Tips For Action Figure Photography

Photography is a hobby millions of people enjoy worldwide, and if you’re a photographer, you don’t need anyone to tell you how fun it is. But what’s more fun than photography? Taking photos of the action figures you collect!

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Action figure photography is incredibly fun, and nothing compares to hunting down the perfect complementary figure for a scene you’re working on. While action figure photography has a steep learning curve, nothing can’t be practiced and improved. With these carefully thought-out tips for action figure photography, you can begin your journey today. Ready to begin? Let’s go!

Use Detailed Figures

This probably goes without saying, but to get the most out of your action figure photography experience, having highly detailed action figures as subjects makes a world of difference.

While the backdrop, environment, lighting, and aperture can tell a story, an action figure that lacks detail shares little in the way of words. The more detailed the action figure, the more immersive the storytelling experience you can tell. It also adds a touch of realism and depth.

Spend Time On The Scene

Have you ever watched a movie with bad CGI? More specifically, when the character has been edited over a background? The reason it’s so jarring is because, most often, the character isn’t grounded in the scene.

To enhance your action figure photography, you need to ground the character, which can be done by spending time on your scene. Sure, you can use a blue paper backdrop for the sky, but one with detailed clouds and various gradients of blue makes it look grounded. For example, if your character stands on the ground, have a few leaves or dirt cover its feet.

Use Good Lighting

Continuing with the idea of being grounded, and just to generally improve the result, you’ll want to use good lighting. As you know, lighting can create a mood, create depth, and even produce dramatic effects like rim lighting or silhouettes.

However, whenever you use lighting, consider how it grounds the action figure with the environment. This adds a sense of realism. An action figure without a shadow doesn’t look real. An action figure in an alley with a faint light from a window gently lighting its face looks impressive.

A few general lighting tips are:

• Avoid hard light to minimize harsh shadows.
• Use soft lighting for a more natural look.
• LED strips create an amazing atmosphere.
• You don’t need a lot of lighting since the action figures are small. This can lead to overexposure.

Understand Aperture

The easiest way to think about aperture is that it controls the depth of field in your scene. Since you’re working with action figures, you’ll likely be zooming in quite a bit, which typically results in a shallow depth of field.

If you want to maintain good image quality and more minor details, you should aim to shoot using something f/8, which is a smaller aperture. Generally, using a macro lens would be a good idea, but this also means you need stability since small movements at close range can cause blur.

General tips for aperture:

• Narrow apertures create a deeper depth of field.
• Narrow apertures have a larger f-stop value.
• Wider aperture creates a shallow depth of field.
• Wider apertures have a smaller f-stop value.
• Wider apertures can reduce motion blur in low light as more light reaches the sensor.

Use Off-Camera Flash Creatively

One of the best ways to make an action figure seem realistic and grounded within the scene is to consider its texture when using lighting. For example, some action figures have a metallic finish. Using an off-camera flash, you can highlight this and make the figure look more realistic.

For action figures with a matte finish, an off-camera flash can be helpful, too. It can highlight any irregularities on the surface or even soften the appearance of the texture if you use additional lighting sources to make it seem less like a toy.

Edit Photos For A Great Finish

To add an extra touch or make a good photo look great, edit the images for an excellent finish. For example, with the example of metallic finished action figures, you can further enhance this effect by increasing the contrast when editing.

If there are shadows in the background you want to highlight, you can do that with editing. If there are LED lighting strips that emit a specific color, you can make that color more pronounced via editing. You can think of editing as the final touches to bring your idea to reality.

General tips for editing:

• Remember to sharpen the details around the edges and eyes to make the figure pop out from the environment.
• Play around with hue, vibrance, and saturation to find the perfect colors.
• Find the perfect tonality by adjusting the levels of contrast and brightness.

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