Snake Photograph Tips?

I keep trying to take pictures of my snake Lorenzo but I can't seem to get any good ones. I have a little digital camera, I guess it's called a "point and shoot". It doesn't let me change a whole lot of settings (well it does, but not the ones I want like shutter speed and Iso), and I have no idea what any of the ones I can change do. :/ My avatar picture is the best picture of him, and that was taken by my brother on his iPhone! An iPhone is better than my camera. >_> Here's some of my better pictures (just posting links so you can see more of them without making the page huge), and then I'll list out some of my settings, maybe someone here knows what they are.

The iPhone Picture

Picture 1, in viv.

Picture 2, in viv, on top of skull

Picture 3, on my mom's arm.

Picture 4, on my arm (taken by mom)

Picture 5, on my mom's arm again.

So, I'm obviously doing something wrong. >_< Here's the settings I can change on my camera.

Flash on and off, self explanatory.

A little flower on and off, it's supposed to be macro but I never could get it to work.

Timer or Multiburst. I need to use multiburst I think. :P I don't know if I tried that. I have one that takes 3 pictures slower and makes them all separate and one that takes 16 really fast and puts them in a grid. Link to example of the 16 burst.

Zoom in and out. Don't know if I should use zoom or just get closer or farther away.

Image Resolution: 6M, 3M, 2M, or VGA. I'm pretty sure it's megapixals, I have it set to 6 but I'm not sure what VGA does. o_O

Image Quality: Good, Better, Best. Obviously it's on best.

Focus Zone: Multi-zone, center, selected area. I have no idea what it does. It has to do with the brackets on the screen, it's set on multizone.

Ev Compensation: No clue on this one either. It's set to 0,0 but it can go a bunch of different ways. I can go down to -0,3 -0,7 -1,0 -1,3 -1, 7 and -2,0. I can go up and get those same numbers except with a plus. It's currently on 0,0.

M-Burst Interval: I can change the 16 burst time! Right now it's on 1/30 Sec. I can choose 1/15 Sec and 1/7.5 Sec.

I have a ton of different stuff under Setup: File No., Digital Zoom, Quick View, Camera Sound, Auto LCD Off, Auto Power Off, Video out, USB Mode, Date Stamp, Date & Time, Language, Image Storage, Format, Reset, Voice Memo, About. Most of those are just on or off.

And then I have scene. Here's all the scenes I can choose from: Auto,P-Mode, Portrait, Night Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night Landscape, Backlight, Museum, Snow, Sunset, Fireworks, Party, Beach, Copy, Video.

So yeah. Help on settings would be cool, and tons of tips for what I need to do. I was in a photography class at school and I still can't take good pictures. Although all those for school were stationary objects, not live reptiles! Thanks!~

In P-mode, you should be able to change settings like shutter speed and ISO. They might be hidden in some menu.

What you should do: Have the snake under a good light. Set ISO to 400 if it doesn't add too much graininess. Use macro mode. Use focus zone center. Do not use zoom or burst. Go close, so the snake fills most of the screen. Use 6 MP setting, then crop and resize in computer software to suitable size.

That's pretty much what I was going to say. Use Macro, and focus zone center, or selected. Can you tell when the autofocus locks on to something? I _do_ like to use multi-burst- that's a good way to get tongue shots. My camera will still let me take single shots in that setting if I let off the shutter.

I would start in an easy setting. Snake in a small white deli cup, with bright overhead lighting. Either use flash if you don't have good software to process your images, or don't, if you can edit them. Fill the screen with the snake, but realize that your lens will have a distance it can't get closer than, probably something like 4-6".

You can also practice on flowers or other things that don't move.

This is what editing does for you. I have not altered the colors- just increased sharpness, cropped, things like that. This is a point and shoot camera.

Originally Posted by Gemini8910

A little flower on and off, it's supposed to be macro but I never could get it to work.

Timer or Multiburst. I need to use multiburst I think. :P I don't know if I tried that. I have one that takes 3 pictures slower and makes them all separate and one that takes 16 really fast and puts them in a grid. Link to example of the 16 burst.

