I was approached to shoot some Hasbro Avenger figures for the new movie coming out. It was a challenge to say the least. I know how to light a person, but how does that same light modifier light a 3 3/4″ action figure.

I’ve taken toy shots before, but never in a way to try to recreate a mini scene. The first hurdle was the scene. I went out in the yard where my brother’s house was doing construction. We picked up rocks and dirt and put them in a bucket. At this point I wasn’t sure what we could use as a background. I thought of actually going downtown on location in an alley. My brother suggested a LCD screen. I was sceptical at first but gave it a try…it worked perfectly. This way we were also able to swap out digital backgrounds without doing any post work.

As for lighting, I tried several different light setups before landing on the one used. Went thru several different lenses….in the end the 35mm F2 pulled thru again. I wanted wide, but too wide it would overshoot the LCD screen. I also needed to make these 3″ action figures as life like as possible. A lot of time was going into getting the most realistic pose with each character. Iron Man had to be suspended on fishing line. Overall I was pretty happy it turned out. I feel all 4 Avenger Members has their own unique look with pretty much the same lighting setup and props.

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