These photos may seem to depict a $160,000 luxury automobile zooming through sand, snow, sea foam and salt flats, but the objects on your screen are smaller than they appear. The lack of a person sitting in the driver’s seat is not an indication that the car is self-driving: it’s because the car itself stands only a few inches tall. This version of it, anyway. Photographer Felix Hernandez bought a $40 scale model of the Audi R8 sports car on the internet and created the sets in his studio, with astonishingly realistic results.

The automaker commissioned Hernandez to create the series as a promotion for the high-end car. As behind-the-scenes photo of his studio setup reveal, most of the work is done with miniatures and special effects rendered mostly in ordinary edible household products. Careful lighting, staging and camera angles make the models appear full-sized, so minimal Photoshopping is needed for the final effect.

“I love photo manipulation and digital art, but what’s really cool is doing as much as you can in-camera,” says Hernandez in a piece he wrote for PetaPixel. “For snow scenes, I use wheat flour. For desert scenes, I use corn flour. For atmosphere, I add smoke. For rain, I spray water. For droplets, I add corn syrup. In some photos, I add images into my background. I also use Photoshop for adding effects that are difficult or impossible to do in-camera – things like adding a sense of motion, color grading, etc.”

Previous photosets have included a series in which the artist took photos of a young boy and a miniature boat and blended them together in Photoshop, as well as Stormtrooper figurines hand-painted to make them appear more rugged and worn. See them all on Behance.

What tiny universes might exist behind the bark of trees deep within the forest? You’re most likely envisioning the grubs, ants, beetles and other creatures that actually live out their (sometimes fascinating) life cycles there, but artist Daniel Barreto sees something else altogether. His digitally composed ‘woodhouses’ imagine tiny urban worlds that could be visible to the human eye if only we looked a little closer.

Barreto photographed trees in a snowy landscape in New Hampshire, as well as doorways, windows and other urban architectural elements from Boston, combining the different sets for an ethereal result.

Illuminated entrances with intricate ceilings beckon passersby to ascend into the higher branches of a birch tree from within the trunk. Stained glass windows glow, and restaurants offer refuge from the cold.

The flickering lights of gif images from Barreto’s series make the illusion even more convincing, and might just make you want to take a walk around the woods to see what you can spot yourself.

Gazing at the portfolio of artist Matthew Albanese, you’re likely to marvel not just at his guts for getting so dangerously close to a tornado or erupting volcano, but luck for always seeming to be in the right place at the right time. But Albanese isn’t a storm chaser – the truth is even more interesting and impressive than that. These incredible landscapes are actually miniatures made from everyday materials.

Steel wool stands in for ominous clouds, salt for a waterfall blurred by motion, cotton for smoke and phosphorous ink for lava. Albanese even grew sugar crystals for a month to create the vaguely otherwordly look of an arctic landscape.

It all started when Albanese accidentally spilled a tub of paprika and began seeing the colors and textures of a landscape in the grains. That discovery led to “Paprika Mars”, which required 12 pounds of paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder and charcoal to create.

For the photograph to look convincing, Albanese must use a mix of scale, depth of field, lighting and white balance techniques. It takes hours to set up the backdrops and determine the exact angle from which to take the photo.

“My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes,” Albanese writes on his website. “Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle.”

It doesn’t take much to fool the human mind into thinking it’s seeing something other than reality.  To the casual observer, the subjects of these photographs look like incredibly detailed miniatures.  But if you look closer, you’ll see that this isn’t play time – these are real-life scenes made to look like tiny models through the magic of tilt-shift photography.

Ronaldo Fonseca

(images via: Ronyjux)

The term “tilt-shift photography” refers to the method of tilting the camera lens to distort the plane of focus and shifting the lens to distort the perspective.  Today, most photographers simply take a digital photograph and apply the tilt-shift distortions via software.  Ronaldo Fonseca uses the traditional method to create tilt-shift images with no digital manipulation.

Marcus Spedding

(images via: Kasei)

Aerial views of cities are well-suited to tilt-shift photography.  The blurring at the edges of the photograph simulates the effect of a macro lens on a much smaller field.  These photos from Japan depict what looks like a perfectly miniaturized city, complete with tiny people and beautifully detailed trees.

Kris Kros Photography

(images via: Kris Kros)

One of the most difficult aspects of tilt-shift photography is finding the right conditions.  The lighting has to be bright and full in order to turn out a convincing finished photo because those are the lighting conditions one would expect to find with a photograph of a true miniature.  These pictures from Kris Kros Photography take advantage of excellent lighting conditions to make delightful images of “tiny” scenes.

Modest and Jill

(images via: Modest and Jill)

The subject matter is just as important as the angle and lighting in tilt-shift photography.  If a subject is too complicated or detailed, it isn’t believable as a model.  But if it’s too plain, it is difficult to notice the changed perspective.  Husband and wife duo Modest and Jill have compiled a small but high-quality collection of tilt-shift photographs from cities all over North and South America.  Their subjects are visually exciting, but not so complicated that the illusion is ruined.

David Legnon

(images via: donniedark0)

These tilt-shift photographs of a Boston neighborhood show another way to be creative with this optical illusion.  David Legnon‘s hand putting the “finishing touch” into the scene reinforces the illusion that the photograph of the city is, in fact, a photograph of a tiny model Boston.

Olivo Barbieri

(images via: Metropolis)

Olivo Barbieri’s venture into tilt-shift photography arose from a desire to put some magic into his photography.  By photographing scenes from a helicopter with a tilt-shift lens, he has been able to capture phenomenal pictures from around the world.

Keith Loutit

Using a combination of tilt-shift and time-lapse photography, Australian photographer Keith Loutit creates enchanting Lilliputian worlds where itty-bitty people enjoy their leisure time. His goal is to get people to take a second look at their surroundings and notice things that they may not ordinarily pay attention to.