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Writer's pictureMovieRepliCars

How I Created Toy Photography Artwork

Updated: Apr 7, 2022

I have been collecting model cars, hence the name of this site Moviereplicars.net for about 10 years now. I don't have a very big collection, small moderate collection of replicars from James Bond, Batman, A-team, Star Wars, Halo and much much more. My other passion includes photography (EA Photography Culture). Inspired by artist Felix Hernandez I combined both together to create my own miniature worlds from my scale model collection.


Toy photography, as the name suggests is photographing toys. Not as product photography, using toys to tell a story and creating imaginary worlds. In some cases aiming to trick the viewer's brain into perceiving scale, making the toy look like the real thing.


 

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Who is Felix Hernandez?

Felix Hernandez is a photographer, digital and miniature artist based in Cancun, Mexico. He runs his own photography studio "Hernandez Dreamphography", where he works on advertising campaigns for international brands such as BMW Motorrad, Audi, Volkswagen, Nickelodeon, Wilson, Mattel, Red Cross, TopGear Magazine, Cadbury, etc. Felix uses various photographic techniques with digital art and hand-make the scene to bring his concepts to life.


Images used with permission

Don't forget to check out Felix Hernandez's website and Instagram page.


Unlike Felix, I don't have the skills to build handcrafted mini-sets and own high-end photography gear. I have the very basic equipment and digitally manipulated most of my images with Adobe Photoshop.


So I began to experiment with my scale models to produce the following artwork. During this time I had to learn to manipulate the perspective of scale to transform a toy into a real-life scale model. I tried to capture as much on camera as I could, however, the final image came down to digital manipulation.


My equipment and software


My equipment includes;

Software includes;

  • Adobe Photoshop

  • Nik Collection filters


My toy photography


Mad Max Interceptor

The Mad Max Interceptor was created from a model kit including the fuel barrels and the spare tyre. The sand, rocks and foliage from my garden were added to the scene. The background is a combination of Photoshop shapes and my own photos.



Star Wars Battle for Hoth

In this shoot, flour was the main ingredient (pardon the pun) and rocks from the garden. The AT-AT Walker was a model kit from AMT and the Speeder was Hasbro Micro machine.


 

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Star Trek

The Star Trek NCC-1701 Enterprise is a diecast model from Corgi. I used black paper with one light from the left side and one from the top for the top view. Added the background in Photoshop.



RC Truck

Toy RC truck, Left is the after image while the right is the before, my very small studio. Using Sand and little rocks from the garden. The background image came with the RC model.



Aliens Movie

The top image is the finished product with the sky added in Photoshop using shapes and my own images. The bottom image is the before, I used black dirt from the garden and I made the rock formation with foam.


I am currently working on more scale model photography including FunkoPOP figurines.





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