Tutorial: How to Make a Miniature Diorama Photo Booth

One of the coolest parts of the hobby for me is taking immersive pictures of my painted miniatures, like the kinds you seen in my narrative posts. The way I created the background was to print a large stock photo, glue it to a foam core panel, and propping it behind the terrain and game mat. While this worked fine, it was annoying to use as the picture would fall often and I had to shoot at very specific angles to make it work. I also tried out using a lightbox setup, but I wasn't satisfied with that look either. So I made a new photo booth instead. I took some pictures and I'll provide steps on how I made it. 

Materials and Tools

XPS Foam, 2'x2'.

Velcro Adhesive Strips

20''x30'' Photo

Paint (Black, Dark Grey, Light Grey, White)

Foam Cutter (Either knife or hot wire)

Large Paint Brush

Scissors 

Aluminum Foil

Step 1: Photo Backdrop

The background photo is the most important part of this build, as it will determine the overall feel of the photo booth. It has to fit with the setting that you work in, so for fantasy there can't be any modern items in the background, like telephone poles which can pop up in a lot of landscape photos. The scale also has to fit the type of models you will be photographing. This is more of a feel than a science, but you can gather what should look right with your models. 

Another important item is the resolution of the photo. These pictures will be printed at a 20''x30'' size, which requires high definition photos. I used Pexels to browse for high def photos, and the added benefit is that these are free stock photos, and often don't require attribution so you can just throw it onto your blog or instagram or similar. Once I had chosen what backgrounds I wanted (I chose 3), I downloaded them and got them printed. 

Here in the US, I used Costo Photo Center, which I like as it is cheap and the online tool tells you if the photo you chose is too low resolution or requires cropping to fit the size. I chose the 20''x30'' poster option, which runs $9.99 per photo, at the time of this tutorial. Once selected you can move on to the next step. 

Step 2: Shaping the Base

The base of the photo booth is made from XPS Foam, which you can buy at a hardware store. It should be in the insulation section, and comes in different sized panels and a variety of colors. I got the pink 2'x2', as this is the most common material crafters use for terrain as it is easy to cut and texture. This sheet cost me about $5, and you only need the one. 

Next I measured out cuts I was going to make. First I cut a rectangle that was 24'' wide and 14'' tall, as I didn't want a large board for storage reasons. Before I made the cut I made sure that I could still take a picture with the largest and tallest models I had with the base still in view. On each end of the rectangle, I measured 10'' on each short end and drew a point. I then drew another mark at the midpoint of the long side closest to the 10'' marks. I then drew a symmetrical curve connecting these 3 points. 

I made the back of the diorama curved for two reasons. For one, it means that I can take photos from different angles instead of straight on like before. Secondly, the curve gives rigidity to the photo, so that I don't have to glue it to posterboard to get it to stand up straight. The curve is relatively shallow so as not to make the background too obvious. You will also note that the background is larger than the base. Honestly, that just boiled down to the fact that the store didn't have any larger foam panels. 

When you make these cuts you can use either a knife or a hot wire cutter. If you use a knife, make sure it's nice and sharp so that you don't tear the foam, as a smooth finish is important. If you use the hot wire cutter, use it in a well ventilated area. I went outdoors to cut mine. 

Now all that's left is to texture the foam. Pick a side to be the top surface, then take some aluminum foil, crumple it into a ball, and roll it along the surface you chose. This will give the foam the appearance of stone. You can do as much or as little of this as you'd like, or even switch out for a different texture. I went with stone as it is the most "neutral" surface to me, and can go with any of the base designs that I use for my minis. 

Step 3: Connecting the Background to the Base

Take the velcro adhesive and cut six strips of the "loop" side and stick it to the curved side of the base. Firmly press and hold these as they will be seeing a lot of use. Cut six strips of the "hook" side of the velcro of the same size, and velcro them to the "loop" sides on the base, but leave adhesive covering while you do this. 

Now that those are firmly in place, take you photo background and line it up with the base. Remove the adhesive cover and attach the photo to the base. You may want someone to help you here. Hold the join firmly and let go. The curve of the base should give the photo rigidity, so it should stand on its own. 

If you have multiple backgrounds like me, use the first one that you connected to the base as a template for where the velcro should go on the other photos. 

Now that the construction is complete, it is time to test the design. In the below picture you can see that the background is a little floppy: roll it up with the photo on the inside and rubber band the tube shut. Keep it that way for a day or so and it should resolve the issue. I put a Stormcast Stardrake in the center as an initial test. 

It definitely achieves the effect I was going for. It was also at this point where I realized that there are tents in this photo of the forest, but oh well. It's not as easy to see with a larger model like this one, or that's what I tell myself. With construction done, now you can paint the base.  

Step 4: Painting the Base

As I was going for a stone effect, painting the base was fairly easy. I started with a dark grey basecoat, then I drybrushed light grey fairly heavily over the entire surface. I then drybrushed white lightly over that. To finish I thinned down some black paint and used it to wash the entire surface and blend all the tones together. I used an old bottle of black paint, which separated and gave the wash a brown tone for some reason, but it worked out and I like the result anyways. 

I painted the edges black as I thought it would look better than pink, and if for some reason the edges pop up in a picture it won't be as obvious as pink. If you have some way of sealing the paint, like a varnish, now would be the time. I ran out unfortunately. Some sprays eat at foam so you want to be careful. 

Let the entire thing dry for a day, then you're free to reconnect it to a picture. 

Step 5: Photography

If you managed to interpret my writing, then at the end of step 4 you should have something that looks like this:

I plopped down Nagash to take the booth for a test drive. The background does create a bit of a shadow when lighted from above, so make sure your light source is coming from in front and above. 

Even though Nagash is such a large model, the photo booth is able to accommodate him easily. The simple texture of the base keeps the focus on the miniature, and the backdrop colors give a warm hue to the model as well, which is something you can play around with using various backgrounds. It certainly looks better than the photos of Nagash I had taken previously. I also prefer this over the boring backgrounds of white from a normal light box. 

As you can tell, the original photo looks much more cluttered due to the background (if you're curious about the painting of Nagash, go here). 

The photo booth can also handle small miniatures. You simply move them closer to the camera and drop the camera a little lower than before. One thing to look out for is glare, as you can see to the right of the picture below. This just requires awareness on your part when taking the picture, as you can either move the camera or crop it out when preparing the photo for sharing. 

And with that, the first major project of 2021 is complete! From here on out, expect photos of minis on the Space Dinosaur Minis to utilize this background, which I think should improve the overall quality of the blog immensely. 

Why not give something like this a try? If you need any help don't hesitate to ask.

-The Space Dinosaur