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Nighteyes

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There are some excellent photographers here on APS (yes i'm trying to stroke ego's). I was wondering if some of them would like to give us mere mortals some tips about herp photography.

Someone mentioned about putting an icecream container over your snakey subject to get them to coil up so they can be photographed, thats a great tip, their must be more like that.

Tips on gear used for after dark herping, camera settings what ever you think would help us all improve our skills.

I'll start with one that everyone should know anyway....To get great shots you have to take LOTS!

Nighteyes
 
This is a great post, and I wish more of the talented photographers on here would chime in - 'cause I could use some help too. One tip is to always keep depth-of-field in mind. Using the aperture priority mode on your camera and setting for the smallest aperture possible (which equates to the higher F numbers, e.g. F22 or F32) given ambient lighting conditions will produce greatest depth-of-field. This in turn will cause more of the subject to be in focus. Just be careful that you are not shooting at too slow a speed which will produce blur. I think 1/60th second is recommended as about as slow as you would want to hand hold a camera, but I've gotten away with 1/30th and even slower before.
 
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I have a 300d EOS, anyone got good suggestions for snapping shots with one of these?

I've experimented with the short and long lens, but I can't get those really close up shots of the head with either! Always seems to go blurry!
 
ah yes the aperture priority mode.....




:shock:
Damn talented people and their talent.

But this is seriously a great thread. I want to get to know more about taking piccies. Miley told me I have to read the big thick manual that came with the camera. DOH! Not looking forward to that.

Hopefully she will post some super duper help on here, with her super awesomeness of snake pictures.
 
I have always been fascinated by photography also, what would be a good camera to start off with? Nothing too complicated, just to take close up good quality shots. Thanks for any help.
 
Hi, I totally agree that you can get good shots with the snake posing on something, that way you can just let it crawl around a bit and keep snapping til you get the right shot.

Also, lighting is important. The difference between light on, light off, flash on, flash off can make you snake look totally different and nothing like the natural colours it really is.

Finally, whoever invented DIGITAL CAMERAS, THANKYOU ! as you just keep clicking to get the best shot and delete the rest.
 
For the night time shots I've taken (if you've seen coastal carpet and two lots of spotted python pics, all of those were taken at night) I use a torch; I have a mag torch and I set it so the beam is pretty well dispersed (i.e. not focused in one spot) and position it so that the edge of the light is on the snake; this allows the camera to 'see' the snake and focus on it correctly, so you can get better shots! Obviously don't shine it directly in their face...

I usually do this even in subtly poor lighting, as you tend to get blurry photos in poor-lighting, so if you provide just that bit of extra light your camera can focus correctly and then the cameras own flash can then illuminate the animal well enough for a clear photo. just takes practice :) Also when taking photos of herps my camera is pretty much always on macro, but I'm not sure that most standard cameras would have decent maco?

I typically take hundreds of photos and will get quite a few decent ones. If I go to a place like australia zoo or reptile places I'll literally take about 2000 photos :)


examples of some night time photos I took using the above method and a fuji finepix S5700 camera (outdated now, are newer models but this still works a beaut. would love to get a dSLR to hone my skills :D) These photos are of wild animals :)
Frog_6_by_xshadowxv.jpg


Frog_11_by_xshadowxv.jpg


Frog_8_by_xshadowxv.jpg




Coastal_Carpet_Python9_by_xshadowxv.jpg

Coastal_Carpet_Python4_by_xshadowxv.jpg

Coastal_Carpet_Python5_by_xshadowxv.jpg



Python6_by_xshadowxv.jpg

Python3_by_xshadowxv.jpg



If anyone in townsville ever wants pics taking of their herps, lemme know, I'd love to be able to see somemore and increase my photo compilation!
 
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Can I say.... Anyone wanting tps....Dont be afraid to go down your local library and borrow a few books..... Take them to a park or something...And play with your Camera and its settings... Thats how I am learning...
 
Xshadow - nice frog pics

Can I say.... Anyone wanting tps....Dont be afraid to go down your local library and borrow a few books..... Take them to a park or something...And play with your Camera and its settings... Thats how I am learning...

Yeah spot on, all I do is take a lizard out and have a fiddle with setting. Still haven't got it how I want just yet but looking at getting a flash to use as a slave instead of my small flash at the moment which seems to reflect off the animals eyes a lot, and I'll see how that works out.

