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Photography Techniques and Equipment This forum is for the discussion of technical details of how to take good pictures as well as discuss the equipment used in that pursuit.

Snake Photograph Tips?
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Old 09-02-2012, 12:21 PM   #11
tyflier
Focus zones--Multiple zones will not, and cannot, give you multiple points of focus. It gives you multiple points within the scene that the camera can choose to focus on, but only one of those points will be selected for focus. A camera can't "focus" on more than one element in the scene. You can use depth of field to expand the effective focal depth, but the camera can only physically focus on one element at one distance.

Right now it may seem a matter of semantics, but in practice, it will be very frustrating at the very least, trying to focus on 2 different objects in a scene with a very short depth of field.

Scene Settings--These are actually fairly standardized these days. Portrait, indoors, sport, mountain, water, beach, night...These scene modes are set to give priority to specific aspects of the exposure. Some examples...

Sports--This mode will give priority to shutter speed. Why? because faster shutter speeds are needed to capture the movement of sport. So in this mode, your camera will open up the aperture and sacrifice depth of field as well as increase the ISO and sacrifice noise quality, all in an effort to produce the fastest shutter speed obtainable based on the light readings. Each camera company may have it's own idea what the ideal shutter speed is for this mode, but they all function the same way.

Portrait--This will typically set your camera to a wide open aperture and a very low ISO. Why? Because in portraits, the goal is high-quality, sharp focusing, and soft backgrounds. Open apertures give you a narrow depth of field creating softer backgrounds, and low ISO settings produce the highest image quality by introducing the lowest possible level of digital noise.

Mountain--This is your landscape setting. This setting will set the camera to use a very narrow aperture for maximum depth of field. It will also require very low ISO settings to produce the highest quality resolution and details. It will sacrifice shutter speed to achieve these goals. Use a tripod in this mode.

"Scene Modes" tell the camera what you are looking at so it can automatically choose nominal settings that will work under general conditions for the type of scene depicted. Your "Snow Scene" will set your EV Compensation at +2 so your snow is nice and bright. Inside and night time scenes will increase your ISO to make your sensor more sensitive to light, allowing you to take photos in darker-than-normal situations.

In the end...I would recommend some google reading on basic photography techniques and camera operations. And get OLD information. Digital cameras still function on the same principles and techniques as the earliest cameras. The information easily translates to digital, and can be very useful for improving your shots...
 
Old 09-02-2012, 12:43 PM   #12
tyflier
I know, I ramble...

I wanted to give you a quick explanation of another feature found on most digital cameras today. Most have a selectable metering area. This means the user can choose how the light meter reads the scene in front of it. There are 3 standard modes:

Average--This mode of light metering takes into account the light coming from every area within the scene, makes an average reading, and sets your exposure value(aperture + shutter speed + ISO = exposure value) based on that average.

Center-Weighted--This mode takes the average light reading, but weights the center value of the scene stronger than the outlying areas. In other words, the light coming from the middle of the scene is more important in determining the exposure value(EV), but all the light is considered.

Spot--This mode takes it's light reading from the central spot of the scene, and ignore the remaining light values. This, in my opinion, is the most useful metering mode, and I'll explain why...

When using the Zone System to visualize a scene(B&W or color, the tones are the same), I use Spot Metering, and visualize the zone I see in the center of the scene. I compare what I see to what I know to be neutral in my mind, and I set my Exposure Compensation to tell my light meter where that center light falls within the zone system. Positive stops tell the camera it is brighter than neutral, negative stops tell the camera it is darker than neutral.

If I make an accurate assessment of the scene, and I expose the center of the scene for the correct tonal value within the zone system, my image should come out with a perfect exposure. Again, ignore colors. We are talking about brightness and darkness...tonal values, not color values. Doesn't matter if it is a green, blue, or red, it's tone is what we are looking at.

Until you have a working understanding of the zone system, this can get confusing. Center-Weighted metering is usually quite accurate. Use it and play with your exposure compensation. Check your results, and you will slowly start to figure it out.