Zoom in and out. Don't know if I should use zoom or just get closer or farther away.

Image Resolution: 6M, 3M, 2M, or VGA. I'm pretty sure it's megapixals, I have it set to 6 but I'm not sure what VGA does. o_O

Image Quality: Good, Better, Best. Obviously it's on best.

Focus Zone: Multi-zone, center, selected area. I have no idea what it does. It has to do with the brackets on the screen, it's set on multizone.

Ev Compensation: No clue on this one either. It's set to 0,0 but it can go a bunch of different ways. I can go down to -0,3 -0,7 -1,0 -1,3 -1, 7 and -2,0. I can go up and get those same numbers except with a plus. It's currently on 0,0.

M-Burst Interval: I can change the 16 burst time! Right now it's on 1/30 Sec. I can choose 1/15 Sec and 1/7.5 Sec.

I have a ton of different stuff under Setup: File No., Digital Zoom, Quick View, Camera Sound, Auto LCD Off, Auto Power Off, Video out, USB Mode, Date Stamp, Date & Time, Language, Image Storage, Format, Reset, Voice Memo, About. Most of those are just on or off.

And then I have scene. Here's all the scenes I can choose from: Auto,P-Mode, Portrait, Night Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night Landscape, Backlight, Museum, Snow, Sunset, Fireworks, Party, Beach, Copy, Video.

So yeah. Help on settings would be cool, and tons of tips for what I need to do. I was in a photography class at school and I still can't take good pictures. Although all those for school were stationary objects, not live reptiles! Thanks!~

I have pretty much the same set up on my point and shoot. As far as I have deciphered (please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still learning), I think the settings mean:

macro : I had some trouble "getting it to work" in the beginning. As far as I can tell, some flash modes and programmed settings don't work in macro. You should have an "auto" setting under "scene" options that controls most of the programmable options (ie. ev, flash, white balance)? Macro setting tends to work best in that auto mode, until you figure out the quirks of your camera's settings.

zoom : Try out the zoom in on non-moving targets that give you a good idea of focus and sharpness. I have found that my camera can't focus properly when zoomed in, so I avoid it, or cheat. If you use zoom in, be careful that you don't bump the camera lens against things (they tend to move forward), which I may or may not have done with mine. >.>

One way you can cheat with a point and shoot that's bad at focusing is to set the focus mode to center, hold the shutter button half down like you're beginning to take a shot, but not all the way. In most cameras, that engages the focus. So say I want to focus on something 5 meters away, but my camera fails. I "focus" on something 5.1 meters away with the half held down button, but find that 5.1 meters isn't sharp, but 5 meters is, then before I take the shot (still holding the button half down to keep the focus set), move the camera so it's now cheat focused on my target 5 meters away. That eye balling to judge sharpness is hard to do on the tiny digital screen though.

focus zones : For snakes, probably you'd want to use center focus. Multi focus is good for multiple subjects you want the camera to focus on at different focal lengths (ie. different distances away from the camera). I don't have selected area, so I can't say.

EV compensation : I had to look this one up way back. It stands for exposure value, and it pretty much means color saturation. Try it out on a still scene with lots of different colors and sunlight, and keep all the settings besides EV constant. Start with the lowest setting (-2?) and snap a picture for every setting on up, and you can see the difference. The lower ones tend to look darker, and the highest ones look very bright. It affects different colors differently in different lights. It's useful for when your camera just isn't getting the colors quite right, to play with EV and see what happens. Note that most point and shoot cameras are intentionally designed to reduce blues and increase reds, to produce a "warmer" feel that camera makers have decided their consumers like better than true color.

M burst : Sounds useful for moving shots. I don't have that much control over mine, but I'm going to try the movie mode in burst setting and see what happens. My snake refuses to sit still! I do recommend a tripod or something equivalent for this, or an incredibly steady hand.

Scene : Is the most tricky I think. The scene settings are usually completely individual to the camera model and can affect all the other settings in unexpected ways. Best way to figure these out is experimentation and reading the manual. On my camera for example, I was surprised to find that night settings cranked down the shutter speed a lot. Which would be fine with a tripod and a statue, but not so much for me.

