Presenting: Bulletstorm

One of my favorite things to take photos of are my various action figures and collectibles. I’ve taken and uploaded plenty before, and it’s something I intend to keep doing. Most of the photos I’ve taken so far have been “portraits” or non-action shots. Action shots are something I’ve wanted to try, but haven’t really figured out quite yet.

This brings me to today, with my new piece. Using NECA’s awesome Grayson Hunt figure as a base, along with a couple of bases from misc. figures (can you name them?), I’ve created my first action shot. The process was pretty deep, it required several steps of work to get the final piece.

My first step was getting my pose chosen and then shooting the actual photo. I decided to use my 27” monitor as a background by displaying a screenshot from the game on it. By photographing in front of this, I’d have a dynamic and inclusive background for my piece. I took two shots, one with the figure in the foreground & focused, and the other with the screen in focus. 

From there, I took the photos into Adobe Lightroom for editing, and then into Photoshop for all my compositing/post processing. This included removing things like the base the figures were on, the exterior of the monitor, etc. I then recreated missing pieces of the ground and sky, and made them seamless with the image. Up next was creating Grayson’s leash and its effects on Grayson himself & the environment. Rounding the process out was adding all the environmental effects like bullet whizzes & impacts, dust, sparks and more.

One of the cool things about this is the resolution; the final piece is large enough to print on a full sized poster. In fact, I might try to get a few printed to send to NECA, Epic, People Can Fly and a couple other places. I really want to share this with everyone responsible for the game and figure…I think they’d enjoy a print as well! 

It’s a stretch, but if anyone else out there would like a print, let me know. I’ll make them to order if so!

This was a really fun process and I look forward to making more. I hope you enjoy it too!

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