Photoshop

Gold and Blue Team.

Whilst perusing some toy photography shots on the web, I came across this photo of Bane from El Dave Photography. Reading through the description I decided to mess around with layers in Photoshop with one of my own lightbox images to see what I could come up with...

The Original Image

Firstly I duplicated the image twice, each time into a new layer. I made the top layer blue and reduced the opacity until it simply created a pale blue tint over the image. With the next duplicated layer down I increased the contrast and the brightness, which really helped clarify the details.

Post-Photoshop

Then I pulled the photo into PicMonkey and got to work. After cropping the image I put a gentle vignette over it, which helped to soften the corners, and then used the Orton filter to give it a slight glow. The finished image is a bit too soft for my preference, the compsition's not fantastic and the reflection of my hand in C-3PO's shiny frame is a bit too blatant to ignore; but all the same I'm impressed with the results of ten minutes experimentation.

As an aside, this was the kind of vibe I was going for with the original photo. Probably.

"My joints are freezing up!"

It was in my ESB folder anyway, so I'm guessing this is what I was thinking...

Thanks for reading!

Play Arts Kai Dark Knight Trilogy Batman

More than just a Man

Hello, world of high(er) end collectables! If you're as good as my first impressions of the PAK DKR Batman here, I may just stick around...

This is that pre-order I was talking about, and it's pretty incredible. This figure's got fantastic poseability, comes with a great selection of accessories and feels pretty sturdy - I haven't experienced any QC issues as yet (and I'm knocking on wood as I type) - it's without doubt the best Batman I own. Hoping I can get some good pictures with this guy, and maybe one day a Joker to go with him... Everything but my wallet is stoked for this!

Red Hot Summer

Decepticon Smolder

Quick photo post! We cleared out the garden today, and then had a little burn out with the cuttings. This seemed like the ideal situation to showcase my number one pyromaniac Decepticon, Smolder, as always accompanied by his Targetmaster-esque fire axe Chopster.

Through some of the exceptional photographers at Flickr I found PicMonkey, a photo-editing site that works like a phone app but with more functionality. There are premium only tools, but I edited the picture above with the free filters and I'm very happy with it how it turned out. There's not even any need to sign up and log-in, and you can upload straight to other sites, as well as save to your computer. I have yet to see a downside!

Eyes on Fire!

Back on topic with Smolder - you may remember that I pre-ordered the Maketoys Mobine Missile Launcher back in December; unfortunately after several delays (it's still on pre-order for April, with no sign of updates...), I cancelled the order to utilise the finds for something else. I've instead made another pre-order, but this time I'll keep quiet on what it is until I have it in hand...