Stunt Kitty Films' Dioramas and Photography

[Stunt_Kitty_Films]

We've been photographing dinosaur figures off and on for about two years now (starting in the Spring of '21.) What follows are some of our best shots over that time as an introduction to our work. 





















Thank you for having a look.

We look forward to being able to share more work in the future.

[Federreptil]

My favourite is the lonely Coelophysis. Maybe because he is such a seldom guest. But more because the more depth with the unsharp foreground.

[Stunt_Kitty_Films]

Our Official Entry for 2024 Toy Dinosaur Diorama Photo contest - kudus to everyone who participated.



Our entry didn't fare as well as we had hoped against the small (in number of entries) but competitive field. We are looking forward to applying what we learned this year to next year's entry.

Below I've documented some milestones in the creation of this years entry for anyone who is interested and as notes to myself.

1.) Early photo mock-up of our final composition taken with iPhone.


2.) First Test Photo with Canon EOS M- I originally intended to photograph my set-up live in front of our big screen tv. 


Unfortunately, as you can see my base wasn't wide enough to afford the size difference in figures I had achieved with my iPhone.

3.) My second go at a test photo- relative sizes are much better, but the Allosaurus is not on base.


It quickly became obvious my set-up needed to be two to three times larger than it was to shoot live. Or I would need to shoot separate layers and composite after.

4.) My Studio Set-Up. Living in a small one bedroom flat I am resigned to the dining room table.


5.) I import test photos into Blender 3D (after knocking out backgrounds) to test various backgrounds configurations.


6.) I eventually settled on a simple fern savannah for the background, and assembled a 3D model for rendering.


7.) Also in Blender 3D, I tested various SFX including mist and ground fog.


8.) And scene elements for placement- the moon.


I've been using photo stacking recently believing it creates a greater illusion of reality by eliminating the shallow depth of field produced by having cameras too close to their small subjects.

I shot 8 exposures of both Stegosaurus and Allosaurus and then stacked them in photoshop. I also shot 8 exposures of the figures in silhouette to use as masks to drop out backgrounds for compositing.

9.) Stegosaurus- (1 of 8 Exposure stack)


10.) Stegosaurus- B/W Mask- (1 of 8 Exposure stack)


11.) Allosaurus- (1 of 8 Exposure stack)


12.) Allosaurus- B/W Mask- (1 of 8 Exposure stack)


13.) Rendered Background from Blender 3D


14.) Layers are then combined in photoshop to create the final image.


15.) My original composition had a higher horizon line and clouds, but I thought the Stegosaurus was lost in the background and the clouds were not photographed by me. But it's still a cool photo.

[Tattu]

Beautiful! I appreciate how you explained your steps and thought process.

[BlueKrono]

Very interesting seeing all the work you put into your piece. I actually quite like the composition in bulletpoint 8.)

[Stunt_Kitty_Films]

Very interesting seeing all the work you put into your piece. I actually quite like the composition in bulletpoint 8.)

Yes, that was my original design. But then I thought it was a shame to leave out the Stego's thagomizer. Including the Allo's tail sort of brought it all back into balance and so it became a very "widescreen" image.


While I carried the figures' general stances and the camera angle from start to finish, everything else was constantly evolving until the deadline when I had to submit what I had.