Realistic Animal Figurines

Alright, let me start by saying that I am an amateur photographer. I do this for fun and have little knowledge of what makes a photo look professional. That aside, I sometimes manage to make my toy animal photos look fairly decent, so would like to share with you what I believe gives them that "almost real" feel:

1. DO use the "close up" or "super close up" setting on your digital camera. I always use the latter. Don't be afraid to take your photos up close! That way you can make use of the textures you will find around you.

2. DON'T use flash. Flash is your enemy here! It makes little details like the hair or fur carved in the plastic animals all but disappear (though sometimes I have achieved nice effects by covering the flash with a little piece of wax paper.) You shouldn't be able to use flash when using the "super close up" setting anyway.

3. DO look around you. Little weeds can look like medium-sized bushes, while moss makes great, natural looking grass. The bark on the thick roots at the base of many trees also looks fabulous. So do certain stones and rocks.

4. DO take lots of photos from different angles of a single "pose" that you set your toy animal in. It'll be nice to have a bunch to choose from when you are browsing through them later. For every photo I decided to upload to my Flickr, there's at least two or three others of the same scene/animal that just weren't good enough for me.

5. DO try crouching low or lying on your stomach while you take your photos, to get at your toy animal's level. It will make them look more realistic.

6. Some toy manufacturers, such as Schleich and Safari LTD for example, also make fences, shrubs, trees and more in scale with their toy animals. Used correctly, these can greatly improve the level of realism in your photos.

That's all I can think of for now, but more tips will be added as I gain more experience. More important than anything is to have fun with it! Otherwise I'd say it's quite pointless.

In order to make your toy animal photos as natural looking as possible, it is obviously vital that the animals be highly realistic. The paint job on the figurines is especially important. A sloppy paint job can easily make a well-made animal figurine lose its realism.

Both Schleich and Safari LTD figurines are excellent, though I favor Safari ones. Safari animals seem to look better up close, while I find the paint jobs on certain smaller Schleich figurines to be rather lacking. On the other hand, Schleich horses are truly gorgeous.

Some people prefer Papo animals --personally, I don't own any so I can't speak for them.

Feel free to look at the photos of my Realistic Animal Figurines set and Flickr group. All the photos on my set, as well as most of the ones on the Flickr group, specify which brand of animal is represented on the photograph, so that may help you choose.

A note about Safari LTD animals: a few of them have a slightly "cartoony" expression to them. I love this! But it might take just a little away of realism from your photos.

I recommend the folks at Classic Toys. An online store based in Philadelphia, PA, they are always my first choice. Not only do they ship quickly, but they usually include catalogs and sometimes a postcard with each order.