Creating a Lego Rock Star

For those of you on instagram, you’ll know there are a few accounts that run contests or theme days. One particular theme was music and being a musician in a past life I really looked forward to taking part. That, and the challenge of learning something new about lego photography, and I was sold.

The idea for my shot was born out of how rock stars are idolised beyond how they look. To create it I decided to use my new Lego Frankenstein Monster Rocker. I set up a platform (it’s actually from a fire boat set) and created an audience from a couple of ninjago and other torsos.

I used a black background and took some shots with different positions for my rock star.

Stage one was to crop to 4×5 and the reduce the exposure in Lightroom. I wants a fairly tight crop to create a feeling of a busy audience with the rocker taking in the acclaim. I left a fair amount of space at the top so that I would be able to create the spot and lighting affects.

As you can see the black isn’t completely black. I used a black brush to paint it black. I then added a dodge layer to brighten the rockers head and other places the spotlight would hit him.

To create the spotlight I used the polygonal lasso tool to make the shape of the light on a new layer. Next, I used the gradient tool (set on white to transparent) to fill it. I added gaussian blur to make it look more like light. I added a hue/saturation layer clipped to affect only the spotlight and set it to colorise. I reduced the brightness (so the white would colorise) and changed the hue to match the monsters skin colour.

I also wanted a light into the audience. I used the same process as above but used a lens flare brush and colorised it to make it more orange.

My final step was to create the smoke around our star – as if he was truly a famous rocker. I used a new layer to render some clouds. I increased the size so it didn’t look like clouds but smoke as the light hits it. I then used a mask to make it only appear to be on stage. Finally, because I felt it was a bit strong, I reduced the opacity.

I hope you like the final shot. Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.