Herp photography tips

[Red-Ink]

100mm macro taken hand held in about 2 seconds lol

Any positive criticism would be good! ahh its heavily compressed btw

I take it you used a flash for it? If the flash has fired there is no need to keep the shutter open for longer as the exposure is done through the flah and not ambient light. Keeping the shutter open longer may blow out the exposure with the adition of ambient light or cause bluriness in macro due to camera shake. It's a great shot and you captured the subject quiet well, It is nice and sharp and the depth of field is spot on to capture the deatail on your subject. My only negative thing if i can say it is the flower/plant looks about a quarter to half an exposure blown out in the highlights, that may be due to the long shutter speed letting more light in or just the high reflectance of the plant. Otherwise fantastic shot mate, keep up the good work.

 

[seumas12345]

Ahh yeah I see what you mean now. It was literally the first day I was shooting with full manuel after reading this thread. I was still in "manuel test mode" as such

Is there anyway I can correct this overexposure on photoshop?

 

[Red-Ink]

Ahh yeah I see what you mean now. It was literally the first day I was shooting with full manuel after reading this thread. I was still in "manuel test mode" as such

Is there anyway I can correct this overexposure on photoshop?

Yep just open it up in photo shop and adjust the levels (not auto levels as photoshop is pretty crap at making auto adjustments), its a setting in there somewhere can't remember of the top of my head what it's under without having photoshop open in fromt of me. Anyway if you move the highlights down make sure you keep the mid tone and shadow detail in the same spot.

 

[woosang]

hand held

No tripod (I often use a tripod for macro)

Here are my recent hand held macro pics. Damned cutie wouldn't stop moving.. Big scarey black camera in its little sweet face

There are a few others. The depth of field is so small with a macro tube and a big lens that any shift of the snake means I got the back of the head in focus and not the eyes or tounge.
more on flickr. (Woosang)

 

[woosang]

to get some shots of animals behind glass in a dark room (ie zoo)

my husband took these in 2006. (BTW I have no idea what sort of snake this is so please LMK)

Exposure 1/125
Apperture F5.6
Focal length 110mm
Iso 400
Flash yes.

This one

Exposure 1/125th
Apperature F5.6
focal length 210mm
Iso 400
flash yes.

The long focal length is to stop the flash for blasting the snake and to reduce reflection.

There are other in this series on David's flickr. (@ flickr he is Gunzel412)

 

[Nighteyes]

Thought I'd show a couple of pics I took while up here in the Pilbara working. Looking after exploration drill rigs is giving me heaps of time to drive around with my new EOS450D looking out for things to shoot. These were 2 of the shots I liked from earlier this week.

First is a 1.5m Mulga/King Brown we came across sunning itself
(1/800, f6.3, ISO 640)

the other is a Western Netted Dragon (heaps of them up here)
(1/250, f5.6, ISO 200)

I've had to compress them obviously. let me know what you think...

 

[moloch05]

Great stuff, Nighteyes. It would be really nice so see you batch up your pics and post these. You are working in one of the richest areas for herps and we don't see pics very often from that area.

Regards,
David

 

[Slytherin]

My misc tips and ramblings ....

The higher the dpi (megapixel rating of the camera), the sharper the pic will look when enlarged

Macro setting is your best friend! This allows you to get in close and still be in focus.

Holding the camera still and pressing the button without jerking or shifting it, makes all the difference between a sharply focussed pic and a slightly blurry one.

I like to compose my photos by coming in close to my subject and eliminating the excess background detail. An open aperture and blurring of the background can also 'isolate' your subject from background clutter.

Opposite to many people, I prefer a more open aperture, creating a shallow depth of field so I can get the 'artistic' background blur to contrast with my focused subject. (I tend towards more 'arty' shots)

Try placing your subject off center to make a stronger composition.

Look for unusual ways of looking at the usual...different compositons, different viewing angle than normal, such as getting lower than normal. Pick out shapes or patterns that catch your eye and make that your subject rather than the whole animal.

Before taking your photo, take a quick look at the background to see if your subject has a pole 'growing' out of their head or any other unwanted distractions.

If using auto focus and waiting for your subject to get in just the right position, pre-focus (usually by pressing the button halfway down on most autofocus cameras will cause it to focus), and wait holding the button halfway down without moving. That way, you can take the pic quicker without having to focus first. You can do this with manual focus cameras, providing your subject isnt moving towards or away from you and with practice.

Using flash even in daylight, will help eliminate excessive contrast between the shadows and the lit areas. It will also help control blur if the subject moves very slightly. I also use it to isolate my subject from the background if the background is in deep shadow.



Finally...You don't need an expensive camera with all the 'bells and whistles' to take good shots. Its practice and an eye for the unusual.

 

[Nighteyes]

Great stuff, Nighteyes. It would be really nice so see you batch up your pics and post these. You are working in one of the richest areas for herps and we don't see pics very often from that area.

Regards,
David

Yeah, wildlife in general is pretty abundant up here heaps of birds esp, unfortunatly I'm supposed to be back in town by dark, BHP rules (no i don't mean the python either) so I'm not out during the best herping time :cry:

 

[borntobnude]

something that i find useful is reading/ re-reading the manual that came with the camera most people tend to gleem ( yes me too) but every time the kids get a camera , get mine , i tend to update, so the next one has something a bit different and the special instructions are hidden deep in the manual

 

[froggyboy86]

I just discovered how to use the manual focus on my camera, I guess I should have read the manual when I bought it.