4 Pro Tips for Best Miniature Photography

What is Miniature Photography?

Miniature photography is a genre of photography in which the subject appears to be very small in comparison to the reality. It seems as if the subject has reduced a lot in size in reality. Miniature photography is usually done with the help of a chroma key and photoshop editing. These are the basic requirements for a miniature photo shoot to take place.

Miniature photography has emerged as a very unique & interesting technique for pre-wedding and wedding photography. It is becoming popular and trending with time. 

Following are some pro tips for best miniature photography-

1. Light your subject first

When you are working with a white seamless, you would generally light the background first. You want a smooth spread of light so that it is lit equally across the whole surface. But with a green screen, you have to work in the opposite way. The subject is supposed to lighten up first so that it matches the exposure of the scene it is supposed to be put in. The subject and the scene need to have similar lighting so that it appears as if the subject is actually reduced to a tiny size and is present in the picture. If the lightning wouldn’t match, they would surely look different and fake. It will not look smooth at all. 

The main motive behind miniature photography is to make the viewers believe in it and arouse interest in them. Once they match, light up the background to provide even and smooth lighting across the area. If it is not possible to capture or film your subjects while at a location, think about how the lighting would be if they were present there. 
You have to make the light look natural in the scene. Analysing this at the location itself and noting some points makes it easier for you to match the lighting on the subject when you are shooting at the studio and helps you preserve the natural effect.

2. Use evenly lit background 

You can use many tricks with various adjustment layers and garbage mattes to recoup for rough lighting and it is also much easier to key out your subject if your background is evenly illuminated from the beginning. It also reduces your amount of work. It is less time consuming to fix the lightning in the background in the studio than it is to fix it in the post-processing. 

It is difficult to get the perfect lighting with only one or two lights, but it is better if as the little variance in brightness and colour is present. Bring your subject as far forward from the background as space and size of your chroma key will allow. This will block colour from the background reflecting back and spill onto the subject. 

The reflection of the colour from chroma key makes it difficult for the editor to make the edited image look realistic as the colour adjustment becomes a difficult job. Sometimes, the area getting the colour reflected upon also gets selected with the backdrop and selection becomes a bit difficult.

3. Use stimulating moving light in the background

This technique is more for videos than still pictures and it is an addition of light to your subject. Once the subject and the background are lightened up, you need to think about other factors that may interfere with the light in the actual world and help further to set up the compound.

For example- If your subject is supposed to be walking down the street, they are going to pass through a lot of street lights or it could be an indoor shot with a flickering light on the ceiling or wall. So, you will have to remake this effect in the studio as well. This can be made possible with the use of stimulating moving light in the background.

In the case of a still photograph, you might need to show the subject more lighted up from one side or a specific part of their face to have more light, this can also be done with the help of an extra light. Using an extra light is always helpful as it makes the post-processing a bit less time consuming. Shooting in the best way is always helpful and better than trying to fix the problems in post-processing.

4. Try different camera angles

When you have to conduct a shoot on a chroma key with a model and a camera, for some reason, one’s natural instinct is always is always to take the shot with the model directly facing towards the camera and the chroma key directly behind it. 

This portrays a very flat and fake look. Each and every part of the filmmaking is important, be it on chroma key or off chroma key. In an outdoor or on location shoot, the photographer would create a storyboard and decide the camera angles beforehand and get the best ones to portray the story which makes it easier for them to conduct the shoot. This can also be done with chroma key shoots.

Take your time to storyboard the shot, as if the chroma key is not even present there. Select the best angle while creating the storyboard or visualisation, a rough idea of what the scene is going to look like before taking the final shot. Be free to take a high angle shot or a low angle shot. Select the camera which tells your story in the best way, just like you would have done on any other shoot. 

Try to keep your subject away from directly facing the camera unless and until it is the best way to take the shot so that your story is portrayed correctly. Different angles have the power to portray the subject in many different ways. So use them correctly to justify your story accurately.

These were some of the pro tips for conducting the best miniature photography.

Hope you found them useful and enjoyed reading it!