Stop-motion photography is the art of making moving images by taking a series of still images and joining them together. Sometimes in the making of a stop-motion film your character will be off the ground. For this, you use a flying rig. A device for holding your character in mid-air.

Using a similar technique for product photography, I wanted a picture of the Poseable Man as if he was mid-leap. I don’t need any complex movements so a very simple flying rig should do the job. I glued a coffee stirring stick to the character’s back and fitted the other end to a clamp.

To avoid lots of work in Photoshop I covered the clamp with a large sheet of white card. The coffee stick was threaded out through a small slit in the card. There he is, hovering mid-stride!

By picking my viewpoint carefully I was able to take the picture without the need for any subsequent Photoshopping.