"Sheffield film fan creates hundreds of miniature movie sets" Topic

A cinema fanatic has recreated more than 1,600 miniature film-set snapshots using household items and figurines…

BBC: link

The final photograph of the Jurassic Park scene is amazing— I'd have assumed it was a still from the film. Only if you examine it closely can you detect that the elements are toys— and then, probably only if you already know they are.

They are not just toys, the images have been computer modified to make them look more convincing.

Read the article again— nowhere does it state he uses computers to modify anything. He uses perspective and lighting to pull off the effects… which shouldn't be surprising, as that's exactly what Hollywood did before the age of effective CGI. Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.— the great special effects movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s— were all done with miniatures, perspective, and lighting. Any animation was largely either hand drawn or hand manipulation of physical objects. Even the "rainy" element of the Jurassic Park scene can be done with a physical filter over the lens, or some other approach.

The rest is done with focal length of the camera— by having a very tight focus on one element (as the Scream face) with all other elements blurry creates the illusion of real life captured in a photograph. The out-of-focus parts are less discernible as what they really are, so our minds assume they actually are the reality they mimic, because it doesn't see the normal clues that show the difference.

Pretty impressive work.

There are also techniques used to make real life scenes look like pictures of toys or miniatures.

Here's a link to some excellent examples. link

(My favorite is the vintage steam locomotive— it looks like a tabletop miniature scene, even down to the trees and the split rail fence!)

the gates of Argonath "tin foil, rocks from his garden and a chopping board".
talent, pure talent.