When it comes to my photographs, I’m somewhat of a purist.  Techniques like HDR and other effects heavy on post-processing in software like Adobe Photoshop just don’t do it for me.  Many of these techniques and effects do have their place in the world of photography.  I just don’t choose to use them.  To me, photography is all about being in that moment and making the most of the image coming through the lens at the time you snap that shutter.  I’m a big fan of my polarizing filter and my neutral-density graduated filters.  These give an effect that is taken at the time the photo is taken, allowing me to manipulate the light of the image, not the pixels on my computer.

That being said, there is one effect that I just love.  I initially learned the technique from a man named Christopher Phin, a graphic designer from Southern Scotland.  Basically, the effect consists of taking a photograph with a down-angled view of the world and creating the illusion that the photograph is of a plastic model.  I would walk through the steps to re-create the effect, but he has already done such a great job on his website, there is no need for me to repeat the steps.  Please visit his blog post if you are interested in trying this effect out with your own photographs and your own copy of Photoshop.

Christopher’s blog post illustrating the technique fascinated me immediately.  I’ve found that if the original photograph looks down on the world, the effect is best (see original photograph of the shot above to the right).  This is because when we view plastic models, we are used to looking down on them.  This initially fools our brain to think that if we are looking down on something, we may be larger.  The step that really bring s the effect home is adding the “lens blur” to the image.  This causes the same effect of macro photography, where the depth-of-field in the photo is so incredibly shallow.  We are used to seeing photographs with large vistas containing everything in focus.  So when we see a large area with a very shallow depth-of-field then it again fools our brain to think we are looking at something very, very small.  Adjusting the images levels and contrast creates the effect that everything is made from synthetic materials.

All these effects work together to give us the great effect of photographing a plastic model.  Here are a couple more examples: