Everything you need to know before you start miniature photography

I’ve seen so many great examples of miniature photography that I wouldn’t even know where to start with examples. I’m very inspired by it, and I’ve wanted to start shooting my own miniature photography for a while now. If you’ve wanted the same, Mathieu Stern has a video just for you. If you’re still new to miniature photography, here’s everything you need to know before you start shooting.

What you’ll need

First of all, you’ll need the miniature figurines, obviously. The three main manufacturers in the world are Woodland Scenics (US), Noch (Germany), and Preiser (Germany).

Let’s talk about prices. For reference, this set of 16 Woodland Scenics figurines costs $21 on a discount. For $25, you’ll get only six Preiser figurines, while six figurines from Noch cost $17. Of course, you can go with less popular brands and get 60 pretty decent figurines for $30. You can even pay $10 for 200 of these, but you’ll get what you pay for since they look horrendous.

Naturally, you’ll also need a camera and a macro lens. Mathieu suggests three types of macro lenses that work best for him, but of course, feel free to experiment with other lenses.

Wide-angle macro lens: Laowa 15mm f/4
Normal macro lens: Takumar 50mm f/4
Short telephoto macro lens: Tamron 90mm f/2.5

Of course, you can also use your phone camera set on Macro mode.

How to keep the figurines in place

There are two methods for having the figurines stay in place. The first is to add a bit of glue stick to their feet and place them where you want them to stand. The second is to add a tiny bit of blue tack to their feet instead of the glue.

Styles of miniature photography

There are five main styles of miniature photography, and Mathieu gives a few examples for each of them in the video:

Environmental macro shots (outdoors)
Recreating outdoor scenes using household items (indoors)
Neutral background macro shot (indoors)
Minimal macro shots (indoors)
Complex background scene (indoors)

I think that miniature photography could be a great way to spend time in winter paired with lockdown. In fact, I think I’m gonna order some of those figurines I linked above and start playing with them and my camera. After all, there’s not much to do here in winter, really. When it’s cold and polluted, I prefer staying at home and being creative.

Have you played with miniature photography before? If not, are you planning to?

[How to do Miniature Figure Photography (Everything you need to know) | Mathieu Stern]