Inspirations: Projects: Miniature Set Photography

Ever build a Diorama? It's a small world, in a box.

Well, people do it for real: for example, The Lords of the Rings trilogy movies use many miniature sets for filming!

Let's put together a small world and photograph it.

Unit

  • Choices

Questions

  • How do I create a big world using a small version of it?

What am I making?

  • Using toys and other found objects, stuff around the house, create a world in miniature that you will photograph to make it look big... examples

How do I make it?

  • Note: in the tutorials you'll see lots of advanced trickery and some equipment or software you might not have. You can hack a lot of these things. For example, for a light box, use some kind of box with a white table cloth! For a tripod, create your own device or system to steady your camera. You can do basic editing in Google Photos, no need for Photoshop, but if you want something Photoshop-like, use Photopea; also consider the Lightroom app for phones.

  • Video Tutorial from Fstoppers

  • 8 Tips from Photocrowd

  • Technical tips from Mighty Brush

Steps

  1. Go on a scavenger hunt. Find objects you could use to create a world.

  2. Construct your world with the objects. Put it in a box, or place your objects in a setting that match your vision for the scene.

  3. Adjust the lighting to your liking. You can use reflectors like white posters or aluminum foil, and you can use light sources such as lights, flashes, and even the glow of a television screen. You can also control lights by dimming them or interrupting them with shades or screens. Experiment

  4. Steady your camera, set the focus (tap on phones), and take several photographs. Experiment with positions and angles. You can even take some video images arcing around your scene, or panning, or tilting.

  5. Use photo or video editing tools to touch up your images.

  6. On Google Sites, under Pages, create a new page called Miniature Set Photography.

  7. Add your images and videos of your world.

  8. Write about what you learned doing this assignment, mention skills and techniques.

  9. When done, push the Publish button, review the settings, and publish.

  10. Then click the chain-link button, Copy the link for your page, and turn in the link.

Grading

  • 4/A = Do all the steps, 2 interesting insights about "what I learned"

  • 3/B = Do all the steps, interesting "what I learned"

  • 2/C = Do all the steps, basic "what I learned"

Career Connections

  • Sometimes you can't go to a location to get a photo or video you need, so why not create your own miniature version of it?

Resources