I am a huge movie fan and am excited to see both Barbie and Oppenheimer this week (what a clash). I was then inspired by all of the “Barbenheimer” media to create my own toy photo. I’ve never done photos with a Barbie doll before, but it was a fun idea and definitely timely with the movies coming out this week.

For this photo, I used the new Mattel Barbie, from the Barbie movie (this one), lots of cotton, and some flame effect pieces that I had to create the mushroom cloud explosion in the background.

The setup

For lighting, I used LEDs by Litra Gear. For the fire effect, I used these LEDs with red gels, and for lighting Barbie, I used a Litra Pro above her. All and all a very basic setup.

To create the explosion, I used a clear red plastic explosion miniature. I then covered it with cotton to shape and make the mushroom effect. It is quite visible in the video below.

For the background, I picked a desert image and had it printed on some card stock for stability. This would give a good Los Alamos context to the image.

As you can see, I shot with a relatively wide aperture to keep the explosion out of focus and give it a sense of distance and depth.

The final image

Now, the only thing that remains is to ask, are you team Barbie or team Openhimer?

About the author

Spencer Witt is a Photographerspecialing in toy photography from Utah, US. You can see more of his work on his Instagram account and on the Figment Five Website.