The Smurf

The Smurf.

I wanted to go farther in a toy photography. Give my subject (the Smurf) a mood or more realistic look!.
Making an image of a toy could be seen as something easy… but the reality is far from that.

I wanted my subject to be in focus, all of it, and as I was going to shoot with macro, and with macro you can not get all your subject in focus… I had to apply the technique of focus staking.

This technique consist in doing several shots at different focus distances in order to have all your subject in focus… For this final images I did 25 individual photos… Then in pos (PS) you do the photo stacking, merging all the 35 images in one.

The water droplets where done on production; Instead of using water I used corn syrup which is transparent and stays still for hours… (important when you are doing 35 images to conform one)... The droplets that are flying were insert in pos (PS).

The background was also done in camera… a simple blue cardboard (paper).
The Smurf is standing in a flat piece of glass to achieve the reflection.

This was taken on studio with one studio light (Bowens) with a beauty dish (modifier)

In pos I added the texture of the skin and cloth of the Smurf. For that I used real skin (goosebumps) and white cloth texture… Then I apply it with the FS technique (Frequency Separation)… Wrapping around my subject by zones.. so the skin texture follows the shape of the smurfs body.

I replaced the plastic bucket that came with the toy in pos for a photo of a real one.

Finally some levels, curves and color grading in Nik Software (Color Effects).

Hope you lie it… In my FB fan page (Hernandez Dreamphography) you can see some images of the process.