smokebelch
-
Posts
448 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Everything posted by smokebelch
-
Lovely Trooper shot fenris- you really have a lot of stormies! Got my Arealight Mando parts through today, so quick shot of my custom proto Boba. Not 100% happy with the torso, but its best I could find that I had spare. The Arealight helmets and jet packs are awesome- wonderful quality. Got a sand green pack to swap for my official Boba as well Proto Boba by smokebelch, on Flickr
-
Welcome aboard WampaStompa- great shot thanks for posting, real nice lighting/processing on that one Quick new one from me of a couple of Arealight customs- Oola could always turn heads. by smokebelch, on Flickr
-
Ok then here we go the very first Eurobricks Photography contest results.... Drumroll please ... ... But first a few quick words regarding a shot which we have decided not to judge, and this may come as a surprise to many of you as it looked like this was a shoe-in for the winner. The shot in question is Avanaut's - 'Mr Vader Finds His Lot in Life' now fenris and I both felt that while its awesome to seeing Avanaut contributing here (and long may it continue) he is such an amazing photographer, and his entry is sooo good it kinda went against the spirit of the contest which is to get you guys to contribute more to the photography thread. Fenris contacted Avanaut regarding our decision and he completely agreed and actually felt the same way and was relieved that we wouldn't including his photo. Avanaut also offered his services if we needed any help judging the comp- which it turned out we did!. Fenris and I both found the judging so much harder than we originally thought, there were so many great entries and where this is the first contest that has been purely based on photography the criteria for what made a 'winning' shot was difficult to decide. So we gratefully accepted Avanaut's offer and he became a guest judge, and his shot gets an honourable mention. Me and fenris eventually narrowed it down to a top 5, and then we scored the shots based on photographic skill (composition, lighting etc.) and idea (humour, fitting the contest brief etc.) then Avanaut did the same and we polled the results and came up with a top 3... Our winning shot is.... Burman's - 'A little kiss under the mistletoe... Droid' http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=50173 'A sweet shot of some robot lurve' as Avanaut put it. Love the simplicity of this one, great idea nicely executed. Fits the brief perfectly, crisp shot very christmassy and funny, and a subtle amount of editing. Congrats to Burman a deserving winning shot. Coming in close behind in second place is.... TinyPiesRUs- Winter Patrol http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=50022 The more all 3 of us looked at this one the more we liked it. Such an interesting shot- the composition is so great. Bit rough round the edges, but shows great potential. Again I'm gonna quote Avanaut on this one as he puts it far better than I can 'It's almost a casual shot with an interesting reversed dynamics composition: the action is against the direction we read and thus more dramatic. The angle is bold and supports wonderfully the positioning of the troopers bringing out their legs.' And in third place.... Solscud007- Xmas Death Star http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49862 A wonderful christmas scene aboard to death star with some fantastic lighting. Loads of nice details on this one- so many great little elements to look at, and a nice balance between a MOC and Photograph. Congrats to the winners- Im guessing that you'll need to contact KimT with your details for the great prizes that you've won. And a big thanks to our Star Wars mods KimT for initiating the contest and supplying the prizes, and Stash as well. And thanks so much to all you guys for all your entries, and your patience while fenris and I attempted to judge the comp via PM (& phone in the end as well!) We'd like to add a couple more honourable mentions as well- Mos_Eisley - 'The Emperors Christmas Arrival' http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=50159 This was one amazing scene, and was in our top 5 but just lost out. While its a very very nice photograph, and its certainly not easy to get such a clear shot of such a large scene, ultimately it was slightly more of an awesome MOC than it was a photo. Awesome display of troops though. Darkblane - 'These Arn't The Trees...' http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49868 This was our other top 5 shot. Very funny idea and nice clear crisp photography, but just lost out on a top spot. Overall a HUGE thanks to all that entered, and we look forward to all your contributions in the Photography thread here,- http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=27600&st=0 a great place to hone you shooting skills and get feedback on your shots- post em up! Anyways thats enough of my yacking congrats to our winners of the first Eurobricks Photography Contest- here's hoping there will be many more to come
-
Well we have the winners locked down... However I need to write up the results! Sorry to tease you all will try and get em posted up tomorrow PM...
