Mexican photographer Felix Hernandez is known for his amazing photos of toys and miniatures that he builds himself. He relies mainly on practical effects and mixes them with some Photoshop, and we’ve shared lots of his photos here on DIYP. Felix combines his knowledge in photography, design and image manipulation with craftsmanship to create some mind-blowing work. Today, he has decided to tell us more about it: how he does it, where he finds inspiration, and what his work means to him. And of course, he kindly shared plenty of his beautiful images and BTS shots.
This photographer builds highly realistic miniatures for stunning movie-inspired portraits
It’s not rare that photographers are inspired by other types of art: it can be cinematography, music, painting – you name it. Photographer Nicholas Busch finds his inspiration in movies, and he brings together realistic miniatures, portrait photography, and compositing.
Nicholas builds hyper-realistic dioramas from scratch to create scenes from The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Lord of the Rings and other movies. He then combines them with portraits, and with the help of Photoshop, he creates photos just like scenes we’ve seen on the big screen.
I build miniatures and shoot them with real Milky Way to create realistic scenes
Breaking the rules and thinking outside the box is something a photographer should always consider.
You start your journey with photography capturing everything you see interesting, jumping from one genre to the other until you find your favorite style.
I was passionate about Astronomy since I was a child, and Astrophotography was for me a perfect match, it combined my love for astronomy, my love for nature and landscapes with adventures, travel and camping. This beautiful recipe is just perfect for me.
Felix crashed an X-Wing in the desert to make this photograph
Photographer Felix Hernandez is on a real Star Wars kick at the moment. He’s just released the second in his Forgotten Titans series, and it looks even better than the first. The sight of a crashed X-Wing isn’t something you want to run into when stranded in the deserts of Jakku or Tatooine, but it does happen, and that’s what Felix has recreated here.
This photographer recreated Rey’s home using miniature Star Wars models
It’s great when you can combine two of your favourite things. Things like photography and Star Wars. It’s even better when you can actually pull off the ideas you see in your head. Not all of us have that ability, but photographer Felix Hernandez sure does. An expert in working with miniatures to create highly realistic scenes, he decided to tackle The Force Awakens.
Officially titled Forgotten Titans I, the scene shows a disabled AT-AT in the desert. In the movie, this is Rey’s home until she’s taken on a whirlwind adventure. Felix combines miniature star wars models with good lighting and a little compositing to create a fantastic final result. And, lucky for us, he posted a behind the scenes video of its construction!
Photographer tells stories through realistic miniature scenes he builds himself
Having several talents and skills is wonderful, and bringing them together can create some truly stunning works of art. Eddie Putera joins his talent in model making and photography with plenty of creativity, patience and storytelling. And the result: a set of amazing hand-built dioramas, captured in photos that tell stories of different places and times.
This artist photographs satirical miniature worlds that play with your mind
The artists who build and photograph miniature worlds never cease to amaze me with their skill, patience, and ideas. One of such artists is a German photographer and model builder Frank Kunert. He builds his miniature worlds from scratch, but the scenes he makes don’t belong to the world we see with our eyes. His Small Worlds are satirical, weird, surreal, often even dark. While all the elements look like they come straight from the world around us – each photo has a twist that will play with your mind and make you stop, stare and analyze it.
Small Worlds belong to a familiar, yet different world, and Frank shared his brilliant works with DIYP, as well as some details how he makes it.
Photographer recreates famous TV show scenes with model toy cars
For those of us who grew up in the 80s, scenes like those above were pretty common to our TV screens. The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Knight Rider, and countless other shows would deliver us 30 minute chunks of the most amazing vehicular acrobatics we’d ever seen. These days, it would probably done with CGI, but there was something about those practical effects that makes them stand out.
One photographer not going the CG route is Felix Hernández. He’s proving that these same images can still be acquired practically. Although, it might not be the way you’d first think. Instead of full size vehicles, these images were created in the studio with miniatures. For those who follow Felix’s work, this probably doesn’t come as much surprise. Felix is a master of making the miniature look and feel real.
Go behind the scenes to see how this VW bus was shot in the snow
The photography of Mexico based Felix Hernández is nothing short of remarkable. Felix specialises in turning dreams into reality, at least, photographically, and he does it in some absolutely amazing ways. Utilising an array of techniques including miniatures, dry ice and even cigarette smoke, his work shows some elaborate thinking.
In this video, we get see some of that process, and a look behind the scenes on how the image “Inner Trip” was made. Felix describes this image as “a journey to my inner self”, bringing yet another dreamy vision to life. Utilising miniature models, long exposure photography and some light painting, he sure seems to have had been on a great ride.
These photographers created an apocalyptic world in miniature
Creating apocalyptic worlds isn’t an uncommon theme for many photographers. Usually, however, this creation is finalised in Photoshop. They’re often composited images, blended with some CG textures to give those last little touches. But what if you don’t want to do it in Photoshop? What if you want to shoot it for real?
That’s exactly what diorama artists Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber have been doing for over a decade. The pair specialise in post-mankind miniature environments. Crumbling buildings, nature taking back what is hers. In this short documentary by filmmakers The Drawing Room we meet these two amazing artists and get some insight into their work and thought process.
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