Illuminating a terrifying dinosaur at night

How did I illuminate this dinosaur from the back? By hiding! Read on and I’ll explain!

But first … what is this?

It’s a velociraptor. Or rather, a sculpture of one created by master sculptor Ricardo Breceda. It is located near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. There in Galleta Meadows in Borrego Springs, there are approximately 129 sculptures, all created by Breceda.

Three steps to light painting the velociraptor

Step one: Illuminating the face and those incredibly sharp teeth!

The velociraptor would be largely silhouetted if it weren’t for light painting. I didn’t want that. Nope. I stood to the left of the camera. I used a warm white light from a handheld ProtoMachines LED2 light  to illuminate the face across, creating shadows and depth while leaving the chin dark. Velociraptors do have chins, right?

Step two: Illuminating the claws and the ground

I moved to the right of the camera. From there, I held the ProtoMachines light near the ground, making sure to pick up some texture on the ground and also outline the claws just a bit so they would pop out a little from the shadow underneath. Looks more frightening that way!

Step three: Hiding behind the dinosaur

If there is a charging dinosaur with big sharp teeth, it’s always a good idea to be in back of it, not in front. But there was another reason I hid behind it. This was to block the light. I wanted to backlight the velociraptor so it would outline the hind leg and back, mimicking the light of the moon in the process. I made sure the light was in back of the neck and then popped the light for a few seconds.

Composition

I used a Nikon D750 with a Rokinon 12mm fisheye lens for a two minute exposure at f/8 ISO 200. Jamming the fisheye lens up close to the head creates this wonderful distortion. It looks like the head and teeth of the dinosaur are about to leap out of the photo and take a chunk out of you. Accentuating this with the fisheye makes this appearance more dynamic. So does lighting the teeth and the head. The brighter head and the moon shining just above it draws your attention directly toward the middle.