O, I forgot image resolution. I think you're right it's megapixels, and VGA is lowest resolution, since it's supposed to be used for thumbnails and email and such.

I agree with the center focal zone. I would use the little flower (that's macro) and definitely use the zoom. You have to be aware of your focal length/distance (for all the cameras I've used...all point and shoot, in this mode, it's no less than 12 inches) and not be too close to your subject. Use the zoom to bring your image closer, but if you go too far, you won't get good photos either.

Wow thanks for all the tips! I'll try them out when I have him out next.

Your exposure compensation has nothing to do with color saturation...

It most likely operates at either 1-stop or 0.3-stop intervals. A "stop" is easiest to think of as a step-difference in light value. A little background info on how a digital camera operates.

Your camera has a built in light meter that reads how much light is coming into the camera. This light meter is designed to trigger your camera to make the scene "neutral grey", which is about 18% reflective. No matter what you take a picture of, your camera wants to make it neutrally reflective. Doesn't matter if it is snow or mud, your camera is trying to make them look the same tone. Obviously, snow is much more highly reflective then mud, and therefor produces a much brighter tone...

As a photographer, the most important job we do is control how much light from the scene is used by the camera. We do this by using aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. Exposure Compensation on a digital camera gives you, the photographer, the ability to tell the light meter how bright or dark or subject is.

Ever take a picture of a fresh blanket of snow, all white and bright, in the new morning sun, just to get inside and find your photo is horribly dark with blackness instead of shadows, and dark, dingy snow? This is your camera making that scene neutral. Use your exposure compensation to tell your camera that this scene is not supposed to be neutral. Set your "exposure value" to a +2 using exposure compensation and take the same picture. Suddenly your snow is bright white, your shadows have details, and that glorious new morning sun is as bright as you remember.

In short, setting your exposure compensation to a positive value tells your camera that this scene should be calculated to be brighter than neutral. Setting your EV to the negative tells your camera the scene should be darker than neutral.

This is how you will be able to control the exposures of your shots. You may not have a specific shutter speed or aperture control on your camera(though you should definitely have an ISO setting somewhere...), but you can still control your light readings using exposure compensation.

As for color saturation...as a matter of science, a darker image will have more saturated colors. Brighter means more light and more reflection, which invariably means colors containing more whiteness. This gives colors a washed-out, almost sun bleached look. Darker tones translate into deeper colors which means they are less reflective, and give off less whiteness, making them full, deep, and saturated with color. Saturation and hue are 2 aspects of an image that can be influenced with exposure compensation, but this is not the purpose of exposure compensation...

I would recommend a quick google search for Ansel Adams and Zone System. This system of visualizing your scene before taking the shot was developed in the 1930's but is every bit as effective, usual, and valid for digital photography.



This took about 3 seconds to find. The middle is neutral, and this is what your camera wants to make everything it sees...

Hope this was somewhat useful...

Check your owner's manual, and see what your zoom range is. Most have an optical zoom, which functions like a professional zoom lens using movable glass elements to enlarge and focus a scene, and a digital zoom, which using pixel enlargments and extrapolations to digitally enlarge and focus a scene. Your optical zoom range will always produce a better quality image. Digital zooms will quickly deteriorate your image quality. I avoid using the digital zoom range every time I use a P&S camera.

Macro--this term is often not completely understand. This mode on your camera does nothing more than manipulate the lens elements to decrease your minimum focusing range. Every lens has a minimum distance that front element must be from the subject in order to focus. For most general-use lenses, this has always been around 2.5-3 feet. A "Macro Mode" on a P&S digital camera will typically use an internal focusing lens that cuts that minimum focusing distance in half allowing you to get the front of your camera much closer to the flower/bee/spider/whatever, and still get crisp focus.

"P-Mode" is program mode, and in this mode you absolutely should have access to and control over your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO settings. Not sure how, and every camera is different, but there ain't no point in giving the consumer a program option if there is no way to make the adjustments...