If you follow our blog regularly, you know that we love toy photography and Star Wars. And today we have a treat for fans of both. Photographer Matt Ferris shared his photo of an X-Wing Starfighter, and we were immediately drawn by it. Although it’s a toy photo, it looks pretty real, just like it came straight from the movie. Matt was kind enough to share the details of creating the photo with DIYP. What I find especially interesting is that he relied more on practical effects than on post-production. It took some rain, a puddle and a can of compressed air to create the desired effect. Just a few post-production tricks later, he got some pretty impressive results. Here are the details of the setup for the shot:
So, you will need to get your camera low for a shot like this. In case your tripod doesn’t have this feature, don’t worry. As you can guess, we have a DIY solution for this.
To get power in the middle of nowhere, I utilized my Vagabond mini battery pack. The things super handy if you need power in when a plug in isn’t available. To hold the light, I used a c-stand to give me the stability and the angle I needed the light at with the 4′ boom. Then for my tripod, I simply took the post from my tripod and inverted it to get my camera level to the ground. This will work with some tripods, and not with others. So this is a must have feature for me when I purchase a tripod. This one is made by Silk. The model number is long worn off, so I’m sorry I can’t help you there.”
Matt also shared the post-production details with us: Although I enjoy good photo manipulations and highly admire digital artists, I can relate to Matt’s point of view. Practical effects also work better for me. After all, original Star Wars trilogy was based on practical effects, and Rogue One went back to the roots. So for an image like this, I think this approach really works best. To finish everything off, I added a little afterburner action on another blank layer, duplicated it three times to have the same effect for the four engines. For color toning and polishing off the image, I applied a couple custom filters I built in Googles NIK collection. Specifically Color Efx, Silver Efx (luminosity blend mode) and Anolog Efx.”
Finally, Matt also shared gear details with us, as well as the camera settings:
Canon 1DxCanon 70-200 f/2.8LShutter: 1/200Aperture: f/6.3ISO: 1000
The Alienbees and Vagabond Mini Battery Pack are from www.Paulcbuff.com For my wireless triggers, I use the Phottix Stratto ii’s from www.phottix.com/ The X-Wing is a snaptite model you can buy at just about any toy store.” I’d say this is a perfect way to pay a tribute to Star Wars. Practical effects, imagination and by doing what you love doing – photography. Thank you Matt for taking the time to share your photos and talk to us.
About the Artist
Matt Ferris is a photographer based out of Pacific Northwest. His primary passion is routed in photographing the fast paced action found in sports: primarily, Combat and field sports of every variety, from the youth leagues to the professionals. When not catching live action, he chases shadows for dramatic portraits in the studio, or gets deeply immersed in his imagination with his toy photography. If you’d like to see more of Matt’s work, make sure to check out his website, like his Facebook page and follow him on Instagram. If you loved his toy photography project just like we did, you can find more of it here and here.