-
Awesome shot fenris! The 'motion' is just perfect.
-
Yeah thanks for all your awesome entries- but its making it very hard to judge Just thought id pop a quick update- me and fenris have been deliberating for days over the entries... And we have now narrowed it down to 5... Will hopefully have the final top 3 in a few days, sorry for the delay but we both never thought it would be as hard as it is to pick a winner!
-
Oh ok- I really need to play round with mine more for lighting stuff. Really want to try lighting some larger ships... Trouble is most of my sets are broken down at the moment- I need to get building
-
Heheh yeah its been proving a lot harder than I thought it'd be to judge the photo comp Me and fenris have a plan in motion the try and narrow down our choices to a top 3... Its so tough, so many great entries And yeah I'd be happy to do an article for the blog, as I've said before im really a low-tech amateur photographer and be glad to offer any tips I can to help people out with thier shots. You can get some great results with some fairly simple set-ups, you really don't need expensive equipment etc..
-
Thats pretty cool Solscud- nice to see some results with the pad. Bit off topic I know but relevant in terms of lighting tips - Heres one of my favourite shots- Ashley Wood's Bertie, round 14in tall and just lit with my iPod touch on a slow exposure. Figure is just stood in front on my living room wall- no post processing done on this one, red light from the torch app. 'If Found Return To Hell' by smokebelch, on Flickr
-
Wonderful snow shots fenris! The last one is my fav- truly epic. Im so jealous of the great scenery you had to work with- and share your frustration you didn't have longer to take more shots, but you got some great photos from the time you had though. Nice shot with the iPod distorteme- have a play round, I always find that a longer exposure gives some nice results depending on your camera having changeable settings. Maybe try a lower angle to shoot from as well, gives the figs a better sense of scale. All the apps can be used on the iPad as well, ive been playing round with mine for lighting, but its a bit bigger and heavier so not quite as useful for lego shots. Good for vehicles and larger toys though, but to be honest not found it as good as the trusty old iPod touch
-
Let the judging commence.... Looking forward to checking out all the entries- I've not looked at any of the shots yet so I can view them all fresh. I may have to confer with Mrs Smokebelch (ie my wife ) as well. It'll be fun to see which shots me and fenris choose as our favourites- then we will have to debate between us to narrow them down... or who knows maybe we will both choose the same 3....
-
Like the third shot the best darth yogi- nice composition and framing, looks good Here's an oldie alternate shot from me- been having withdrawal symptoms from not being able to get out for outdoor shots, so been messing round editing old unused takes, my hard drive's full of literally 1000's of em Dewback Patrol by smokebelch, on Flickr
-
Great snow shots solscud007 The first one is excellent- the background work looks great to me. Thats one of the hardest things to do when shooting outdoors, to try and get a 'clean' background with no buildings etc in it. Some nice subtle photoshop work there.
-
Looking forward to seeing the entries for this one- gonna be fun to see what you guys can come up with In terms of photoshopping id echo Kim's comment that its fine to use, but just don't go too over the top with it- there needs to be a good 'photo' as the basis of your entry. And don't feel that if you haven't got a high end camera you can't enter- I used the camera on my mobile phone when I first started messing round with photography! Get shooting guys
-
Most excellent work TinyPiesRUs Great angle- the low down perspective really works well for Lego shots, and gives a nice sense of scale. Love the AT-ST in the background, particully on the first shot where its out of focus in the background. The natural light looks great as well. Looking forward to seeing more contributions
-
Cheers guys, yeah looking at it now it is really creepy isn't it- think its Han's trademark smirk that just gives it that really creepy feel (well given what he's doing anyways ) The idea just popped into my head when i woke up yesterday- must have had some really strange dreams! Just a bit of blue tack- was gonna use a lightsabre at first but the axe looked better- and more creepy!
