Last month, I ran a phone photography contest that tasked people to use some of the tips by top LEGO photographers in their entries for a chance to win an Apexel Macro Phone Lens Kit.
The goal was to show that taking a creative photo of LEGO subjects with a phone isn’t nearly as easy as most people might think. Your composition skills really get tested when you have to shoot with a wide-angle lens and a deep depth of field.
Lots of toy photographers stepped up and submitted great photos on the Stud Shooters community on Reddit, Discord, and Instagram. It was awesome to see people trying new things!
Say cheese!
In the end, we could only have one winner and that was frame_the_toys who wowed us with his photo of the Alien Tourist from CMF 26 taking pics of a few astronauts on the moon’s surface!
In his BTS video, frame_the_toys showed us how he stabilized his phone to shoot hands-free, built a diorama to scale and texture, layered elements, used manual focus, and edited on phone apps to achieve the final result. He even threw in a few other tips like using a bounce card and a timer.
Well done, frame_the_toys! That Apexel macro lens is on its way and I hope to see some interesting photos made with it.
Nominee showcase
So many great photos got the nod from judges tongwars and edgy_mando for their excellent use of tips too. Check out this diverse range of LEGO scenes shot with a phone!
Winter night
Welcome aboard
River Rover
Lonely
Spiders and We don’t serve your kind
Take me down to the river
Stop and smell the flowers
Outgunned
Phone photography isn’t that easy
Shooting with a phone makes different demands of a photographer than shooting with a dedicated camera, especially their composition skills.
With phone cameras, you can’t simply make the background go away with a large aperture and a long lens. You have to work in that environment and find other ways to make your subject stand out.
Ergonomics aside, a phone camera is just a camera with a wide-angle lens, deep focus, and close working distance features. If you know how to work within those parameters, you can get great shots.