LEGO Photography with Four Bricks Tall

We are very proud to have Adaptalux Studio lighting in the hands of many experts around the world. In this article, Anna (Four Bricks Tall) shares her experiences using our lighting to create her incredible LEGO Photography scenes.

Bringing plastic toys to life

With Four Bricks Tall

LEGO photography is an exciting hobby that can be as simple as taking photos of minifigures outdoors with beautiful bokeh, or as intricate as staging scenes inside a detailed, brick-built set.

I love exploring the full range, but one of my favorite types of LEGO photography is setting up environmental portraits of minifigs within official LEGO sets or MOCs (LEGO-speak for custom builds of your own design).

Because official sets are small and packed with details, getting the right camera angles and lighting can be a fun challenge. That’s where tools like a probe lens and Adaptalux lighting arms make a big difference, helping me bring these mini scenes to life with ease.

Flexible lighting from above

For instance, to capture Strahd von Zarovich relaxing by the fireplace, I mounted the Adaptalux Studio pod on a Manfrotto arm above the LEGO set. This setup gave me the freedom to move the lighting arms around the LEGO model, all while keeping everything compact and organized—a must-have since my photography studio is just a cozy nook in the wall.

For this shot, I used three lighting arms: warm white, blue, and standard white. I lit the fireplace in the tavern of the Dungeons & Dragons set with a warm white lighting arm to give Strahd a dramatic key light. To create a moody “moonlight” effect, I placed a blue light with a diffuser behind him, emulating moonlight coming through the lattice window. Lastly, a white lighting arm with a diffuser lifted the shadows a bit for some added depth.

Precision lighting for fiery effects

Whenever I see a flame in a LEGO set, I can’t resist lighting it up! Sometimes I’ll use a tiny wired LED nestled between bricks, and other times, I’ll backlight it. One of my favorite Adaptalux features is the ability to control the light beam size, allowing me to create just the right effect. For instance, to light up a skull candle flame, I focused a warm white beam through a tiny lattice window to make it glow.

Here’s another shot where I wanted to capture the light and shadow from that same lattice window.

Through dense leaves

I’ve built a few LEGO book nooks designed to fit between books, which means they’re narrow and pretty dark! Lighting the ‘secret garden’ book nook was especially challenging since light had to filter through dense layers of leaves.

To make it work, I threaded a warm white lighting arm between the leaves and set up another warm white arm with a diffuser as the key light. The thin lighting arms mean I don’t have to break apart my LEGO sets to get light inside.

Easier to control reflections

Even when I’m not lighting through windows, doors, or leaves, the Adaptalux Studio is my go-to for controlling tricky reflections. With LEGO’s shiny surfaces, glare can be a challenge, so I use the flexible lighting arms to direct the light precisely where I want it, keeping reflections at bay with minimal hassle.

I can just nudge the arms to get the light source outside the family of angles and avoid any distracting glare.

Getting into LEGO photography

LEGO photography is all about capturing minifigures in dynamic, storytelling scenes. Start out with whatever resources you have then explore macro lenses, lighting, and using LEGO sets as environments when you want a bigger challenge or to try something new.

LEGO photography is endlessly fun and full of discovery! Check out LEGO photography communities like Stud Shooters and BrickCentral to meet other toy photographers and pick up more tips.

You can see more of Anna’s work on Instagram and YouTube.

If you are an Adaptalux Studio user and would like to share your own story and images, please get in touch!