Behind the Scenes, Part 1: Photography
“… literally thousands of photographs…”
Shooting the photos for the book is not the most difficult part of producing the book. No, sir. That is, without question, the writing and editing. But photography is definitely the most time-consuming. It’s not just the scheduling, arrangements and preparation, although that can be challenging, too. Thus far, I have traveled twice to shoot Mego collections (once by airplane, even… but oh boy, was that ever worth it!) I have plans to fly again soon, and hopefully will do so several more times in the near future.
But I digress. The real time-sucking begins once I get in the same room as the toys.
Perfecting a process for photographing Mego toys has been a seemingly ceaseless parade of failed experiments. Where should I set it up? What aperture should I use? How should I rig the lights? Without getting specific, suffice to say I’ve tried and failed many times over. But now I have a system that works pretty well.
I used to set up the photo rig at my office. I spent quite a few weekends doing photo sessions there… a complete and utter hassle. I finally set up a studio in the same room as the computer I use to design the book. That has made all the difference in the world, as now I can set up and shoot on a whim. I can download and process images immediately. And if they suck? I can just shoot them again. And I don’t even have to drive to the office!
Setting up a shot of Mr. Mxyzptlk, with lights, diffusion tent, gray card, etc.I generally shoot between twenty and forty photographs for each image that will end up in the book. Let’s see… average thirty… multiply by 1,000… damnit! Time to buy another hard drive!
Among the twenty-odd photos, I’ll find two or three that really work for what I’m setting out to accomplish. I choose one and get to work.
The most desirable of the Mr. Mxyzptlk photos, as it was shot.It takes about 20-25 minutes to clip out and process each image. I’m really anal when it comes to images, and I will go to great lengths to ensure a ridiculously sick-ass image. Over the years, I have developed a few original techniques for getting the most out of my clipped images, and I painstakingly employ them for each and every image. Once the image is clipped, I save the master file, and move into production.
The selected Mr. Mxyzptlk photo, rotated and clipped from the background.In this case, the figure’s foot in my favorite shot was partially obscured by the object used to prop the figure (you can see it in the original photo). I opted to paint the missing portion of foot, rather than reposition and reshoot the figure. Gotta make those decisions on the fly. Besides, I was pretty sure that portion of the figure wouldn’t be very apparent in the final composition.
For this particular photo, I had a specific image in mind: a dynamic Superman, the moment before he realizes Mr. Mxyzptlk has emerged from the 5th dimension (with the intention of annoying the Man of Steel, of course!). I envisioned it a bit like a comic book cover. Naturally, I can’t alter the expression of a Mego figure, so composition is vital. I wanted good ol’ Mxyzy to be ghostly, almost transparent… just coming out of his time-travelin’, Indian-style sitting position. And I needed to depict Superman with a sense of trepidation.
I put it all together, and this is the result:
There is nothing quite like finishing an image. It’s very satisfying. Even though I may not end up using this exact image in the final product, I was still pleased with the results.More Behind the Scenes goodness later…
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Mr. Mxyzptlk and Superman are registered trademarks of DC Comics.
All images ©2006 Benjamin Holcomb. All rights reserved. Images may not be republished without express written consent. Please Email me with any questions.
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