Photographing your pet reptiles and amphibians is something every exotic animal owner loves to do. But, a lot of the time it can be difficult to work with the animal and the shots just aren't coming out the way you were hoping. Well, I'm here to help! I've been photographing reptiles and amphibians in the wild and in captivity for close to 5 years now and have won several contests with my shots. I've worked with Corn Snakes, Ball Pythons, Boa Constrictors, and many more venomous and non-venomous snakes over the course of my photography experience. Now, I'm going to give you the secrets to my success!
Taking great photos of these magnificent animals is a scientific and artistic mixture of several different ingredients. It takes a great eye for composition and lighting, knowledge of the animal in front of you (i.e. behaviors, tendencies, etc.), and most importantly PATIENCE! Remember that unlike a human subject, reptiles and amphibians (we'll refer to them as "herps" from here on out) don't know what you're trying to do and can be very rambunctious frustrating - just hang in there!
Interchangeable Lense Cameras
Great shots don't happen on the first or second click of the button (unless you're lucky of course) which brings us to our first photography tip - use a digital camera! Most film development centers are going out of business anyways and digital is the easiest way to take and store thousands of photos for you and your family. My preference is to use a Digital SLR (Single Reflex Lens) camera body and a series of interchangeable lenses as they give you the most control over your photographical subject. If you're not willing to spend the money, however, a Point & Shoot Digital camera works great as well. Just remember, the more manual control you have over the camera the better!
Now that we have our camera selected let's focus on what truly makes a good photograph and what photography truly is - painting with light. No matter what the subject is, we're trying to use light in a way that portrays the subject the way we imagine it in our mind. The camera sensor is not as good at distinguishing between different intensities of light, and in order to get all of the detail in the photo the way we imagine it, we have to understand the interaction and difference in light intensities. In doing so we see the detail in the highlights and shadows that could otherwise be lost, and take away from the image you're trying to create. Playing with deep shadows and blown out whites can be fun in an artistic point-of-view, but when going for a truly natural looking shot, it will hurt your image.
So, try and keep all of your images within 3 stops of light from the brightest to the darkest, giving you contrast and detail in the same image! The best ways of doing this are shooting with diffused light. Direct light is very harsh and created areas of deep shadows and blown-out highlights, so we want to diffuse it and make these areas of shadow and intensity blend together and soften accordingly. Want to know the cheapest way to create great light? Naturally! Shooting outside on days that are overcast or in the early morning and late evening hours when the sun isn't as intense and the light is a brilliant orange color can be some of the best times for photography, and it's absolutely free! Finally, when shooting inside, the greatest way to utilize natural light is by photographing your subject near a window. Window light can give a magnificent diffusivity to light and create beautiful shadows and contrast in the photo. In order to harness this great light, however, we have to know the proper settings on our camera!
When trying to find and compose your image, remember the rule of thirds and compose based on this photographic rule (divide the image into three columns and three rows, the points of intersection should be close to where the main subject of your image is focused). You want to make sure the eye of your subject is also your focusing point, and that your depth-of-field is deep enough to keep most of the animal in focus. To accomplish this, keep your aperture around f/5.6-f/8 and you should have a very good range of sharpness in your photo. To keep the noise low in your photos, watch the ISO level on your camera (if you can adjust this). The higher your ISO is, the more noise you're going to have in your photo, but you're also going to be able to shoot in darker environments. The lower the ISO, the cleaner your photo is, but you're not letting as much light reach your sensor, so you're not going to be able to shoot in as dark an environment as you may like.
So, I always try and shoot between ISO 100 and ISO 400 if possible, but depending on the type of camera you have, you may be able to get away with ISO numbers all the way up to 1600 before seeing a lot of noticeable noise. Finally, we need to talk about shutter speed. Depending on your shutter speed, you can let it more light but you can also pick up camera shake (the natural shake in your hand) and the movement of your subject, leading to blurry images. So a balance must be found. I normally try and shoot at shutter speeds between 1/125 and 1/250 when I'm working with artificial or naturally diffused light as I find this gives me the best amount of light into the photo while allowing me to still work with fidgety snakes and lizards. When I'm working with a tripod and a calm snake, however, I've used shutter speeds as slow as 1/4 of a second! It all depends on how much light you need to allow into your photo, and how much movement is occurring in the photo. This is a balancing act that takes a lot of skill and practice to get right, and is dependent on you and your animal. There is no perfect solution that works across the board!
Now that we've covered you and your camera settings, let's talk about something that can be the most difficult task of all, working with a herp! There are lots of different techniques that people use to calm down their animal and get it ready to photograph ranging from just letting the animal move on a twig or in the grass and just firing away, to holding the animal with one hand and photographing it with the other. I prefer to hold the animal for about 10 to 20 minutes before the shoot to allow it to wear itself out and slow down a little bit. After that, it depends on how I'm wanting to use the snake in the photo I'm imagining. If I want to shoot it climbing then there isn't much more I can do than let it go and try and direct it with massive amounts of patience and time. These shots are normally beautiful if you have the patience to work with the snake, but aren't always the best for people hoping to get a quick shoot in before going to softball practice.
Another great way to shoot snakes on the ground or some sort of litter is by using an appropriately sized bowl or dish. Place the bowl or dish upside down over the snake giving it a nice, safe, dark environment that it can calm down and coil up in. Leave it this way for a few minutes and set up your camera and figure out your settings while you're waiting. Now, you have to be somewhat quick, but remove the dish and photograph your snake in a nice, coiled, comfortable position showing that beautiful, iconic coiled snake the way you dreamed it! This can be done with bags and other objects as well, as long as it give the snake a nice, snug, dark, safe place to relax and calm down for a short period of time. Experiment with what works best with your animals, and never forget to have patience!
Remember, with digital photos, taking the pictures is only half the fun. You can do many different photographic manipulations on the computer and this is just one more of the many reasons to move to digital photography. We're not going to get into photograph manipulation much today, but one thing I want to make you aware of is White Balance. White balance is of utmost importance when photographing anything! Different types of light have different colors and this can leave the picture looking anything from orange to green to purple depending on the light source. Always make sure you're photograph is correctly color balanced and that the colors are a good representation of the animal you are photographing. Beyond that, have fun with your photos and share them with the world via blogs, forums, and print because that is what photography is all about!
Photographing Reptiles and Amphibians
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