How To Photograph Legos Without A Macro | May Merriment Day 10
Posted by Katrina Kennedy on May 10, 2011 in Blog, Macro, Photography | 8 commentsWere you inspired by yesterday’s Lego post? I know I was.
I asked Dan about how often he crops his photos. He said, ”rarely. I don’t like to crop because it affects the quality of the full-size photo, and because it limits how large of a print that can be made. The only cropping I do is if I needed to straighten the photo, and am cutting off the excess, or if the shot I envisioned can only truly be achieved by an accurate crop.
This is the reason to get a macro lens. If you want your LEGO figs to look life-size in your photos, you’ve got to be able to get close without sacrificing half your pixels in a crop.”
That got me thinking. So what do you do if you don’t have a macro lens? Can you still get that life sized look without one? I decided to conduct an experiment. Highly technical here, folks. I wanted to see what several different lenses would give me.
My photos. Uncropped.
- 100mm f/2.8 Macro
- 35-80 Kit Lens (so I can’t be accused of being a lens snob
) - 70-200mm f/2.8
- 35-80mm Kit Lens with Extension Tube
Can you tell which is which? I think it is fairly obvious.
- 100mm f/2.8 Macro
70-200mm f/2.8
35-80 Kit Lens
35-80 Kit Lens with 36mm Extension Tube
My conclusions? A macro lens definitely gives you a better, real life feeling to your Lego’s, but you can get away with a wider angle lens since it lets you get close to your figure. My kit lens wasn’t a bad option. Definitely not Dan Phelps, Lego A Day quality, but good in a pinch.
My steps?
1. Grab your camera
2. Get your widest lens (the one with the smallest mm number on the side)
3. Get as close as you can while still maintaining focus.
4. Shoot.
5. Shoot some more!
My other conclusion? Dan is brilliantly creative! I stood with mini-figure in hand for a long time, just wondering. “What would Dan do?” The man has vision!
YOU GOT THE SAILOR! I am jealous!
I found shooting these lego guys was MUCH harder than I ever imagined … but still fun.
LOVE his expression! Definitely not as easy as grabbing a minifigure and my camera! Love the challenge.
Hi Katrina,
I want to get the daily toy emails, and have tried to change my subscription settings to daily, but I keep getting an error message saying I’m already signed up to receive the newsletter.
Please help
Thanks,
Laurel
Laurel, you should be all set now
I’ve enjoyed the novelty of shooting the Lego figures and my son is now doing it with me. Barbie is next!
Katrina got a new toy!!! And, I don’t mean the lego! Can’t wait to see more of your shots with your new lens!
I can’t wait to really get a chance to play with it! I love learning my way around something new!
Katrina, the extension tube… is this what you were hinting about when I asked about macro lens over on our class forum? Or is that still coming yet this week?
Thanks!!