Reptile Photography

[n3xia]

Nothing wrong with having the flash on even in daylight. In fact I would say that when in harsh high contrast situations like bright sunlight where the highlight values are too far apart from the shadow details... pop up flash on the camera is your best friend.

No flash in daylight... camera metering will always expose for correct highlight value. Regardless if it's a DSLR on full manual or a point and shoot auto.

The shadows/highlights in the first pic are nothing a bit of tweaking in Camera Raw can't fix. The second one is a little lacking in contrast for my tastes. I'm all for natural light and would rather rely on it than use the crappy pop-up flash any day

 

[Red-Ink]

The shadows/highlights in the first pic are nothing a bit of tweaking in Camera Raw can't fix. The second one is a little lacking in contrast for my tastes. I'm all for natural light and would rather rely on it than use the crappy pop-up flash any day

When teaching somebody photography, it's best too teach them how to get it right on the shooting stage rather than what fancy thing post productions can do. Photography is the mastery of light not the mastery of photoshop in my opinion. Those two examples were just to show the difference between having a pop up on and pop up off can do to a scene. Tweaking the first photo in RAW is fine but now we have to explain to somebody what camera RAW is as well as what it does... not to mention an added expense of legally sourcing the software that can manipulate camera RAW files.

Here's a pic taken in daylight with the pop up on... using the pop up as the main exposure lighting and the ambient light as a fill. Depending on what you are trying to achieve it can have a different effect, to simply put an exclamation point as an emphasis on not to use flash instantly limits the tools and possibly limits the pursuit of knowledge of someone interested in imaging at a base level.

Using a mounted flash does flatten the lighting direction of an image, but given that most field shots are designed as "specimen" shots, flat lighting is actually the norm. By all means as people advance in their interest in imaging people can start introducing more lighting effects to create their ideal style of imaging.

To simply dismiss what could be a useful tool like a pop up flash if properly applied would be short sighted IMO.

I'm not having a go at you... just saying there's more than one technique in imaging and all should be explored to see what works best for the scene and the photographer.

I have no problem with high contrast reptile photography either...

High contrast image.

 

[eipper]

I use a pop up regularly for a fill flash

 

[sara_sabian]

A couple of photos I took this arvo:

 

[richoman_3]

When teaching somebody photography, it's best too teach them how to get it right on the shooting stage rather than what fancy thing post productions can do. Photography is the mastery of light not the mastery of photoshop in my opinion.

Well said, i agree totally!
Tweaking photos on photoshop is sort of lazy in my opinion aswell, get to know how to learn your camera by practice in different situations.

Just a couple more of my better shots lately



Swamp Skink (Lissolepis coventryi) by Nick Volpe, on Flickr

Sand Goanna (Varanus gouldii) by Nick Volpe, on Flickr

Beaded Gecko (Lucasium damaeum) by Nick Volpe, on Flickr

Tree Dtella (Gehyra variegata) by Nick Volpe, on Flickr

Little Whip Snake (Parasuta flagellum) by Nick Volpe, on Flickr

 

[Nephrurus]

Photography is has become a marriage of both. You're not shooting with film anymore (For most of us, were we ever?). I think if you can get something that you can fix up down the line whilst minimising the inconvenience to the subject, you're having a win. Subjecting an animal to another 20 minutes of flash bursts because a stick (that could be cloned out) was in the way is just stupid.

 

[Red-Ink]

Photography is has become a marriage of both. You're not shooting with film anymore (For most of us, were we ever?). I think if you can get something that you can fix up down the line whilst minimising the inconvenience to the subject, you're having a win. Subjecting an animal to another 20 minutes of flash bursts because a stick (that could be cloned out) was in the way is just stupid.

Completely agree... the post production is as important as the shooting stage. These days people do it on their comps back in my day we did it in the dark rooms, there's always post production to be done as none of us are on the level of the masters of photography.

I guess I just put more emphasis on the shooting days being a relic of film (we didn't get a nice 3 inch sceen to view what we have just done). Old habbits die hard lol.

 

[rvcasa]

I am just getting into reptile and other wildlife photography and I am planning on getting a Nikon D3100 twin lense kit; 18-55mm & 70-300mm lenses.
I am curious whether too how much it will cost for lighting on the camera if I need others besides the pop up one it already has.

Macro photography isn't expensive, search "Extension Rings", "Reverse Mounts ", "Coupling Rings ", "Close-Up filter ".

 

[rvcasa]

...And I am also wondering what else I will need to magnificently photograph reptiles?[/QUOTE]

Lots of practice!

 

[brock98]

Here are a few of mine.

hi are they smooth tails?

 

[Skippii]

Love this thread, definitely deserves a bump. Let's see some more animal photography (& photography tips] in here!

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- - - Updated - - -

I'm fairly new to photography, and my new camera doesn't do macro as well as I'd like (need to get a macro lens). So these are nothing as beautiful as some of the photography in this thread, but I thought this guy was rather adorable. Rescued him from our kitchen sink. Jumping spiders have the cutest little faces... It's beyond me why so many people hate all spiders, who could hate that little face!

Inside the old plastic cup that I used to scoop him out of the sink:

He was very cute, any time I put a finger near him, he would immediately hop onto it and sit there peering around (probably searching for higher ground, but it was cute nonetheless):

And releasing the little guy, he seemed quite at home climbing around on our little hazel tree:

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