as the spouse of a photographer, i definitely think it's important to include the following: you may take 500 pictures in a single session, but only have four or five of the quality and composition you are after. that's normal and okay! just gives you plenty to work with :3 don't be afraid to take lots of pictures and don't be discouraged if only a few turn out!
It's the advantage of digital photography! Don't be precious with your photos, you can take as many as you need! Also be prepared for the preview not to necessarily resemble exactly what you get on your computer later
I like when breeders have a consistent prop to use for their photos. It really helps to have a baseline when looking for particular size or color of animal.
Please, please, please, we need part 2, 3, 4, or as many as possible! I love taking animal pictures and your tips helped me a lot to improve my game. I can't wait to watch more of this!
Ooh thank you for this! I have 6 pet rats (4 of which were from you actually) and I just cannot take pictures of them at all! Definitely going to use these tips and see how they turn out! I took a photography class last year and I'm in another one this year, but they never teach about photographing a living, moving animal. Very useful video for anyone! Even if you aren't really into photography or art in general. Can make your photos look so amazing!
I have had pet rats too. They are a whole different level. I like to let them run around and explore first so they have most of their energy out before I try a photo. Having them eat something small can also help to keep them still. Also if you want to take a picture of something in the cage, if you keep your lense close enough you can take a photo just in-between the bars which helps with the focus. And then you need a lot of patience and a little luck
Definitely send me a message if you want some more tips! Rats can be tricky to photograph but so rewarding, especially since they can hold objects in their adorable paws!
I feel that! T^T The only time my dwarf hamster wasn't zooming or twitching all over was when he was asleep. xD The only hope was to light it well enough to use a realllly fast shutter speed, or to catch him when he'd randomly freeze because he heard a cat a block away or something lol
This might not be what you were going for Lily, but asking a friend who's good with a camera to take pictures of either your rat with you out of the room, or of you interacting with your rats, might really help. Your rat loves you, and wants to get closer to you! That's awesome for a pet, but it's rough when you're the one taking the photos. I usually get better photos of my friend's cat than she does, not because I'm a better photographer, but because he loves her, and always wants to rub his face on her phone.
Poster paper or the underside of wrapping paper also works well for backdrops. White poster board is also great as a reflector (if you wanna reflect different color light for some reason, just get different color paper/board). You can use thick white paper (or whatever you have--tin foil, milk carton, carboard, disposable cups, etc) to make hats for your flash attachment that bounce or diffuse light. You can get really creative with it. I made soft box out of a paper plate and tin foil once. imo you only need to spend lots of money on photography equipment if a) you wanna look professional or b) you want to treat yourself and can afford it.
Hey Emily, are your check and arm okay? They look like they may be bruised. I hope you’re okay and not doing too laborious of work or something. Please let us know what happened or that you’re okay! ❤️
I was concerned too so I creeped down in the comments to see if anyone knew what was wrong. According to another follower, she apparently mentioned on the snake discovery fan page that the bruise was a result of some dental surgery! I hope that’s the case and that she is safe and well!
She answered this question in the Facebook fan group. She got the cheek bruise valiantly fighting a huge moose army until she pushed it back across the Canadian border. And, unrelated, has had some recent dental work.
I have never met a more photogenic creature than my dear handsome corn snake, Zamanev. He always looks majestic or adorable or both, and he's good at sitting still for photos
Hi guys, I love your channel and have become obsessed with anything reptile (mostly snakes) because of this channel. I think it would be really cool if you guys did a “day in the life” video to see what your busy busy days look like. From feeding animals to talking to customers, I think we would all enjoy it 😊 ❤️ love you guys
Fantastic! I’ve struggled over the last few years trying to get the perfect pictures for my sale hatchlings. I would LOVE to see a second video with Ryan maybe showing more post production stuff now that we’ve seen the initial photo taking process
Emilys cheek has been yellow- greenish two videos in a row now, is she ok ? I mean after all the sand painting they did I feel like we got used to Emilys face having paint on it, but this looks more like a bruise ?? Are you ok Emily are your animals misbehaving ? did you run into a wall ? do we need to send more chocolate ? were here for you haha
@@haleyrosell2375 I dunno… I’ve had my entire lower jaw rebuilt, and I bruise like crazy. Didn’t bruise on my cheek-there’s no reason for your cheek to be involved. (Looks like a dirt smudge to me, but we won’t know unless she wants to tell us.)
@@khills Lots of people bruise after dental work, and it tends to look worse after a few days due to the blood settling with gravity. Almost positive that's what's going on with Emily since you could really see it in the last video, too
I took a photography class a few years ago and have been using all the general knowledge I gained from it to take photo shoots with my crestie, I will definitely be using these tips as well! Thank you!
Do I own any reptiles? No. Am I still going to watch a video all about taking photos of reptiles? Hell yeah I am. Thank you snake discovery for all your amazing videos!
A pro-tip for apsiring photographers, if your phone or camera can supporrt it and you have the sfotware to read it, always shoot in RAW format. as opposed to JPEG. You'll get far more contol over your image in RAW and if you don't like how it came out, you can always go back and tweak it since RAW files are effectivlely Read Only and can't be permanently altered, but your settings are save as a separate file that your photo editing software will read every time you open up the RAW File.
