Written by Andika Fikri brings us a Behind the Scenes look at this Crossover Week shoot which epitomises the weeks theme as he brings Mark Hamill’s two most popular characters into contact with one another in the form of this Luke Skywalker Meets The Joker shot.
Hi Everyone! I’m Andika from @af_toys. Today I’m going to share my BTS for the Crossover Week. My theme for this shot is Mark Hamill as the Joker. Mark Hamill’s Joker Voice fascinates me, So I decided to put these two characters in one picture. I was inspired by work on Behance.net that shows a beautiful studio shot by using colour gel paper as the light filter. Now, I’m trying to replicate it and applying it to my Toy Photography.
Before we step into the shooting process, I would like you to know all the tools.
These are the Action Figures and Camera equipments that I used:
Action Figure
- – Mezco One:12 The Joker
- – S.h.figuarts Luke Skywalker Star Wars Episode VI
Camera: Canon Eos 60D
Lens: Canon 60mm f/2.8 macro
Tripod to keep the shot steady
Lighting:
- One Led lamp with soft box covered in Blue color gel
- Desk lamp with bulb covered in Red Colour gel
Steps to produce the shot:
- First, my setup is pretty simple, I only placed both action figures on the table, and start posing it like these two are partner. To make Luke figure stand up with only one leg, I used UHU tac by placing it under the figure’s foot.
- Next, I cover these two lights with colour gel paper. I use a desk lamp led light with cold colour and cover it with red colour gel. Surprisingly the background colour became purple. In the other hand, the main light which I directed from right top covered with blue gel.
- Third, turn off all lights in the room except these two lights that have been covered with gel.
- Adjust the camera settings (ISO, SS, and Aperture), these are my settings:
- ISO 500
- f/2.8
- Shutter Speed 1/40
- Now, it’s the time to take some shots. Since I set my aperture at f/2.8, there will be only small area that can be focused at that time. Therefore, I took two shots, one focused on Luke’s face and the other focus on the Joker face. So, I can blend it in Photoshop. It’s better to take lots of shot because you can compare between your shots, and settle on the the best one later.
- After I finished taking the picture I imported these two pictures and blended them in Photoshop by using the masking tool. Also I increased the saturation of Magenta’s colour a little bit to bring out the colour. I also did a little dodge colour to lighten Luke’s face.
- Then, I import my psd file to Adobe Lightroom, and enhance the colour and clarity in the app. Maybe you cannot spot the difference, but there is some enhancement for both of the figure’s clarity. Fade effects are also applied.
- Finally, the final image is ready
Hope you guys like my BTS; it was my first time producing a photo with the colour gel technique. Thanks again to the Exclu collective for letting me share my work.
A massive thank you to Anika for bringing us this Behind the scenes look on what is one of our favourite shots from recent weekly themes. Be sure to catch more of Andika’s work over on his Instagram portfolio @af_toys and check out more Crossover Week content right here at Exclu.
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Last modified: June 22, 2017
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