If I confused you with all this...I apologize. If I excited you to try to learn it, excellent. If you got questions or want clarity, don't hesitate to ask. I LOVE photography as both an art and a science...
 
Old 09-09-2012, 04:16 PM   #13
Hexadeci
Any tips about flash with point and shoot? I know they aren't the greatest in general, but I'm trying to make do with what I've got for now, and what I've got is a point and shoot whose flash always washes out any picture. But I have to use flash to get a crisp image of that small, moving scaly subject. Any ideas, pre- or post- processing? I haven't had much luck with post processing away the whiteness, which I assume is due mostly to the data in the photo being lost in the washing out (there's only so much you can do with what doesn't exist).

I've tried taping tissue paper over the flash emitter in a novice attempt at diffusion, but not much success.

Here's an example of my pain:
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Image is of my caramel yearling in blue, flash strobe, taken in doors in not enough light to get decent clarity without flash, spot metering, ISO 160 (automatic), white balance set to match artificial light (makes little difference with the flash on), default EV (+0).
 
Old 09-09-2012, 04:28 PM   #14
Hexadeci
Quote:
Your exposure compensation has nothing to do with color saturation...
Ah, technically I probably misspoke. I'm still learning all the real terminology, so when I said color saturation I probably meant "brightness" as used in common circles and not so much the actual technical meaning. Rather like the way most people think "binary" is something rather different than what programmers and related technical knowledge mean. My bad. I didn't consider a dark image to be color "saturated" since I was viewing black in the same category of white (as "lack of color"). So I thought of a picture taken in shadow and a picture washed out by the sun to be about the same level of unsaturated (though opposite white balance).

I've been playing with varying EV in my photos, but I'm having trouble applying it to my snake photos, since none of the settings seem to matter once my flash has gone and washed everything out in white.
 
Old 09-10-2012, 12:04 AM   #15
tyflier
For simple flash diffusion, you can cut a piece of plastic from a gallon-size milk jug and tape it to the side of your camera in front of the flash. The thick, semi-opaque plastic should soften your flash considerably.

You could also try cutting a small piece of white poster board, and secure it under you flash, but angled up in front of it. This should block the forward flash altogether, but aim it towards the ceiling. It will bounce off the ceiling and hit your subject from overhead.

Either method should give you much softer shadows and a more even exposure.
 
Old 09-10-2012, 12:05 AM   #16
tyflier
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hexadeci View Post
Ah, technically I probably misspoke. I'm still learning all the real terminology, so when I said color saturation I probably meant "brightness" as used in common circles and not so much the actual technical meaning. Rather like the way most people think "binary" is something rather different than what programmers and related technical knowledge mean. My bad. I didn't consider a dark image to be color "saturated" since I was viewing black in the same category of white (as "lack of color"). So I thought of a picture taken in shadow and a picture washed out by the sun to be about the same level of unsaturated (though opposite white balance).

I've been playing with varying EV in my photos, but I'm having trouble applying it to my snake photos, since none of the settings seem to matter once my flash has gone and washed everything out in white.
I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to come off as arrogant or snotty, or anything. I just didn't want anyone reading to be further confused later, so I wanted to clarify. Sorry if I came off harsh.
 
Old 01-12-2013, 01:45 PM   #17
nmoore601
Smile

I'm glad I read this. I'm going to experiment. This was one of the most beneficial posts I've read here in a long time. Good stuff.
 
Old 03-22-2013, 11:52 AM   #18
Ana Sofia R
Forget all that different and confusing setup. You wont need any.
VGA is the worst quality! Its doesn't reach even 1mp xD Like the oldest phones with cameras. 6mp is obviously the best choice.
With a compact camera with no flash its hard to take a frozen photo. Unless you're outside with a lot of sun light x) That's why it looks dragged.
so take with flash. I supose that won't appened again.
One more thing... your camera only reach burst time at 1/30 Sec ? thats the Velocity of the shoot... and 1/30 is too slow! if your camera only reach that, take always with flash. You can try in everything... if you take a picture to someone moving, that person will be dragged x) But if the snake it quiet, go on without flash! and try not to tremble :P

Hope it help. Good luck
 

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