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Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

February 16, 2015 By Brian 17 Comments

What’s going on back there? Taking better toy photos

It’s amazing how the background of a picture can take a photo from meh to magnificent! It’s not difficult to achieve some really exciting results using items you can find laying around the house.

greedo-black-series

If you want your subject to really pop out, use a background color from the opposite side of the color wheel. Greedo is green, so an orange sheet of paper certainly makes him stand out more than a green backdrop.

cornelius-neca

That “sand dune” I used in my previous post is actually just a crumpled up paper bag. The white “sky” is where the bag ended and the lightbox ceiling met.

bobafett-black-series

Turn an empty coffee can on its side and you might be surprised at the result.

skylanders-pop-fizz

For a colorful backdrop, use some toys! For this photo of the Skylander, Pop Fizz, I put some colorful plastic balls in a ziplock bag, which created a colorful, trippy backdrop. When you use a low depth of field, the items in the background will be blurry, while the subject close to the camera lens will be in sharp focus.

disney-infinity-iron-man

Tin foil can result in some exciting effects, as light gets reflected in unplanned ways.

stormtrooper-black-series

A trip to the garbage can resulted in bubble wrap and a rubber hose — and a pretty fun result!

hansolo-black-series

And speaking of garbage, even a black trash bag can look good!

As you can see, just about anything can be used for a backdrop when you photograph your action figures. Give it a try and let me know what works for you!

 

Filed Under: Art and Photography, Toys Tagged With: action figure, DIY, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. cody mix says

    February 16, 2015 at 4:28 pm

    These look great!

    Reply
  2. John Morey says

    February 16, 2015 at 8:05 pm

    Excellent article! Sometimes my backdrops really are just random objects using that kind of perspective, though most of the time theya re cobbled together from various toy dioramas:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/74529773@N07/

    Reply
    • Brian says

      February 16, 2015 at 9:01 pm

      Wow, you take some great photos — those Predators! Awesome.
      I’d love to see your lighting setup. Are you using LED lights?

      Reply
      • Ridureyu says

        July 19, 2015 at 3:38 am

        Sometimes, yeah. I actually use my iPhone’s screen often – when it’s all white, it is a strong, but not overwhelming light source for mini figures.

        Reply
  3. George (GI Jigsaw) says

    February 16, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    Great ideas. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  4. The Rebel says

    February 17, 2015 at 3:13 am

    Great tips Brian! One must never underestimate the power of simple everyday items as fodders/background for your action figure photography!

    Reply
  5. LasVegasYankee says

    February 17, 2015 at 12:03 pm

    Great article. You know, I stumbled onto your site years ago when I was looking for toy photography. Nice to see you are getting back to it. If you want to talk about simple backgrounds, check this out.

    http://instagram.com/p/zMGfZ8R6Cm/?modal=true

    http://instagram.com/p/zMHiePx6D_/?modal=true

    Both were done sitting in front of my laptop using my iPhone and a LED flashlight. However, I really like your suggestions in this article. Gonna try something tonight.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      February 17, 2015 at 12:38 pm

      Excellent! I’ve seen some people use their iPad screen as backgrounds, opening up unlimited possibilities. I’m going to have to try that!

      Reply
  6. Dex1138 (@Dex1138) says

    February 17, 2015 at 9:24 pm

    I’ve used my monitor for backdrops to nice effect

    http://photos-b.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t51.2885-15/10661074_807147945975377_1512013718_n.jpg

    http://photos-h.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t51.2885-15/10802758_811518752244607_223333541_n.jpg

    Reply
    • Brian says

      February 17, 2015 at 10:09 pm

      Nice! I definitely need to give this a try!

      Reply
  7. Retromash says

    February 18, 2015 at 5:37 am

    Fantastic article. This is the best one yet of the series, Brian. Some brilliant ideas there for cool backgrounds. I love the Iron Man one and the Boba Fett one.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      February 18, 2015 at 9:56 am

      Thanks! 🙂

      Reply
  8. Howie Decker says

    February 18, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    Pure genius.

    Reply
  9. Laura says

    February 23, 2015 at 10:54 pm

    This made me ridiculously happy. Excellent information, totally spoken in a way any level of photographer could easily understand. Great article, Brian 🙂

    Reply
    • Brian says

      February 23, 2015 at 11:31 pm

      Thanks Laura! 🙂

      Reply
  10. Kamiah says

    March 21, 2015 at 6:57 am

    Thank you for this blog – it’s fantastic! I’ve only just started dabbling in this sort of thing and have stuck to white backgrounds. Looks clean but is dull. This has definitely put a new perspective on things 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Spotted Online – Advice for Better Toy Photos at Cool & Collected says:
    February 24, 2015 at 4:28 am

    […] has some advice for those of you taking photos of toys, and in the post — “What’s going on back there? Taking better toy photos” — he shares with us tricks for staging backgrounds made of common […]

    Reply

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