Taking Lego pictures with an iPhone
December 14, 2011 1:26 PM Subscribe
Help me use my iPhone to take Lego pictures.
My kids have two weeks off starting Friday, and I thought a fun project for us would be to do some Lego photography. I have instructions for making a simple light box, but the only working camera I have right now is my iPhone and I could use some guidance in acquiring gear and apps. Our needs are pretty simple.
1. We need to be able to hold the iPhone steady, preferably with a tripod. So: what iPhone tripod attachments have worked well for you?
2. We need to be able to take pictures at the macro level. Buying a special add-on lens is out of our budget, so tell me about camera apps or techniques that will get us good-enough results.
My kids have two weeks off starting Friday, and I thought a fun project for us would be to do some Lego photography. I have instructions for making a simple light box, but the only working camera I have right now is my iPhone and I could use some guidance in acquiring gear and apps. Our needs are pretty simple.
1. We need to be able to hold the iPhone steady, preferably with a tripod. So: what iPhone tripod attachments have worked well for you?
2. We need to be able to take pictures at the macro level. Buying a special add-on lens is out of our budget, so tell me about camera apps or techniques that will get us good-enough results.
Sorry, I mean to link to the camera+ site...
posted by dfriedman at 1:39 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by dfriedman at 1:39 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: 2. We need to be able to take pictures at the macro level. Buying a special add-on lens is out of our budget, so tell me about camera apps or techniques that will get us good-enough results.
Use a rubber band to attach any magnifying glass, magnifier, (even someone's convex glasses) as your special add-on lens.
Most macro lens adaptors are basically just a convex lens. And almost any old convex bit of plastic or glass will work.
(Likewise, for a telephoto adaptor, you can take photos through one of the eyepieces of binoculars. Because a phone camera doesn't have a large 35mm film plate, the small eye-hole is sufficient to shoot through)
posted by -harlequin- at 1:46 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
Use a rubber band to attach any magnifying glass, magnifier, (even someone's convex glasses) as your special add-on lens.
Most macro lens adaptors are basically just a convex lens. And almost any old convex bit of plastic or glass will work.
(Likewise, for a telephoto adaptor, you can take photos through one of the eyepieces of binoculars. Because a phone camera doesn't have a large 35mm film plate, the small eye-hole is sufficient to shoot through)
posted by -harlequin- at 1:46 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: The glif will serve as a tripod mount for your iphone.
There are plenty of smaller tripods available. I like this one.
If you *do* decide to spend money on a macro lens, this one is actually implanted in a rubber band.
posted by incessant at 1:48 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
There are plenty of smaller tripods available. I like this one.
If you *do* decide to spend money on a macro lens, this one is actually implanted in a rubber band.
posted by incessant at 1:48 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Something else that will be useful is a backdrop. A sheet of paper/card depicting a blue sky with clouds. Or outer space. Or distant hills. (Craft stores sell this sort of thing for use in scrapbooking, but obviously you can cut out magazine pictures etc.)
Another useful trick is that since you're shooting macro, you'll probably get some depth of field even with a phone-cam, which means things even a couple of feet into the background can be blurry, which means that it's surprisingly easy to make the ridges and wrinkles of a draped blanket look like rolling hills, and every-day but out-of-focus objects can be used to create impressions of giant structures or realistic world texture.
Another trick with lego that might not be worth the time - sometimes the limiting factor with lego is not having enough lego. Once the camera and backdop are fixed, you can turn a ship into a fleet, a tree into a forest, a man into an army, by taking multiple shots of one or two models re-positioned each time, and combining them in software.
posted by -harlequin- at 1:57 PM on December 14, 2011
Another useful trick is that since you're shooting macro, you'll probably get some depth of field even with a phone-cam, which means things even a couple of feet into the background can be blurry, which means that it's surprisingly easy to make the ridges and wrinkles of a draped blanket look like rolling hills, and every-day but out-of-focus objects can be used to create impressions of giant structures or realistic world texture.
Another trick with lego that might not be worth the time - sometimes the limiting factor with lego is not having enough lego. Once the camera and backdop are fixed, you can turn a ship into a fleet, a tree into a forest, a man into an army, by taking multiple shots of one or two models re-positioned each time, and combining them in software.
posted by -harlequin- at 1:57 PM on December 14, 2011
Best answer: Stop Motion and minifigs are fun. We use a stand made out of -- wait for it -- Lego.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:41 PM on December 14, 2011
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:41 PM on December 14, 2011
Seconding the Glif.
With one of those and a moderately cheap flexible tripod like the Joby mentioned above, I have taken some pictures that people don't believe came from a phone.
posted by Sphinx at 5:21 PM on December 14, 2011
With one of those and a moderately cheap flexible tripod like the Joby mentioned above, I have taken some pictures that people don't believe came from a phone.
posted by Sphinx at 5:21 PM on December 14, 2011
Response by poster: Thank you all, this is really helpful. I love that lens on a rubber band; too bad they're not shipping until January.
posted by not that girl at 6:57 AM on December 15, 2011
posted by not that girl at 6:57 AM on December 15, 2011
Another tip - with the latest iPhone (not sure how far it goes back) you can not only take a picture using the volume button on the phone, but also the volume button on the included headphones. This way the phone stays steadier in the tripod when you take the picture.
posted by mikepop at 7:21 AM on December 15, 2011
posted by mikepop at 7:21 AM on December 15, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Why not build a tripod out of Lego? That could be a fun project for your kids.
posted by dfriedman at 1:38 PM on December 14, 2011