Shopping Guide
Tilt-shift lenses are gathering attention through the technique of photographing the subject in a miniature-like perspective. They are a type of camera lens with the feature that you can adjust them in both vertical and horizontal directions. If you slide the focal point and the perspective through these lenses and take a photo, a normal scenery will be projected in a miniature-like way, and it will turn into a different, interesting picture. Kimura Yoshinobu combines tilt-shift photography with figures and creates work with a unique world.
TOM: Why did you choose to make tilt-shift style works?
Kimura: Before, when there was a boom in dress-up dolls, a lot of people published original stories on their websites that took place in a self-made dollhouse. But somehow I felt they were lacking something. I wanted to unfold a story with something outside, but compared to the size of the outside world, a doll is very small, of course. So I thought I’d make the background myself. It’s very hard work, but when I’m doing it, it’s a lot of fun and I get excited. When I get immersed in it, it never ends, so I go at the pace of one per day (laughs).
TOM: What exactly does being immersed mean?
Kimura: If you take a photo with a tilt-shift lens, the front and the inside part get blurred. Faraway objects are blurred and can’t be seen. I think about how I should make it better, and what I should do so that they don’t get blurred the same way. For example, in accordance with the distance from a building. I can’t stop thinking about things like that. I am aware that it’s troublesome, but I enjoy it very much. My intention is to make figures vividly enchanted to the utmost in a miniature world. It’s like challenging the boundaries of CG.
TOM: Through what process do you make your works?
Kimura: In short, I take the background photo and process it, then I shoot the figure, synthesize it with the background, and I give it a sense of unity by adding shadows and other adjustments. When I take the figure’s photo, I always pay detailed attention to whether there are trees or buildings around there, and adjust the amount of light accordingly. Sometimes I try putting tin foil or paper and I place lights bearing in mind the position of the sun on the background image I’m going to combine it with. It is basically about repeating small operations. It’s all my own style, so it’s just as much fun as it is hard.
TOM: Please tell us the trick to shooting the background.
Kimura: Well...maybe, trying to align it with the height of the figure’s eyes as much as possible, because if you take it from below or from the side, the figure will look like as if it’s sleeping. I especially pay attention to things that occupy a wide part of the ground. If you don’t adjust the height, the balance of the size will crumble, making the sense of distance from the ground get weird, and it will look like as if it is floating.
For backgrounds of works with a high degree of perfection, fine care is required starting from the photographing stage. Next time, we will hear about what Kimura fixates on when processing the pictures.
Creator’s Portfolio Page:
http://otakumode.com/5100e8c1a911fffa19001051
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.