- Guys, I'm in a really good mood today.
That's because...
It's my birthday.
That's why I'm wearing
the Fancy Boy shirt today.
Also, if I put on real people clothes,
it makes me want to work harder.
This is one of the techniques
that I use during self isolation,
to get out of bed,
and actually get videos done.
A couple days ago,
I was in not so much of a working mood,
and I was like, aimlessly scrolling through Twitter.
And then I saw this one tweet from Erin Sullivan.
And I was like,
"Whoa, that's a sick photo of Arizona."
No, it was not Arizona.
It was a freaking paper bag
with a little tiny person.
I was like,
"This is one of the coolest photos
"I've ever seen."
So I started deep diving,
I came across this artist named Tanaka Tatsuya,
and my mind was literally blown.
There's someone out there making a living,
taking photos of tiny people,
and it's the coolest thing ever.
And I was like,
"I need to buy a ton of tiny people
"and try this photography style at home."
So I started going online,
searching up where do I buy minifigurines,
also very hard to find by the way,
especially during a quarantine.
Okay, so I've been dealing with the guy
for the minifigures over email,
and he told me
that to pick them up safely
at the curb side of this spot,
he just put them on the fence.
So I'm gonna go over and get the bag
that's just literally taped to the fence.
There it is.
Here we go.
So that's what I did.
I went out and spent $200 on tiny figures.
Try explaining that to your wife,
or fiance, or your partner.
I'm gonna spend about $200 on tiny people today.
- Are you joking?
- No, no
- You're serious?
- Yeah.
- They cost $200?
- Well, I'm gonna buy a bunch of them.
It doesn't go well.
I think my favorite thing
about this style of photography,
is that you have to be so creative.
You have to find ways
for these tiny people to interact
with normal everyday objects around your house.
And that's a really fun way
to exercise your creativity.
So in today's video,
we're going to go through all the things
that you need,
to get started in miniature photography.
We'll be talking about the gear,
where to source minifigures,
as well as a behind the scenes look
of me taking photos
around my house with these minifigures,
and the post production process.
So let's jump into Miniature photography.
(upbeat music)
Okay, let's talk about the gear
that you're gonna need to get started.
The obvious one,
the number one item
and the hardest one to source,
are the mini figures.
Now if you're not in a rush
for finding these tiny people,
what you can do is go on Amazon,
I think they have like 100 person pack
for like two to $15
or something like that.
I'll link a couple options below.
Now if you want some boujeeier minifigures,
like the one that I'll be using in today's video,
there's a German company called Noch,
that makes a whole array
of different products for model trains.
And one of the product lines,
is tiny people.
There's literally someone out there
painting tiny figures,
"Oh, this little person looks all so good.
"I love his little skis
"and I love his little helmet."
The next item that you're gonna need is a camera.
A phone camera works,
or if you have a DSLR,
the one that we're using in today's video,
is a Sony A7III,
with a 24-70 F/2.8G Master lens.
That's because we wanna get
some ultra high quality photos,
but both work really, really well.
The next item that you're gonna need,
is a tripod.
Since we'll be shooting at like F16 or higher,
and we have a lower shutter,
you're gonna wanna use a tripod
to get super sharp photos.
(knocking sounds)
Oh yeah, (opening a box) A tripod.
The one that we'll be using in this video
is the Peak design travel tripod
made out of carbon fiber.
This thing is amazing,
and Peak design happens to also be the sponsor
of this week's episode.
The next item,
is you're gonna need
some sort of studio box
or light source.
You can either use window light,
this studio box right here,
for like $20 off of Amazon,
or a portable light,
so that you can light the scene.
And the last item that you're gonna need
are a couple of items
from around your house,
that these figures can interact with.
For example, in this week's video,
I used sugar,
some coffee and some cookies.
And the last tip
is go into your camera settings,
and make sure that you select
a two second timer.
That way your photo is super sharp.
All right, now that you have all your items collected,
let's go and shoot.
I'm gonna talk you
through a little behind the scenes here,
of five different photos that I took.
Alright, so here is our first photo.
I feel like a lot of creators
are gonna really like this one,
cos I assume most creators like coffee.
Yes, those are some farmers
on a field of coffee,
standing on a porta filter.
That's right.
So in order to get this shot,
what I did is I took my porta filter,
filled it up with a bunch of coffee,
stamped it, then I brought it over
to my little light box here,
placed it inside
so I could have some good natural light
all around it
and we can get nice and close.
And then what I did,
is I placed my little character,
right on top there.
Then I've got the little guy with the shovel,
placed him there,
got my knife out,
placed a bit of dirt
around the guy with the shovel,
so it looks like he's shoveling it out.
Then I brought my camera on a tripod,
set it to F16
and I think the shutter was something like,
point five of a second
because we didn't have a ton of light
in this situation.
That's how we got a bunch of farmers
on a coffee field.
On top of a porta filter.
I always like seeing
the behind the scenes of this,
cos it looks so funny.
Here's the photo taken on the DSLR.
And then here's the photo taken on the phone.
Both are awesome,
and both do a really good job.
All right, my next idea
is that I went into the cabinet,
and I found some sugar
that was in like a little jar,
and I was like,
I bet you this could be like
a ski hill if I just like,
let it topple over,
and then that gravity,
like push all this sugar down on an angle.
So that's what I did.
I brought the jar out,
let it create a natural ski hill,
and then place these people around.
And now we have some tiny people,
skiing on some sugar.
It turned out pretty good.
So here's the photo taken with the DSLR.
I'm at like F20 here
so I can get the entire scene in focus
because we have a couple different depths there.
So I wanna make sure everything's in focus.
And here's our final photo
with the iPhone
and then a behind the scenes
of how this whole thing looks.
