Miniature Photography and Photoshop Fun with Bolt Action

Having a collection of miniature vehicles, infantry, buildings and scenery allows us to take some pretty nice photos of all the above. We recently had Josh Henderson available and decided to let him have at the above mentioned vehicles and scenery to photograph and prepare for some Photoshop action. Here is a fine example of his work, so let's take a closer look at what he can do.

With minimal lighting and a creative mind Josh began with a 4Ground cityscape located somewhere in northern France.

With a few tweaks and a couple layers in Photoshop you can go from this to...

this in a very short time.

Here is a nice clear shot down the scale street with good depth of field but needing atmosphere.

Bring in the atmosphere, a tighter angle and now you have the tension of a looming engagement in the image.

Now take it into Photoshop, working with some layers, color and contrast adjustments and filters, and POW there you have it. This one is a simple example of building on a decent photo, but there are those that think they can do the same in Instagram with a filter pack. That may be true, but lets look at some things you can't do there.

Here we move to the Russian countryside where a T-34 and an outdated T-28 are attempting to stem the German tide. Again we have enough ambiance but need a little more.

Simple color correction and the addition of mountain range in the background gives life and depth to the photo.

With the same two Trenchworxs models and scene we see that Josh changed the angle and brightened the lighting.

Again a simple color correction, some additional haze and a skyline in the background bring emotion to the photo.

We personally love this shot with the old Soviet T-35 land battleship plodding along, infantry in close support and a modern T-34 providing support on the hill above. The tank riders are from Warlord Games.

Josh provides a crisp dawn blue sky and a powerful muzzle blast from the T-34. Additional mist, color corrections and retouching provide us a finished image of the Soviet early morning counter attack!

One last image to show you how our intro photo started. Working with the lighting and adding a few directional spot lights Josh created a dynamic well designed image.

But once again he finished with a fantastic, well composed and action packed image.The muzzle flashes, blast debris and bullet tracers give this final photo a story all its own.

For Josh's other real artwork, check out his website at Joshlikesdrawing.com

Have a Great Battle
The Old Crow