LEGO Photography

Lego Photography with the Laowa Probe Lens (24mm f/14) – Watch on YouTube

We love LEGO photography. There’s something about the charming features of the minifigures and iconic studs that makes photographs both relatable and recognisable. There is a big challenge when it comes to photographing Lego figures though – Perspective. In this article, we’re exploring how to improve the believability of lego photography scenes using Adaptalux Lighting and the Laowa Probe Lens.

Lego Minifigure Photography

We’re no strangers to photogaphing LEGO. We have several shoots on our blog, exploring different techniques from illuminating lightsabers to creating realistic looking fire effects in the backgrounds of your toy shots.

There’s one thing that was always missing though. A photo from the LEGO Minifigure perspective. What we mean by that, is an image that feels as if you are the same size as the character. Stood in the same room, looking at an equal. Toy photography often feels like you’re simply looking down at a smaller object, and doesn’t bring the scene to life.

Laowa Probe Lens (24mm f14)

With the help of the right tools however, it’s possible to see the world from the perspective of the little LEGO figures. The Laowa probe lens offers a set of unique characteristics that suit LEGO photography perfectly.

The first is obvious. The lens is a long stick! This enables us to place the camera, or rather just the end of the lens, inside a LEGO room, with a LEGO figure!

It’s easy to pass the lens through a lego doorway or window. Or worst case, remove a few bricks to allow the lens a path into the room. We’re shooting inside the rooms of the LEGO modular buildings to get that feeling of correct scale. We want it to feel like our Minifigure subjects are in the right surroundings.

The next great feature of the Laowa probe lens, is the wide angle of view. The focal length of only 24mm provides a wide view of the scene, much more so than the other macro lenses we have tried.

Combine this with the lens being inside the room, it emulates the view of a LEGO size camera, of the correct scale. The distortion of the focal length adds to the depth in the scene, with closer thing seeming bigger and distant objects much smaller… just like in real life!

With a longer focal length, all of the parts of the scene would seem much flatter and have less depth. In the case of our baker, it would be detremental to the shot as the donut would be much less impactful.

Lighting Realism

One of the most impactful means of making a scene look believable and realistic, is the lighting. It can be especially difficult to light a scene that’s inside, as conventional light sources just won’t do. The Laowa probe lens has a built in LED ring for providing light in enclosed shooting spaces, but it’s not good for LEGO photography.

The direct light from the probe lens blows out closer areas and underexposes distant items. The shine from the LEGO bricks is also horrible and simply makes the direct light from the lens unusable in this application.

However, just like the versatile and small probe lens, we also have some small and flexible lighting that can reach into places that conventional lighting can’t! The Lighting Arms of the Adaptalux Studio are perfectly suited to providing multiple light sources into a LEGO scene.

They can be used undiffused outside a window to simulate sunlight pouring in, or a diffuser can sit inside the room It’s self to emulate the soft lighting of a lamp or curtained window.

While the Laowa probe lens needs a lot of light, we can provide it all by strategically placing lighting arms in our scene. They can hide just out of shot and be easily adjusted millimetre by millimetre to make the right highlights and shadows fall into the room.

Because of the continuous LED lighting, it’s easy to see how each adjustment affects your image. We went through a learning curve with every scene and being able to see the results always ended up with a better image second time around!

Focus Stacking

The Laowa probe lens has a very shallow depth of field. It’s to be expected for any 2x macro lens. When it comes to LEGO photography, this can be both a blessing and a curse.

A shallow DoF accentuates the characters over the background, creating separation. However it also reminds the viewer of the scale. In full scale photography, depth of field is much less pronounced. You may want to consider some short focus stacks to maintain the detail in important areas of your image. For example, with our baker, the image suffers if the donut is left out of focus in the foreground.

If you want to learn more about how to focus stack and overcome this shallow depth of field, check out our focus stacking tutorial here.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more macro photography tutorials, ideas and inspiration!