Macro Worlds

MACRO WORLDS

Category: Individual

Value: 15 Points

Time: 3 weeks

YOUR TASK
Use mini toys or figurines to create your own ‘Macro World’. Photograph a series of six images within that world.

The images should clearly demonstrate a variety of camera angles and shot types, as well as an understanding and manipulation of depth of field. You will need to adjust your aperture and also think about the distance between your camera and your subject in order to manipulate the depth of field.

The six images should work sequentially to tell a story. The storyboard document is for you to plan your images/story before you start taking photos.

Even though this is a photography task, you are allowed to use Photoshop basics if you really want to, e.g. if you want to make a toy fly you could have them hanging from fishing wire when you take the photo and then edit out the fishing wire in Photoshop.

DOCUMENTS

10med_planner.docx
Download File

10med_reflection.docx
Download File

What is Macro Photography?
Extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects (e.g. insects). The extreme close-up makes them appear much larger than they are in reality and reveals details which can’t usually be seen with the naked eye.

For this task, you will being doing 'toy photography' which is a variation of the traditional macro photography. It is still close-up, focusing on smaller objects and manipulating depth of field, but the close-up isn't as extreme as it often is in traditional macro photography (where, for example, you might take a photo of the eyes of a fly!).

TOY PHOTOGRAPHERS
The 'Toy Photographers' blog has lots of advice for taking close-up photographs of toys. They also run a competition called 'Six Image Narrative' - i.e. exactly what this task is asking you to do!

So if you need inspiration you can have a look at the sorts of stories other people have created, and then you can submit your own entry to the competition too!

https://toyphotographers.com/

TUTORIALS
There is no single, set way of doing macro/toy photography. It is up to you how you manipulate your depth of field, either by adjusting your aperture or your distance from the object or both. If you are working in the 'aperture priority' (Av) setting of your camera then it will automatically adjust ISO and shutter speed to match the aperture you choose.

That said, there is some common advice given by most toy photographers:

Tell a story. Either create a story based on the origins of that character (e.g. a toy bird in a nest) or imagine their 'secret life' when we're not looking, or create scenarios where they have to deal with everyday realities (e.g. a minion toy that has to catch public transport to get to work). There are no limits!
Make the toys seem more human. Pose them and compose your shot as though you were photographing real people.
Play with scale. You either want to show a small toy living in a giant world (e.g. Tatsuya Tanaka's images) or make the toys seem life-sized by minimising how much of their surroundings we can see (e.g. Zahir Baton's work).
Pay attention to lighting. Again, treat your toys like human models. You still want to light them properly, just like you would if you were photographing a person.

References:
https://www.discoverdigitalphotography.com/2014/action-figure-toy-models-photography-tips/
https://digital-photography-school.com/getting-started-in-toy-photography/

EXAMPLES

JENS UNGLAUBE (HTTPS://WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/NADIRS_BIG_CHANCE/)