All right, this next photo was inspired
from a photo I saw on Pinterest,
for Miniature photography.
So I took a loaf of sourdough bread.
PS sourdough bread,
best bread ever, right?
Comment if you guys agree
that sourdough bread,
is actually the best bread ever.
So I took the sourdough,
I'm like oh,
we have this little line here,
kind of looks like a hiking trail.
So why don't we grab a little hiker,
place him in there,
put them on the sourdough.
And let's take a photo,
see if this looks kind of like a mountain.
And I also did a quick sky replacement here
to make this photo look a little bit more epic.
So here's our final DSLR photo.
Here's our photo taken with a phone,
as well as the behind the scenes
of how this whole thing looks.
I think the behind the scenes
are essential with pairing this
because I think it always looks so funny.
You have this like really cool senior,
"Oh that looks really good."
And then you see the behind the scenes,
and you're like,
"That's hilarious that
"that's actually what it looks like."
Alright, so our next
Miniature photography photo is...
This person climbing a cookie.
We have these two cookies leftover
from when we were baking a couple nights ago.
I cut them in half
and then stack them on top of each other,
grabbed a little mountaineer,
put it in,
just shoved the foot into the cookie
so that she wouldn't fall.
That's also another point
is that if you can't get them to stick,
you're gonna need some glue.
But in this case,
because we're using a lot of food,
it worked here.
So here's the photo taken with the DSLR,
here's the photo taken With the phone,
and here's the behind the scenes
of how it all looks.
And our last Miniature photography series,
is going to be Matchstick Men.
Not the bad movie with Nicolas Cage
from a few years ago.
(dramatic music)
Little miniature scene.
So I had this Carpenter set that I purchased.
And what I did is I went and grabbed matches,
and then I like cut them into little pieces,
stack them up,
and then add these two guys
who were carrying like a piece of wood.
And now we have...
Our Matchstick Men.
Here is the DSLR photo.
Here is the iPhone photo.
Guys, miniature photography,
the most fun, right?
It's always a little jaw dropping,
cos you can send it like a normal photo
and be like,
"This is a nice photo."
But there's something about Miniature photography
that when you send it to people,
they're like,
"That's so cool.
"They're like they're in the coffee.
"They're farmers in the coffee."
That's literally the text
I got from somebody.
(beep)
- [Narrator] We interrupt our program
to bring you this important message.
(beep)
- So as of today, April 8 2020,
I think we can all agree
that we're living in extremely strange times.
I do wanna give
a big shout out to this week's sponsor,
Peak design, who are doing some amazing stuff,
to help people around the world,
and our planet.
Now, before I tell you about their amazing tripod,
I do wanna mention
that from now until April 10 of 2020,
100% of the profits from every tripod sold
will be donated
to supporting COVID-19 disaster relief,
and combating climate change.
Now, that's just awesome.
This channel and Peak design,
strongly believe that
both of these global disasters
require immediate action.
Now, I know during an economic downturn,
it's very easy for businesses
to forget about
their sustainability efforts and investments.
And I know,
we're just trying to keep our heads
above water right now,
but I do wanna note something,
Peak design has not forgotten
about climate change.
Alright, so now let's talk about this tripod.
This travel tripod
packs down to half the volume of traditional tripods
without sacrificing height or stability.
It's literally designed to deploy in seconds,
and pack up within seconds.
They basically redesigned the ball head here.
So it's integrated ball head,
no bulky confusing knobs,
just like a single ergonomic rang
for like smooth, simple control.
And the best part,
the travel tripod is 100% serviceable
and backed by Peak designs, lifetime guarantee.
And also just kind of speaking candidly
for a few minutes,
Lizzie had it a few months before I did.
I'd always just like steal it from her.
It packed up really nicely into our suitcases
when we were traveling.
It's super light,
it can go on the side of my backpack.
So after using it for a few months,
and someone who's a working professional,
this thing is just absolutely amazing.
So if you guys are interested,
and you wanna buy yourself
a present for your birthday,
or do you wanna buy me
a present for my birthday, for yourself. (laughs)
All links are below to grab this tripod.
(beep)
- [Narrator] Now back to our show. (beep)
- Okay, so let's edit
a couple of these photos real quick.
(upbeat music)
And guys, that is Miniature photography.
I hope you enjoyed that.
This is probably
my new favorite style of photography.
If you guys end up
taking any miniature photos,
please tag me on Instagram,
and I'll share some of my favorite ones.
Make sure to include the BTS,
because that's like one of the best parts
of the whole thing.
And would you like to see
more Miniature photography on this channel?
Should we do like challenges?
If I did like an Instagram story being like,
"Alright, what items should I use this week?"
And I'll find a way to like,
have the people interact with them?
Is that something that you'd wanna see?
Please let me know in the comments below.
And again, it's my birthday.
I don't know what to do.
We're stuck inside.
Leave some comments
on like what I should actually be doing
for my birthday.
Should I order pizza?
Or the toppings on the pizza?
These are all important questions to life.
And on that note,
if you guys liked this video
and you want to support this channel,
for my birthday,
please press, Like.
That stuff actually makes a difference.
Subscribe and hit the bell
to be notified for future videos.
And, we will catch you guys in the next one.
(beep)
Check out this set that I got here.
This is the photographer's kit that I got.
"The photo graphin"
As the Germans like to say "Photographin."
There's a guy
with like a handy cam here.
He's going down,
he's trying to get the angles.
"Oh, flaw angle"
It's a handy cam fanboy.
And Oh, Maybe that's Bill.
(beep)
And we're gonna go
and pick these up,
properly social distancing.
To get the step.
Why are you doing this to me?
(beep)
Are you excited for miniature photography?
Now I need you to do one thing for me.
Please don't eat my tiny people.
(beep)
You ate my little miniatures earlier.
(beep)