#692 TIPS: Photography tips from Aaron Newman

Today's post is a little different from our usual; photography is a topic that isn't directly related to building MOCs, but if you want to have success when sharing your builds it's definitely something to think about.

We were lucky enough to get some tips from Aaron Newman, who you can see from the picture is not just a great MOC builder but knows how to make the photo look great.

For beginners to the photography scene, Aaron said: “Try to create as much of the scene and atmosphere physically as you can. Lights, position and colour of lights, correct-ish backdrop colours. It’s much easier to throw extra digital elements like sparks, lava and fog over a picture that’s mostly there already than to have to basically craft the whole scene from nothing on a computer.” This is very true as you then don’t have to be a pro on the computer, just get the lighting right in real life so the photo doesn’t look over edited in terms of levels and effects.

Aaron recommended some equipment:

Clamps lights – these can be positioned in a variety of places to direct the light where you want it

Photography lamps with mirrored umbrellas – effective way to spread light over an area

A light box – to diffuse all above light sources

LED lights – to add colour and highlights, placed at the base of the build

And also some applications:

GIMP - a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing and more

Enlight Pixaloop – Aaron used this to animate the photo which you can check out here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw9uEgUFTIO/

Any for the aftereffects, any program such as Adobe Photoshop can be used to change the brightness, colours etc. and add effects, filters and extras.

Make sure your also check out Aaron's website here from more tips on photography and a range of other topics related to custom LEGO building: https://www.aaronbrickdesigner.com/sauron