Using Glass to Create Effects

This is @y.badiner and it’s my turn to share some photography tips with you. As you know I like to shoot parts and minifigures floating in the air, no doubt this is part of my own style. I usually fasten parts with floristic wires and putties but this month I want to show you something…

4 Tips to Create Interest in LEGO Photography

Dividing frame into thirds The ‘rule of thirds’ is a widely accepted photography mantra. Landscape photographers place the horizon or a point of interest a ‘third’ or an intersection of horizontal and vertical thirds. It leads to a pleasing distribution of visual interest in a shot. You can easily achieve this with digital cameras as…

Framing Tips

Composition in photography is really important, it defines how all the individual objects combine to form the final image. In this month’s tip, I want to talk about a composition’s rule called “framing”. Framing usually refers to what we see in our camera screen, but in this context means using the elements in your picture…

How to Create Dioramas for LEGO Photography

Most of you probably don’t know that I have a degree in fine art and I enjoy putting it to use when making dioramas. This month I will be showing you how to create realistic looking concrete walls out of styrofoam and plaster of Paris to create interesting environments for your minifigs like this: It’s…

Storytelling Tips for LEGO Photography [Part 2]

These will be the second –and last- set of tips on storytelling through (Lego-)photography. These expert tips can bring your stories to another level. If you’d like to take a look at the first set of tips, you can find them here. Know the effect of color(-temperature) Colors convey emotion and have the ability to…

More Bokeh for Your Mobile

One of the banes of mobile photography is the inability to create smooth backgrounds and bokeh. The problem is a matter of physics — small sensors like the ones we have in our phones can’t produce a shallow depth of field. Camera manufacturers came up with “portrait mode” to digitally fake it, but the AI…

Pseudo-macro LEGO Photography

If you’re shooting with a regular lens on your camera, filling the frame with LEGO minifigures often means composing with crop in mind, wasting pixels in edit, and ending up with a lower quality image. This is why many LEGO photographers shoot with dedicated macro lenses: you can get tack sharp, close-up shots without sacrificing…

Mobile Editing: How to Change LEGO Minifig Colors

Mixing yellow and licensed minifigs in one scene doesn’t make me cringe as much anymore since Batman and Wyldstyle starred side-by-side in The LEGO Movie a few years back, but seeing a hybrid yellow-flesh minifig on my Instagram feed makes me wince… and scroll, scroll far away from that aberration as fast as I can!…

Beginner Tips: Learning Camera Controls with LEGO

Shooting minifigs with a phone is fun and easy but at some point, you may want more creative control than what a fixed lens and small sensor can offer you. If you’re ready to start shooting with a mirrorless or DSLR camera but have no idea where to start, then I’ve got just the thing…