Han Solo Lego Microfighter - Panasonic GX7 + Speedlites + Snoot

Being both a Star Wars AND a Lego fan, it wasn't even like I had a choice of whether or not to buy the Han Solo Lego Microfighter when I saw it in the toy section at my local Walmart.  Besides, I can justify it by using it in a photo shoot, right? :-)

But what camera to use?  Hmmm... seemed like the perfect time to play with the Panasonic GX7.  It's small and light.  A perfect match for a Lego Microfighter. :-)

And then I had to think about how to set up the shots.  I wanted some dramatic, kind of sci-fi looking, but I also wanted to keep it simple (and cheap... cheap is always good).  

So I came up with the idea to use a piece of pegboard, painted black, and lit from behind with an off-camera speedlite. 

I figured if I played with both the angle of the speedlite behind the pegboard, and the camera angle from where I was taking the shot, I had a good chance to get some interesting lighting effects.

Here's the basic set-up.  My coffee table in my living room.  The pegboard, now painted black with some cheap children's tempura paint from the dollar store, and a couple of speedlites.

The speedlite camera left is on a Manfrotto Nano Stand and has a snoot attached.  It's also sitting on a wireless radio receiver.  The speedlite camera right is lying on it's side on the coffee table so I could play with the light fall on Han and the Millenium Falcon.  It's set to optical slave. 

 

From there the fun begins.  I moved around with the camera, exploring different angles and distances, while at the same time, playing with the angles and distances of the speedlites.

I was able to get some interesting flare effects through the holes in the pegboard when I had the camera and the speedlite behind the pegboard aimed fairly straight on at each other.

By changing the distance and angles of the speedlites camera left and camera right, I was able to get some interesting lighting on Han and the Falcon.

My black, glossy topped coffee table helped here too as it makes for interesting reflections depending on the angles.  

These are all shot with the Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens on the GX7.  

Now that my new Olympus 45mm f1.8 has just arrived, I might just do a similar set-up using it for very shallow depth of field.  Luckily, Han and the Falcon weren't the only Lego Microfighters I picked up, so I have some new ideas for a similar yet different set. 

Stay tuned to find out which other Lego Microfighters I bought and see what I can come up with by way of a different photographic shoot for them. :-)


Equipment Used in this Shoot:

Han Solo Lego Microfighter
Panasonic GX7
Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens
Speedlites X3
Speedlite Snoot
Manfrotto Nano Stand
Cowboy Wireless Radio Trigger / Receiver