Photography Tips and Tricks!

[UncleChester]

Hi there, nice work again. This here is my only objection (and I admit to being picky):

... Theoretically speaking, a high ISO is always preferential because it allows you to shoot with less light available....[/IMG]

Noise issues aside, sometimes it is desirable to have less sensitivity, for example when you want a long shutter to show the effects of movement (e.g. water fall in a vivarium-pretty ghetto pic attached but you can see the waters movement in the fountain part) and you don't want to stop down the lens any more (or can't) and you don't have or want to use ND filters.

It's also handy to have a lower ISO when balancing flash and sunlight for wild froggies. Lower sensitivity will also help you shoot at a wider aperture in full sunlight for an out of focus background, but this has never come up for me as an issue when photographing frogs or other small critters outside, except when balancing with a flash a being limited by the sync speeds.

[VicSkimmr]

All good points I hadn't thought about wanting to do a long exposure for a waterfall.

I'm trying to keep my pointers specifically related to frogs and frog tanks, otherwise this thread would turn into a novel

[UncleChester]

All good points I hadn't thought about wanting to do a long exposure for a waterfall.

I'm trying to keep my pointers specifically related to frogs and frog tanks, otherwise this thread would turn into a novel

That's why my example was from a vivarium .

Outdoor frog photography does happen around here too and a fill flash can be a dandy thing, so don't neglect those who like to get their feet wet photographing frogs (and not because of a leaky tank!).

[VicSkimmr]

I've covered the basics, which is what I really wanted to get done, so I figure people can make new posts covering specifics if they want (macro photography maybe, flashes, proper lighting, focus stacking, post processing, specific techniques, stuff like that). Otherwise I'll add stuff whenever I can get to it.


If anybody has any requests for subjects, post up and I'm sure someone here can cover it. We've got plenty of good photographers on this site.

You could also post a picture if you're having a difficult time figuring out what you're doing wrong and I'm sure we can collectively help diagnose the problem.

[DonLisk]

Well now I am just going to have to pull out the manual and see if my new Nikon can change some of these settings.
I know ISO is in there but don't think aperture and shutter speed are.

Thanks for the great instruction. I'll be bookmarking this thread for plenty of help :-)

[VicSkimmr]

I decided to try diffusing the light on the vivarium for a couple of frogs pics today, I think it turned out pretty well All I did was slip a sheet of regular white paper under the light before taking the pic. The un-diffused pic is on the left, the diffused is on the right. I like that it distributes the highlights on the frog better, showing off more detail and reducing the harshness.

[UncleChester]

Nice. I like the specular highlights that turn up on the otherwise black patch on the frogs back in the diffused example and that the highlight on its nose isn't so harsh.

Just make sure you don't leave your paper too close to the light unattended! Parchment paper (the usual cooking kind) is a more heat resistant option. Also note that most household diffusion options will change the colour temperature of the light. Easily correctable if you are using only one light source (your cameras auto-white balance will usually compensate) but can be noticeable if you are combining sources. "White" paper sometimes has blue in it to appear "more white" and can cool the light off, parchment paper (mine anyways) warms up the colour temp (mine takes a 5500K source down to about 4800K).