I should write up some of the particular rules I have about successfully capturing a good dinotography image.
No modern world
It should seem like the toy plastic dinosaur exists in its prehistoric setting. So no signs of the modern world.
- houses
- buildings,
- fences,
- wires,
- lights,
- cars
- roads
- people
No smooth surfaces to stand on either - no table, or concrete, find a stone or other natural surface to perch the model on...
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| Therizinosaurus is on a strip of bark |
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| Brachiosaurus is on a flat stone |
Composition
Size. Need to convey that the creature is big in its landscape.
So find small trees, etc to give forced perspective.
If the dinosaur's head appears above the horizon, then this helps to sell it's size. Upside down phone camera also helps with this.
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| The tiny ferns make Velociraptor look bigger |
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| Sauropods especially should have their heads above the horizon |
Grass is a dead give-away. Surfaces that can provide the illusion of scale include:
- Stone
- Gravel
- Sand
- Water
Beautiful
Dinotography replaces the ‘breathe’ series which found beauty in the everyday places. Dinotography does this too, so no weedy garden will do. Find interesting and beautiful scenes.
Sky
Wherever possible angle shots to include the sky. Especially if there’s interesting clouds. The cloudier/darker the better. Sunsets are gold.
Focus
The creature should always be the focus of the image, so if tiny, it’s hard not to blur the background/context. Use digital zooming to focus from further distant.
Behind the scenes
Take a shot that breaks the illusion by including fingers on the toy. A 'yoink-shot' uses Live photo to remove the creature from the scene - these can be fun to include at the end of Instagram videos.
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| Psittacosaurus got 'yoinked' |
