Reptile & Amphibian Forums

taken with a Nikon coolpix 3200, got this camera for christmas, i think i have the basic "feel" for it, but any constructive critisism is welcomed

here are the pics

-----
Dan Quinn

more pics

-----
Dan Quinn

more...

-----
Dan Quinn

and more..

-----
Dan Quinn

few more..

-----
Dan Quinn

-----
Dan Quinn

I was hoping some of the more experienced photogs on this board might jump in here and give you a few pointers, but since things seem a little quiet, I'll have a go. I've dabbled with cameras for a few years, but have been more serious about photography for the last several months. I've picked up some pointers from the folks on nikonians.org, so I will share a few here. For basic photography, paying attention to three specific things will usually result in a decent photo. These are:

1. Focus
2. Composition
3. Exposure

Your focus is dead on for most of these shots, and correct exposure is the most diffucult aspect of photography, in my opinion, so I will leave that alone for someone more experienced to perhaps discuss with you. So I will just mention a couple things about composition. First, when photographing heads closely like you've done, it is good to leave some space in front of the face or nose. Cropping the picture close to the nose in head shots decreases the appeal of the photo. Second, try to avoid getting your finger or any other human body part in the photo. And third, using the "rule of thirds" is a good guide to compoosing the photo in a way that is more pleasing to the eye. This rule is applied by dividing the frame as you would a tic tac toe board (in thirds horizontally and vertically). Then try to place strong points of the subject (like the eye) on or near the intersection points of the lines dividing the frame. I took the liberty of modifying your last pic to illustrate what I'm describing. I gave the gecko more space in front of its face, cropped out the human finger, and positioned the eye on a "thirds" intersect. One last piece of advise - your camera is a Nikon so it has an exceptional lens that shows every detail. Therefore, you should remove things like dust and debris from herps before snapping the pic if you can. There is some dust on the ball python in the first pic that detracts from the pic. The snake could use a little more space in front of the nose, too.

Cheers,
WK

Hey - I was just wondering what photo editor you use and how you got all that extra black space on the left hand side, and how you did the red "third" lines.

Thanks
David
-----
David and Kevin

KDRKreatures.com
Exotic Reptile Breeders - Specializing in Bearded Dragons

Email

This program has the ability to do what I did to this image fairly quickly and easily. I've learned my way around a few simple functions. It would take quite a bit of effort to learn all this software can do.

Cheers,
WK