Member Monday Featuring Charles Finsterbush

Welcome to another Member Monday with the KelbyOne gang! You may know this next member better as Ryan Dean Photography for his awesome work with toys!

Today we’re talking to Charles Finsterbush to hear the story behind this image!

About the Photo

The title is “Peas in a Pod”. This shot was taken on my garden table in my back yard. When taking shots of objects this small, one does not really need much space. I hand-picked the pea-pods from the fields near our home, because I love the beautiful green color of the peas and they fit well with many of my toys.

In this case, I replaced the peas with Lego heads, since they are basically the same size. I mainly used white faces from Joker, so that there was a contrast to the rest of the green.

I laid them out on artificial grass, that was on the garden table. I set them up, so you can see the peas and the closed pea-pods too and give the shot a bit more depth, but the focus was directly on the row of faces.

Gear and Software

I use a Canon EOS 5D Mark III with a Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 IS II USM lens.
It was shot at 1/125sec f/3.5 ISO 100 182mm.
I have an Adobe Creative Cloud account and use the latest version of Lightroom to develop the image. Afterward, I finish the rest in Photoshop, where I retouch, crop and resize the image.

Photography Preferences

I am a passionate Toy Photographer. I have been shooting toys for 3 years now. I started, because my son’s Lego collection was getting bigger and for fun, I took a few shots and posted them on Instagram. That was when I noticed the huge community of toy photographers from all over the world. From then on, I let my inner child out with my son´s toys.

Favorite KelbyOne Class

I like all the instructors at Kelby One. They each have something unique.
My favorite class at the moment though is “Hollywood Style Compositing Tricks” by Corey Barker. I have always enjoyed his tutorials. I loved watching him on ” The Photoshop Guys”. Compositing Tricks is the perfect class for my toy photography. I love to make my own version of movie posters and this class taught me a few things, that I didn’t know before.

Connect with Charles

You can connect with Charles via his official photography profiles on the web, Facebook, and Instagram.

Charles’ work with Ryan Dean Toy Photography always tells a story and catches our eyes. Kudos to him for following his passions!

Be sure to send us your best work for a chance to receive a Member Monday feature of your own!