A creative diorama. A few die-cast cars. An easily transportable stand made of PVC. A camera and a tripod. These are the elements used in my “time travel images” The most important consideration is time of day for dramatic lighting. In this demonstration, you can see that the afternoon test shot is no match for the sunrise image taken the next morning. Shooting into the sun requires balancing the foreground subjects with supplemental lighting. A handheld flashlight works fine. Obtaining sharp focus from foreground to horizon is the tricky part and requires a technique called “focus stacking” which means combining multiple images in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Here are the test shots and my final images. Simple diorama made with art board and balsa strips. The awning is a pice of cardboard box with aluminum foil pressed into the grooves. The surfboards are balsa wood. Everything gets a coat of hardware store spray paint. The afternoon test shot shows lots of room for improvement. The lighting is flat. The background is boring–no great clouds. The positioning of the cars is awkward. The viewer sees the unnatural edge of the buildings “floor” in both foreground and background. The golden light of sunrise is a big improvement. Shadows and beams of low light create great mood and texture on the sand dunes, the wood slats and the rust painted on the cars. The small walls, the dunes and the cars hide the transition from the flat surfaced diorama to the beach. This was the final layout of the morning, when the sun became too bright to shoot into. (This happens minutes after sunrise, so you have to move quickly)One technique for dealing with direct sun is to “hide” it partially behind an object and shoot at the cameras highest F-stop. This creates the “sunburst” effect. My favorite image of the day came at the exact moment of sunrise. This requires getting to the location and setting up in the dark, guessing where the sun will appear, and making quick last minute camera and stand adjustments. Most of all, the challenge is balancing light. I took five shots in succession while moving the flashlight over the areas that I wanted to highlight. The final combined image was brushed a bit in Adobe Lightroom. Luck always plays a part. On this day, the clouds appeared where I wanted them. The orange colored horizon was the result of “Saharan” dust in the atmosphere that blew from Africa all the way to Florida!Your time investment in building a diorama can be leveraged to other pictures. With just a change of signs and a few props, the “surfing diorama” becomes the “dixie gas station” or the “Key West boathouse”, etc.
Friends ask, “Why the heck do you do this?” Well, I am getting old and writing a book about my childhood in Florida and need illustrations that show how dramatically the state has changed in just one lifetime. Mainly, I find the process is fun. I am not a very good painter. The camera is a great substitute!
Thanks to Awesome Diecast, Boca Raton Florida for their unbelievable selection of high quality die cast cars. https://www.awesomediecast.com