I know this is more about photography, but WHAT A CHONKY FROGGO! SO CUTE! 👏 Random advice: Learn about how sensitive an animal is to light before taking their picture. Some animals like the tarsier are highly photosensitive, which means that camera flashes can stress them out. 🙂
I'm a hobbyist photographer, and while I don't have reptiles of my own, they are my favorite subjects when I go to zoos. I hope that I can make a trip up there some day, but I'm down in Texas working only 12 hours a week, so it'll be a very long time unfortunately 😅 Edit: It was my dad who taught me everything I know about photography.
I loved this video...a lot of good tips for noobs like me who have no idea about composition and angles or anything really. I would love a part 2 to this, useful info for photography in general honestly!!! Love this!!!!
I (don't take pics of animals but plants) and I use different colored bath towels/blankets as background, depending on the color of pot/foliage/flowers.
Funny that I saw this video come by right after I did my shoot with many reptiles of my regular clients 😂😂😂 I'm a professional animal photographer, it's the best job ever!!
Awesome tips! I've been doing portrait photography for years, but when I started breeding ball pythons, trying to get good photos of wiggly babies (and adults) was a whole different beast. I'd like to EMPHATICALLY second that it helps to have a second person to help with wrangling! In any given session I take anywhere between 15-50 photos of an individual animal. I normally get 2-3 that I like, and sometimes I have to scrap all of them and do the shoot over again.
Holy crap, thank you so much for this video. My dad has a jewelry business and he asked me to set up an instagram for him, but I am trying to find a way to take good, consistent and professional pictures of his jewelry before I can even think about making the account. I know this was centered on reptiles, but a lot of the tips, such as backdrops and the reflective acrylic, to Snapseed (I tried so hard to use GIMP but it is not intuitive at all) are extremely helpful. I am going to get some of these supplies and take pictures of some rings and see where that goes.
How's the photography going? I don't know much about product photography, but I think you're going to want a light box for jewelry. You can buy or make pretty affordable ones, and it makes your photos much more consistent.
You can find some really cute suggestions for cat photography on TikTok too - one guy had all these photos of their cats from the bottom of a glass table, it is so interesting.
This is fascinating! Thank you so much for having him in this video. You both had great information to share, and presented it in an entertaining way! Very well done. 👍
This is great advice! I shoot pics of my dog by putting the backdrop/seamless on the ground and an extra light in the kitchen where she's happy, not where I usually shoot, and by holding treats at the ready, with a very fast shutter speed and a lot of shots. A repeat mode where the camera snaps a bunch of images rapidly in one second is very useful. An animal moving might look great in ONE frame of a series of shots. (Want cheap but fancy looking backdrops more complex than paper? Wall "tapestries" printed with cool designs or landscapes can be bought cheaply these days from redbubble or similar places.)
This came at a perfect time (is it the system reading my mind again?) I was just thinking about photography of my snakes for a few projects and for my own photography itch. I had just ordered a light box and some pieces I knew I would need. But this helps to have more as a beginner in wildlife photography. Great video! You and Ryan helped me with some ideas of how to catch some pics of the wily snakes I have. Thank you!
Great video!! I’ve been trying some stuff when taking photos of my hatchlings for sale and just photos in general of holdbacks and such for social media. This video really helps out thank you!
Hey Emily and Ed, I love snakes and when I told my mum about you guys, a year later she got me a corn snake!! I love you guys so much. Keep making videos. (Btw, the snake that's my profile pic is my own cornsnake, Amber)
This was very nice. I've always admired photographs like Mr. Dahlen's and to see the tricks of the trade is wonderful. Thanks Emily & Ed for doing this.
This was so cool and informative and educational and I am SO HERE for a part 2 etc!! Like how you did the genetics videos, going from basics to intermediate etc!
I have snake chunky that I need to take pictures of for my friends and family For the family gathering because I love my snake chunky and this really helped me
Really appreciated Ryan and Snake Discovery 🐍 sharing these tips. Thank you all so much! And personally I would love to see an intermediate photography video for getting "glamour" shots of reptiles.
The rule of thirds helps you balance a photo and lend movement ot the photo. It also keeps your eyes examining the object, rather than get stuck somewhere you don't want. This applies to art also for you artists out there. That is where I learned it, lol.
This is great! I want a picture of each of my toads on the front of their tank so guests can identify them better when they look at my pets! This will help tons!
Emily, you really crack me up sometimes. If you weren't a reptile educator, you could be a comedian!!! You always make me laugh, and today I'm not having the best day, and seeing a video from you initially made me smile, but then the comment about the screen cleaner/bulb syringe and then Ed's comment really made me rofl. Love you guys
What is that mark on Emily's left cheek? It looks like a bruise of some kind (not implying anything, just concerned). I've noticed it in the past 3 or 4 videos.
If you guys aren't doing anything on Feb 27th, there's a reptile expo in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada (Right near Toronto) that could be fun! I'm going to try to go and Adam from Wickens is going to be there.
If a second there I thought you were asking them to come to the UK as there is a show here on the 27th ! Now reading your post again made much better sense!
More of this please! :D I've been taking photos for years (purely hobby photography), and I've just started thinking of taking it up again after a long involuntarily break, and as reptiles have found their way into my life in the meantime, I of course wanna take some photos of our snakes, so this is just brilliant! :D Funny enough, I've actually been thinking of the same setup as Ryan showed, with the black background and reflective surface, only, I didn't think of using acrylic, so thanks Ryan! You just saved me a lot of trouble and money, my plan was to buy glass, lol. xD And that's one of the reasons I would love more of this, you can always learn something new, or, pick up a new hack, haha! :P
