How to Shoot Fun and Creative ‘Small World’ Photos with Your Smartphone

Capturing creative photos of miniature worlds is definitely not a new idea, but you don’t need to be a small-world master like Tatsuya Tanaka to give this kind of photography a shot. As this COOPH tutorial shows you, all you need is some creativity, a few mini figures, and a smartphone.

The short tutorial runs you through the creation and capture of six different miniature “scenes” while sharing a few simple tips and tricks along the way. Some are specific to mini figure photography, like using temporary glue to hold the figures in place, but other tips apply just as well to broader food and product photos.

For instance, if you want to keep a slice of fruit floating in a cocktail glass, cut a small piece of bubble wrap and hide it underneath:

That said, our favorite scene of the three was also the most simple: a few construction workers “repairing” an Apple keyboard. This required no special tricks other than gluing the figures down, proving that the most important element in any photo like this is your creativity.

To see all six scenes and learn a few tips and tricks for creating these figures for yourself, watch the video up top.

The only bit they conspicuously left out of the video itself was where to buy these kinds of miniature figures, so if you really do want to try this kind of photography this weekend, you can find an affordable set of 1:100 scale mini figures here, or purchase the more expensive (but higher quality) “Noch” brand mini figures here.