Stewie has a good page on his site about all this stuff. Very handy site to learn from and you know it's all relevent info rather than a sources that aren't just for wildlife photography:

http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/herping/photography/
 
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Remove the lens cap before taking pics

:lol: Ditto...though you wouldn't believe the amount of people that forget that haha

-Focusing on the eyes is a good one, though I've gotten some nice shots focusing on other -bits of the snake/lizard.
-Knowing your camera too is a good one, read, re read and re read again the manual til you know it inside out so you can use it to full potential!
-Also shooting early morning/late afternoon to avoid harsh shadows and blow outs
-Do some net research and learn about different things, a big one to know about is exposure

:)
 
I have a decent DSLR camera and have never learnt how to use it (I use my mobile phone instead lol). Does anyone know a website where I can learn about apperture, shutter speed etc. Or could someone give me a brief description of what this stuff means (the basics etc)
 
I have a decent DSLR camera and have never learnt how to use it (I use my mobile phone instead lol). Does anyone know a website where I can learn about apperture, shutter speed etc. Or could someone give me a brief description of what this stuff means (the basics etc)
Gives some explanation, and the rest is up to you!
http://digital-photography-school.com/

cheers
 
Dip the tip of your lens in vasaline :)
well if its that totally blurb artistic look ur going for then by all means :p

other wise a clean lens free of dust prevents specs all over ur image :)

use macro setting (the little flower setting on most compact cameras) if ur using a dslr get a mrco lense. depending how close you wanna be, a 90mm is pretty nice, but u might want longer for those further away subjects :)

have enough light to focus.

have either a flash or some source of lighting for night time or studio stuff.

focus on they eyes.

try to see every thing that in the frame and frame ur subject just off center.

another way to get better at photography is look at images that you really like and try to recreate the composition and lighting. soon you will see what works best.

also u must be patient, reptiles and hell to photograph as they are always moving!!
 
I understand that there are some wikid photographers out there who just take incredible shots... Surely though alot of it comes down to equipment and photoshopping? I bought a canon 450D and also purchased a 100mm macro lense to get right up and close, and trust me I am one of the few who have sat down and read every manual that came with it, among hundreds of other articles. I will take hundreds of photos and manage to get some awesome stuff, however, I still have trouble getting shots that are even close to as good as the ones I've seen on here. I'd like to hear from some of the pros using DSLR's, what equipment they're using, and even moreso, how many of them photoshop their pics. I have had little experience with photoshop but have noticed just how much difference bumping up the saturation and increased brightness and contrast can make.
So to sum it up, let's hear some opinions on:
- Equipment and how much it plays a part
- Photoshopping to get those cream of the crop shots
 
i use canon 1d mark III,
90mm f2.8 macro lens and other gear such as 24-70, 70-200 both 2.8
a **** flash that i dont really use that much 430ex
and i use a tourch :)

but i think camera play a pretty important part though is not the be all and end all. if u can compose and expose an image well then camera only comes down to the quaility and finer details and precision.

as for photoshop, it can only be used to enhance. if the photo is **** in the first place u will never be able to make it great using photoshop!
 
I understand that there are some wikid photographers out there who just take incredible shots... Surely though alot of it comes down to equipment and photoshopping?

Let me preface this by saying that I'm not a "pro"; I'm just another amateur with a camera.

Equipment certainly plays a part. You can't expect a sharp photo with a soft lens.

Photoshop also plays a part. A lot of people shoot in JPEG format, which automatically applies various settings to the images before they're save on your camera's memory card. These will include sharpening and saturation. Most serious amateurs choose not to shoot in JPEG, however, and shoot in RAW.

RAW photos (in theory) have absolutely no processing done to them by the camera, unlike JPEG. This means photographers have to "tweak" the image to get it to look right.

When it comes to photographing captive reptiles for sale or for advertising purposes in particular, any photographer with a conscience should only use Photoshop to adjust the image to the point that it is an accurate representation of the animal. Artistic modification to other parts of the image are of less concern to me, however. Unfortunately, some do take a little too much "creative license" when it comes to the aesthetic values of the herp subject matter.

At the end of the day, even if you know how to use photoshop and you have good equipment, that still doesn't mean you're going to produce a good photo. Sure, they help, but do they teach you composition? Do they teach you how to light things in a flattering way?

There's lots more to a good photograph than Photoshop and equipment.
 
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