-
Great shots fenris How are you getting on with your new camera? I've not done a silly SW Lego shot in a long while... But here's a new one from me And why did you have to fry poor Greedo? by smokebelch, on Flickr Turns out Jabba was speaking literally, Captain Solo appears to have developed a taste for fried Rodians!
-
Yeah real snow can be quite tricky- its usually quite fine and 'fluffy' so difficult to stand a minifig on it and still keep a sense of scale. Managed to get a couple of good shots a couple of years ago with real snow- but was tricky (and cold!) - here's mine from back at the begining of the thread- Snowtrooper by smokebelch, on Flickr ^was hard keeping him from dissapearing alltogether! I've used various stuff for snow for indoor shots- icing sugar's good, as is flour. Whatever we have spare in the cupboard really Snow Troopers by smokebelch, on Flickr ^ icing sugar- much easier to use The real master of Lego Snow shots is Avanaut- check out his set of Hoth shots on flickr- truly wonderful stuff!
-
Great to see you guys making the most of the snow- cool shots We finally have some snow here... And frustratingly im stuck at work all week!. Fingers crossed it stays around dying to get out for some snowy shots
-
Alas, most of it was never shot. The full scale Wampa didn't work that well, hence only a brief shot of him in the original version of the film. Some bits were shot though- there is a bit in one of the Empire trailers showing C-3PO tearing the sign they had put on the door to warn of the Wampa's inside off. There are a few other bits n bobs in stills etc, but by all acounts does not look like they filmed most of it. Think most of what would of happened has been pieced together from early scripts and stills etc. Keep thinking id love to create a stop motion lego version of the wampa scenes- very wishful thinking though dont think id ever be able to find the time to take on a project that would take that long!
-
Thanks for the comments guys My indoor shots are lit with my Ipod touch using a torch app- makes for a nice clean light, and very portable to play round with to get diff lighting angles/effects. If you get it at certain angles you get a nice blue hue to the backdrop (which is just a plain bit of A4 paper). Back on page 4 of the thread I posted a bit more in depth about my lightimg set-up if its any use- its pretty low tech
-
No worries, mentioned it way back briefly- but didn't want to go off topic Thanks for the congrats- she's pretty darn adorable! She's called Hope (And despite my Star Wars obsession the 'A New Hope' SW referance wasn't bought to my attention till after my wife thought of the name- honest!) Most of my indoor shots are just lit with a torch app on my Ipod Touch- wayyyy back on about page 4 of the thread I posted a bit about how I light my shots which goes into a bit more detail. Great to see some many new shots on here- great work everyone- wish i had the time to contribute more these days. To celebrate the thread hitting 100 pages thought id add a new shot, whilst most of the UK is covered in snow alas down in the south there's no sign yet, so its just an indoor one- Wampa Vs Snowtroopers by smokebelch, on Flickr I've always been fascinated by the deleted scenes involving the wampa from Empire Strikes Back. There was a big bit with the wampas attacking the echo base and being trapped in a room by R2-D2's bleeps, only for the unsuspecting Snowtroopers to blunder into the room later on during the attack and become Wampa fodder ;) A lot of the actual Wampa stuff wasn't actually filmed- but other bits n bobs were and snippets made it into trailers ie C-3PO tearing off the sign the rebels had put on the door to warn of its contents as the troopers attacked the base. So this is my small Lego recreation of some Wampa Vs Snowtrooper action ;)
-
Heheh Im still here- well kinda! Great to see the thread still going strong with all your contributions. Really struggle to find time for photos at the moment, busy at work- and have a 6 month old daughter so time for shots is at a minimum. Really miss the chance to get out for some outdoor photos so many ideas for location shots and so little time (also the UK weather doesnt help, if I get a chance its usually raining!), hopefully have something new to add soon
-
Nice review Mutley, thats a really little set- gonna have to pick one of these up
-
Awesome shots guys! Love the Boba & Troopers shot Hrodebert, and the Deathstar ones are wonderful Solscud (damn I wish I had that set!) And as always really great & funny shots fenris- the Darth PA one is genius
