When it comes to AR, there are so many delightful and creative AR photographers on social media who can be a constant source of inspiration. We recommend checking out our AR hashtag #GOHubAR to see a huge variety of work from different photographers.
One way that is fun to experiment and can help you appreciate a Pokémon in a whole new light, is by experimenting with how you compose your photography. Rather than including the whole Pokémon in your image, why not focus on just a small part of them and crop the image much tighter instead?
What is Body Parts Photography?
Body Parts Photography is a popular technique in artistic photography, whether focusing on a specific human body part, like a hand, or even photographing an animal in their natural setting, but focusing on their paws in the grass. It is often used to make images more mysterious, or abstract, so why not apply this to your Pokémon GO AR photography and experiment!
Most AR photographs will include the whole Pokémon in a wider setting, but so many Pokémon have such cool designs that focusing on one small part of them can really highlight a feature and give you a different perspective. It can also help you appreciate a Pokémon you might not have otherwise thought was as awesome as it is!
How To Guide
To be able to focus in closer on a Pokémon, you need to have access to Niantic AR, as this allows you to move around the Pokémon, whereas in standard AR mode the Pokémon is in a set fixed position in the centre of the photograph. Niantic AR lets you view a Pokémon from every angle, so you can be more inventive with your choices.
You can only move so close to a Pokémon before they go out of focus and you are warned that you are too close, but you can still get surprisingly close. How close you can get depends on the Pokémon, and you will find that smaller breeds, like Joltik, don’t give many options for this particular style of photography.
For larger Pokémon, you can get much closer and focus in on just one part of them a lot easier! Sceptile is a quite a large Pokémon when spawned, and this allowed me to walk around him and fill a lot of my photo with just his tail, which was way cooler and more detailed than I had realised.
Which Pokémon Work Best?
I usually have a look through my Pokémon storage and turn the Pokémon around to have a good look at them, and see if they have any striking details I might not have noticed before, or if they have a cool body part.
Tails are always a great option. In the below Shiny Shadow Arbok photo, just focusing in on Arbok’s tail makes it look like they are slithering away, even though they aren’t moving.
It’s not just tails that work really well, it’s also things like big tufty ears (any of the rabbit-esque Pokémon), a big snout or nose (Toucannon will be so fun when we get to Gen 8!), or any other body part you can isolate. Lickitung’s tongue attack animation could be really fun, or Cofagrigus’ hands, the more you think, the more options there are!
There are a lot of Grass types that have unique body parts that could be great to focus on, from Turtwig’s sprout, to Venusaur’s flower and Chikorita’s leaf, even Alolan Exeggutor’s weird buttface tail could be great.
The two best ways to isolate body parts are to focus on the top of the Pokémon, their head, ears, horns for example, or to focus on the bottom parts, tails, feet, etc. Any part that sticks out from their body is an easy part to isolate for AR photography, but there are other options too.
Think about what makes a Pokémon unique, Alakazam’s spoons, Tropius’ leaves, Blissey’s egg, Ninetails’ tails, Krabby’s claws, Melmetal’s hole in his stomach area, there are so many unique options! Every Pokémon has some sort of option for this style, you just have to be creative.
We’d love to see what you can create using this technique, so be sure to use the hashtag #GOHubAR so that we can see what you come up with!
