Fire Bird

The evening sky hasn't been cooperating so I had to resort to cutting Unique Toys Allen out of a white background. I added the laser beam and tracer rounds to try and make him look more dynamic. As usual, I spent a little time covering up screw holes and paint blemishes.

The trickiest part was the rotor. I really wanted to capture that sense of motion instead of having a static blade. I tried spinning it and using a long shutter speed, but the effect wasn't convincing and I couldn't cut it out of the white background. Fortunately, I stumbled across a different technique. By cutting the propellor out of the static image, I was able to apply a Spin Blur. I repeated the process with another static shot of the propeller at a different angle.

The background is a shot of an autumn evening sky with a FL+W Magenta filter on my lens. The explosions are painted on with my custom smoke brush. The foreground clouds are also painted on with a custom brush.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVbGd1aVM5U20zcW8

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Sunset Drive

This is a actually my second attempt at this picture after spending a whole day working with a different one that just wouldn't come together.

I placed Generation Toy J4ZZ on a Toyhax dark ground tile with an aquarium rock deco. The sunset is a shot I took during a vacation in Waikiki Hawaii. The smoke is from a picture of clouds. Unfortunately, I had to find a forest picture online; there's nowhere nearby for me to get a shot like that. The road strip and skid marks are drawn in. I also added headlights and a motion blur for the tires and rims.

I'm not quite satisfied with how the road and rock edges blend in with the background. Still a lot to learn about how to do blending in Photoshop.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVdl9xVElTM0dhbGc

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Snowy Drive

Some flour, a sifter, and my garage floor served as the backdrop for this shot. Maybe I should have sprinkled some flour on the car, but I really didn't want to get that stuff into the joints. I finished it off with some overlays of my cloud pictures and a couple of artificially created headlights.

Direct link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVTF93ZjNaaHRwYU0

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Blue Moon

The figure is Skyward Sword Link by Figma. This is inspired by a picture I saw online.

Although I would like the entire shot to happen within the camera, sometimes that's just not possible. I do find that a happy medium is to at least put the subject on a real base. In this case, I used a roll of artificial grass. Fortunately, Link easily stood without the display base. The fairies are shots of a Majora Mask Fairy pendant. The moon and sky are from a cloudy evening some time ago. The fog is an overlay of a shot of fluffy white clouds. The stars are artificially created in Photoshop.

I probably won't get the Twilight Princess Link figure, but am looking forward to the Princess Zelda figure.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVa1VTQ2FoV2JZeDg

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Batman vs Superman

These are from the SH Figuarts Injustice line. I prefer the armor plated look for super hero costumes.

I basically posed Batman and Superman in front of my laptop screen. The hardest part was fiddling with the figures until they were in a pose that I liked and would appear that way in the viewfinder.

I found the background picture on one of those wallpaper sites. There was no credit to the original artist. I would have liked to use my own picture, but I don't have access to a sky rise rooftop. The wall behind them is the lip of my laptop.

I had to forgo lights because of glare in the monitor so simply relied on ambient light in a dimly lit room. Superman, especially, is particularly reflective and shiny, which my polarizer helped with a little.

In Photoshop, I did the basic adjustments, cleaned up dust and smudges, closed up gaps in Batman's cape, added glowie bits to their eyes, and overlayed a cooling filter.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVQU1ocmxkdk9HWEk

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Fallen Comrade

I didn't break Trash-Talk just for this shot. That's a feature of the figure. I posed him, Cogwheel, Striker Manus, and Badcube Sunsurge on some desert panels from ToyHax.

I created the fire wth my custom smoke brush. 

The background is a shot of Hollow Bean State Beach. I tried to blend the two together. Damn, California beaches are so dreary, even in the summer. I need to make my way back to Hawaii.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVOS1PZnMzUUhPWDQ

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Mastermind Creations Fembots

I wonder if Azalea holds the record for number of remolds and repaints. It's a great piece that kickstarted my interest in toy photography, and there are at least three more named characters to go.

Putting the figures against actual flooring and backdrop saves a lot of time in post.

Direct link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwxl1QbH6hwVVC1pLTRrc0o4ck0

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