1. Take photos in a forest setting with action figures set up 2. Edit photos in a way that makes the actions figures seem naturally fitting within the forest environment
Research
Forest photography has a lot of focus on trees because that's the main takeaway from forests. Natural lighting is a factor that makes the photos dramatic because it can sometimes add high contrast and has a big impact on making the colors more vibrant. The photo I want to create is with action figures in a forest setting. Toy photography is a topic many have done so I decided to create my own. When taking photos of action figures, photographers take them from certain angles and have certain lighting, natural or artificial, so the end product allows them to appear realistic.
I like the photo on the left because it does what I want to do very well. The storm trooper figures are positioned in a way that creates the illusion that they're walking and the photo is in a forest setting which is well presented. Although there are many storm trooper figures, there is enough visible forest to balance it out. I like the photo on the right because it has a big focus on the trees and the natural lighting creates contrasting shadows as well as the vibrant green.
New Photos
The new photos I took were near where I live and although it wasn't a forest, it still provided the natural stetting I was looking for. I set the figures in a way that seemed they were walking but the better photos were the ones that had the figures presented from waist hip. The figures are the focus of the picture and the natural setting is blurry but that allows the figures to stand out with their vibrant colors against a minimal colored background.
Edited Photos
When taking pictures of the figures, I wanted to get good angels that would make the photo seem more dramatic. In photoshop, I cropped and made slight rotations to the photo and I also changed some elements of the photo such as color, armor shine, and the temperature of the photo. For the color, I increased the vibrance of the figure's costumes while also desaturating the picture. So the saturation of the costumes remained somewhat the same while the background had slight changes. For the armor shine on the figures, I increased their brightness. On Ant-Man's(red figure) helmet, there is a shine and that is on of the couple shines I made brighter. For the overall temperature of the photos, I tried to go for a cold look but also have some of the elements of the photo retain some sense of warmth.
Printed/Matted Photo
5 Step Critique
Observe: The final photo is a portrait photo of Ant-Man with Captain America and the Wasp in the background. Describe: The photo has three action figures and the one in the front that cover about half the photo is Ant-Man. He's placed on the right side of the photo. Behind Ant-Man is an out of focus Captain America that is on the lower middle left side of the photo. Behind Captain-America is the Wasp who is also out of focus and is between Captain America and Ant-Man. Behind the figures is a natural background that has a cold temperature to it. The cold background surrounds the figure's vibrant and subtly warm color. The lighting in the photo is natural and comes from the sun. When looking at the photo, the natural lighting is on the right of the figures while the left is the shadows. Analyze: Perspective and emphasis work together because Ant-Man is the biggest figure because of the camera's perspective. This allows him to be the emphasis of the photo because the Ant-Man figure is the biggest and is the most clear because everything else is out of focus. Color and contrast also work together in the photo because even though the figures have a sense of warmth, they have mostly a cold feel to them because of their cool colors. Because Ant-Man's costume is red, his costume has contrast compared to Captain America's blue costume. Interpret: The photo has a theme of unity. All the figures used in the photo are superheroes and they're all looking to one direction which creates the sense that they're all united and stand together. It's also the fact that they're costumes are all somewhat vibrant that goes against the cold background. All though the whole photo has a cool temperature, the superheroes slight warmth seems as if it's still attempting to resist the coldness of the photo. Evaluate: The photo is successful regarding the objectives. The figures seem natural in terms of how they're positioned and after editing the photo in photoshop, the figures don't seem completely plastic but have a small of element of realism. One thing that could've been fixed is including more of the forest background. The blurred out background does seem natural though especially because of the natural lighting. It's a three steps forward one step back kind of completion. There are some flaws(not being able to completely show the forest background) but its successful elements outweigh the flaws.