Creating a UFO Abduction Photo on a Tabletop

I love the theme of science fiction, so I always have these ideas about flying UFOs and houses in the middle of nowhere that aliens show an interest in as they try to take over a new planet.

In turning my ideas into photos, I always try using new toys and scale models while mixing photography with Photoshop.

I worked on this UFO house abduction photo for about two months. I like the vintage look of things like the car and the house. I had bought a bigger house, but it was way too big for the project. I then contacted a company that cut wood to make a small house using my design, but it was hard to get it together because the size I asked for was too small.

Fortunately, in the end, I was able to get it together.

I used a $2 LED light strip for the spaceship. To create the smoke, I used cigarettes — I don’t smoke, so this was hard for me.

For the sand, I used hummus, as real sand would have looked too big on camera given the scale.

I used one flash head to make the light that comes out from the UFO/Spaceship, and there was another small LED light to give overall light to the scene.

Here’s the photo that resulted, titled “The House”:

About the author: Amr Elshamy is a photographer, visual artist, and filmmaker based in Cairo, Egypt. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. You can find more of Elshamy’s work on his website, Behance, and Instagram.