exposure compensation to taste
• Post processing the RAW files with custom white balance, luma curve, saturation, contrast, sharpness, vignette, levels, and dust removal

Up Close and Personal

Macro photography allows us to see small objects in spectacular detail. For me, LEGO minifigures are perfect subject material.

This is as close as I can get with my system – the only crop is to make the image square. Now let’s get in a little tighter with another crop:

Wrap Up

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Time once again to close out with the before and after shots, showing how I realized my idea through deliberate lighting, subject isolation, and composition choices.

Best,

Scott.