Don't Lose Your Screws!
Advice that probably comes too late for these two loonies, because they have quite a few screws loose ;) To my delight, I discovered that the German and the English idioms regarding the "loose screw" are the same, so I knew that my little idea (which, for once in a while, wasn't last minute) could work. I don't use Lego often for photos, in fact, this is only the second time (for the first photo featuring a Lego Minifigure, please check the first comment), but this time, I almost immediately had a clear image in my mind's eye: The hatless head of a Minifigure with a few mini-screws placed in the (hollow! Hooray!) connection piece for the headpiece.
The tiny screws belong to the case back of a Casio (yes, another one) AE1200 aka the "Casio Royale". This cheap, clunky digital "World Timer" has a worldwide fan base among watch modders, because it is very easy to open and to do modifications to, for instance, the faceplate, the case, and even to the watch module. I have replaced the resin bezel with a third-party full metal one which came with its own (and much shorter) screws for the case back. So the tiny loose screws seen here are the ones for the original bezel/casing. There is a real danger of losing these tiny screws in that black hole aka the living room carpet that lies right under the table I'm using as my photo studio. Said carpet has a beautiful Oriental pattern and is pretty thick, so any dropped, tiny item is extremely hard to retrieve. This has happened before (and more than once) to MM props, and I have spent quite some time down there on my knees, equipped with my small flashlight, in "tiny item rescue operations", so I took extra precautions to make sure I won't lose these screws: I put some modeling clay into the hollow connection piece to make sure the screws would stay put – and they did :) The other screws are random picks from the toolbox.
Regarding the size of the frame, I've nearly maxed the 3 inches out. A Lego Minifigure without a headpiece of sorts (cap, helmet...) is 4 cm / 1,5 inches tall. I've arranged both little guys so that what you see of them in this frame is about 4,5 cm / 1,77 inches high – which yields an image height of 5 cm / 1,9 inches. Put on a ruler, side by side, screws included and arranged the way you see them in the image, yields a width of less than 6 cm / 2,36 inches, so I'd say that the entire frame of this scene, negative space included, is 5x7 cm / 1,9x2,75 inches.
I thought focus stacking might be indicated for maximum, all-over sharpness, but in the end, I chose one of the images with some blur in it, because the blur adds a sense of motion and dynamic to this little scene. And since I only had those grim-looking Stormtrooper/Darth Vader heads, I took the freedom to slightly change the look of the left guy's eyes with a few brush strokes in PS to give his face more of a "loony" expression – I hope this post-processing trick is acceptable. Obviously, there was no need to change the other guy's facial expression because he doesn't have a head in the first place. A Lego Minifigure Joe Cocker would probably sing: "You Can Leave Your Head On" :)
HMM, Everyone! (I'm busy today, so I'll catch up with you tonight!)
Don't Lose Your Screws!
Advice that probably comes too late for these two loonies, because they have quite a few screws loose ;) To my delight, I discovered that the German and the English idioms regarding the "loose screw" are the same, so I knew that my little idea (which, for once in a while, wasn't last minute) could work. I don't use Lego often for photos, in fact, this is only the second time (for the first photo featuring a Lego Minifigure, please check the first comment), but this time, I almost immediately had a clear image in my mind's eye: The hatless head of a Minifigure with a few mini-screws placed in the (hollow! Hooray!) connection piece for the headpiece.
The tiny screws belong to the case back of a Casio (yes, another one) AE1200 aka the "Casio Royale". This cheap, clunky digital "World Timer" has a worldwide fan base among watch modders, because it is very easy to open and to do modifications to, for instance, the faceplate, the case, and even to the watch module. I have replaced the resin bezel with a third-party full metal one which came with its own (and much shorter) screws for the case back. So the tiny loose screws seen here are the ones for the original bezel/casing. There is a real danger of losing these tiny screws in that black hole aka the living room carpet that lies right under the table I'm using as my photo studio. Said carpet has a beautiful Oriental pattern and is pretty thick, so any dropped, tiny item is extremely hard to retrieve. This has happened before (and more than once) to MM props, and I have spent quite some time down there on my knees, equipped with my small flashlight, in "tiny item rescue operations", so I took extra precautions to make sure I won't lose these screws: I put some modeling clay into the hollow connection piece to make sure the screws would stay put – and they did :) The other screws are random picks from the toolbox.
Regarding the size of the frame, I've nearly maxed the 3 inches out. A Lego Minifigure without a headpiece of sorts (cap, helmet...) is 4 cm / 1,5 inches tall. I've arranged both little guys so that what you see of them in this frame is about 4,5 cm / 1,77 inches high – which yields an image height of 5 cm / 1,9 inches. Put on a ruler, side by side, screws included and arranged the way you see them in the image, yields a width of less than 6 cm / 2,36 inches, so I'd say that the entire frame of this scene, negative space included, is 5x7 cm / 1,9x2,75 inches.
I thought focus stacking might be indicated for maximum, all-over sharpness, but in the end, I chose one of the images with some blur in it, because the blur adds a sense of motion and dynamic to this little scene. And since I only had those grim-looking Stormtrooper/Darth Vader heads, I took the freedom to slightly change the look of the left guy's eyes with a few brush strokes in PS to give his face more of a "loony" expression – I hope this post-processing trick is acceptable. Obviously, there was no need to change the other guy's facial expression because he doesn't have a head in the first place. A Lego Minifigure Joe Cocker would probably sing: "You Can Leave Your Head On" :)
HMM, Everyone! (I'm busy today, so I'll catch up with you tonight!)