What happens when you have to create an advertising project about cars, but you don’t have a crew and have only toy cars (1:43 scale).
I got a referral from Skoda and a Hungarian car magazine to photograph model cars like they would be real. I accepted the challenge!
I really love these situations! Toy photography is special because I can do everything that is in my mind. There are no limits for these car ads! If I need snow, I make it. If I need rain, desert, streets or anything I can create them!
I spend hours and hours creating miniature worlds with as many real elements as possible (e.g. smoke and dirt). Most of the car photos took me 7 to 12 hours each to complete, but one particular photoshoot idea took a whopping 10 days for set building, concept work, shooting, and post-production.
While it would be easier to fake things like motion blur using Photoshop, I actually captured it on camera – the blur you see in the backgrounds and in the cars’ wheels wasn’t the result of digital manipulation.
I build real scenery and try to turn my photo ideas into reality. My main principle is that I don’t use Photoshop for manipulation. I do everything in front of the camera (e.g. motion blur, rain, dust, etc). Of course, there are some cases when I can’t avoid this, but I always indicate which parts contain modifications.
After the Skoda project, I have worked on another one with the Mercedes G-Class model (1:18 scale).
You can watch work videos about the images and the bottom of the article you will find a behind the scenes picture collections. I hope you will enjoy it!
More info: Instagram
I did many takes to reach the perfect look for the flying dust
Manipulation: wheel motion, car lamps.
Real: everything else.
I built this scenery for days. I made many test pictures with smoke what was a nightmare. I spent hours and hours to blowing the perfect shaped smoke behind the car
Manipulation: car lamps, air dust, sunspot.
Real: everything else.
Here the motion blur is also real. I built a movable asphalt surface while the car was fixated
Manipulation: cloud texture, car lamps.
Real: everything else.
Action shot in the snow
Manipulation: car lamps.
Real: everything else.
Playing with perspective. This is one single image mixed with real environment
Everything is real in this photo
Driving in a storm. I used water spray for the rainy weather
Manipulation: car lamps.
Real: everything else.
I built movable scenery and fixed the car. So I could move the whole background and the road. It makes the background blurry and the “asphalt” spun the wheels
Manipulation: car lamps.
Real: everything else, the complete motion too.
I used greenscreen for the homogenous background. I changed its color and placed a cloud texture
Manipulation: car lamps, cloud texture.
Real: everything else.
In this image I wanted to create as much dynamic as possible. So I used a dutch camera angle and water splash
Manipulation: car lamps.
Real: everything else, yes every part of the splash as well!
The elegance of the G-Classe
Manipulation: car lamps.
Real: everything else.
Just for fun. A dreamy picture
Manipulation: car lamps.
Real: everything else.
Here you can watch the whole workflow including the scenery building and practical tricks
G-Classe series was a difficult challenge as well. At first, I checked the life-size one to collect some inspiration
Here you can see, how everything is moving except for the car
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Share on Facebook"Manipulation: ___ Real: ____" You sir, are the gold standard for what modern photography should portray and report. Thank you for the honesty, it only highlights you further as an artist.
Thank you so much my friend! Its important to me that dont fool the viewers. Im proud of that I can solve many thing without Ps, but sometimes its necessary. Through this, like i mention the manipulated parts, I wanna gain the trust of the people. :) I mean, they can know if I say thats real they can believe me coz I would mention if wouldnt be. :)
Load More Replies...Thank you! :) If you check my instagram page @benedek.lampert you will find more toy photo content not just with cars but with lego and others. :)
Load More Replies...Very cool and impressive! Especially the smoke must have been very hard to manipulate
Thank u mate! :) Yes! And its funny because when I have made the test pictures I could blow the smoke perfectly. But when I tried to take the final capture, it took me hours to make it sutiable. :D
Load More Replies..."Manipulation: ___ Real: ____" You sir, are the gold standard for what modern photography should portray and report. Thank you for the honesty, it only highlights you further as an artist.
Thank you so much my friend! Its important to me that dont fool the viewers. Im proud of that I can solve many thing without Ps, but sometimes its necessary. Through this, like i mention the manipulated parts, I wanna gain the trust of the people. :) I mean, they can know if I say thats real they can believe me coz I would mention if wouldnt be. :)
Load More Replies...Thank you! :) If you check my instagram page @benedek.lampert you will find more toy photo content not just with cars but with lego and others. :)
Load More Replies...Very cool and impressive! Especially the smoke must have been very hard to manipulate
Thank u mate! :) Yes! And its funny because when I have made the test pictures I could blow the smoke perfectly. But when I tried to take the final capture, it took me hours to make it sutiable. :D
Load More Replies...
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