Photography: About Lighting & Reflection

[Ganoderma]

I am starting to get the hang of using my camera with focus, aperture, speed etc. now that i am familiar with some of the main settings i am trying to experiment with lighting. My main problem is getting shines and reflections. things such as beetles and wet animals like amphibians are a particular problem for me, often reflecting the light off their backs/heads. i am experimenting with paper and such but fail to succeed. as i understand it the idea is to block the light without causing too much shadow. like those umbrellas and sheets pro photographers use doing portraits.

would it be possible to get other peoples tricks and tips for this? especially that of dark raptor and stephen as their photos are amazing and often have little to no reflection, making them that much better.

anything would be great! right now i am mostly reading dpreview but they seem to lack a bit in actually photography and are excellent in the cameras and functions.

I am practicing first with dead animals at home, but ultimatly i want to be able to get some good shots in teh feild as that is primarily where i spend my time with animals. and honestly i don't often like bringing things home, taking photos, then taking them all the way back....

my start was a bucket setup out of a 5 gallon which failed miserably. i now have a cut kleenex box lined with white paper i am experimenting with for dead specimens. it works better but still some problems. What would you guys do to help improve quality?

thanks for anything!

 

[bugmankeith]

I think your supposed to take a picture with the sun facing your back, not your camera facing the sun. Doing this isnt always guaranteed to work, but it usually helps enough to get a good,clear picture. If you take a picture without Flash a little farther away, not much, it will also help get rid of the glare/reflection. On a sunny day I never use Flash, and I noticed bugs in the shade come out better than bugs bathing on a leaf in the sun. Hope this helps.

 

[Ganoderma]

excellent thanks. believe it or not this was a rainy day but the clouds were bright. no clear sun in sight, jsut white everywhere. i also don't use flash cause the glare becomes a real eye sore. i try and avoid sky whenever possible but those 3 beetles were up in a tree crevice adn thats the only angle i could get with any stability unfortunatly. i was thinking maybe taping paper to the back of the tree to try and shade it, but i have no idea.

thanks again! any other pointers?

 

[The Snark]

I was hoping you would give me pointers.
My extremely amatuer experience so far.
Shade, like a screen, giving filtered sunlight seems to work best. You want high contrast and plenty of light to get details. The filtered light helps kill those reflections.
High contrast. Get your subject in front of a neutral background if at all possible.
Watch out for colored ambient light. For example, the bane of the scenery photographer is a blue sky that tinges everything blue. What has been driving me crazy lately is snake enclosures with transluscent green walls. Everything ends up greenish and the colors are off.
Avoid flash if you can. It tends to unnaturally enhance color.
When you get good at it, I'd love to get some suggestions from you!

Oh yes. My newest method. I got a reasonably nice digital camera. I tweak the settings and will often take 20 or 30 pics of the same 'shot'. Trial and error stuff. Let your camera show you what works best.


Look at my thread Got Snakes in Not So Spineless Wonders. You will note I had a reflection problem with most of the first set of shots. A little below half way down the page I got an excellent glint, glare and reflection free shot of some ratters (Some adolescents, for you!). That was taken out in the open on heavily overcast day. But note, the dark skinned snake still has some reflection. I could have eliminated that by lowering the exposure but then the other snake would have seemed darker than normal. It has been said, photography is a series of compromises.


Just to get you and all would be photographers depressed, myself included. A friend recently got his ultimate picture taken and he has hopes of it going in National Geographic. It only took him 7 years to get the shot.
He had the backdrop setting worked out. A meadow. The lighting only worked in late afternoon, and only during the summer months. He then dutifully set up his camera for that half hour or so when the lighting was perfect and waited for the deer to come down and graze. Is this masochism or what?