More Fun with Laser Pointers and Action Figure Pics

I had so much fun taking pictures of the figures in my laser pointer how-to post that I spent the next day looking for more guys to shoot. I’ll spend a little less time on the how-to’s here, as it’s pretty simple to get really nice shots using a laser pointer as a primary light source.

The shot above is the Marvel Legends Icons Ultimate Ghost Rider. It’s always been relatively easy to light up the translucent flames on his head – here, I used my cell phone and tablet with a flashlight app for some backlighting highlighting his head. What I used the laser pointer for is to get some additional light on Ghost Rider and his bike to simulate light coming off the flames. I aimed the laser at my cheap DIY reflector and beamed it back onto him. Would have liked to get a little more spread (his arm didn’t get any of it) but I still like the effect.

With Brimstone, I just zapped his hand from the left with a red laser pointer, making sure to get light diffused through to the rest of him. Chemo is actually standing on my tablet, using the screen to light him up from below. I used a green laser pointer to highlight the area between his eyes.

Eclipso is backlit by 2 LED book lights – these things come with a flexible neck and they stand on their own or can clip to things – very versatile. I shot the Heart of Darkness gem from a sharp angle on the left, as I wanted light on his hand, but not a lot on his face.

This is probably my favorite of the DC Universe Classics shots. The idea with Metallo was to capture him at the moment he’s revealing his kryptonite heart. He’s lit with (I think) my cell phone in front and to the right of him, and I aimed the green laser pointer at the bottom rim of his chest opening. There was enough light coming off there to reflect some off the chest plate in his hand back onto his chest, neck, and face.

I couldn’t believe I overlooked Masters of the Universe Classics in the last post, as there are so many obvious candidates for using this lighting technique. All these figures are backlit using the LED book lights, with Keldor only getting one side lit as I wanted to emphasize the green lighting up the side of his face. With Count Marzo, I shot his amulet from an extreme angle on the left, as I didn’t want a lot of light shining back on his face.

Sorceress has the Orb of Power from the King Grayskull re-release. Her shot would probably work better with the stand that is coming with the Temple of Darkness Sorceress convention exclusive.

This might be my favorite shot of them all, which is funny because I was lukewarm on He-Ro as an SDCC exclusive when he came out. For a lot of these shots, I struggled with simultaneously aiming the laser and clicking the shutter release on my camera – I use a wired remote trigger which helps reduce camera shake, but it was still challenging. For this shot, I needed both my hands since I had a red pointer aimed at the orb in his staff and a blue one aimed at the tip of his sword.

Wondering how I would do that and shoot the picture, I finally realized (dur) that I could use the timer on my camera. Easy peasy.