Can you use "scientific photography" to photograph amphibians? Come and study!

If you often go to the countryside, you may meet all kinds of reptiles. Whether you meet a lizard basking in the grass or a frog crawling on the lotus leaf by the lake, I believe anyone who loves nature wants to take out his camera and record it. But when you compare your photos with high-quality photos on the Internet, even if you take photos with the same camera, you will still feel that your work is not satisfactory. Sometimes, although your photos are in sharp focus, when you send them to professionals to identify species, the reply is that the photo information is not enough to identify them.

In fact, shooting wild animals, especially amphibians and reptiles, is not only as simple as clear focus and reasonable composition. Just like the Wulin in the Jianghu, there are different schools of photography of amphibians and reptiles, each with its own strengths, while scientific photography pays more attention to the detailed display of species identification characteristics. How to use photography aesthetics to solve the problem of species identification and record the behavior of animals in the natural state? Below, I will briefly introduce some shooting essentials of scientific photography of amphibians and reptiles.

What is scientific photography?

Taking scientific photos of animals as an example, the goal of scientific photography is to show the morphological characteristics of the subject as comprehensively and clearly as possible, provide key identification information for animal taxonomists, and record the little-known natural behavior or ecological knowledge of the subject. From a purely photographic point of view, it is not difficult to photograph animals. But on the whole, because the ultimate goal of scientific photography is to solve scientific problems, photographers need to have basic knowledge of zoology, which undoubtedly brings new challenges to photographers.

Climbing lizard with sliding abdomen

How to photograph different kinds of reptiles?

How to capture all kinds of amphibians and reptiles by scientific photography? Besides carefully distinguishing their colors and markings, we should also pay attention to the unique appearance characteristics of amphibians and reptiles. When shooting amphibians and reptiles, we should show their morphological characteristics clearly.

Frogs and toads, for example, need to pay attention to these morphological characteristics when shooting, including whether there are prominent skin folds on the head and back, the smoothness of the skin, the shapes of palm protrusions and fingers (toes) on the forelimbs and hind limbs, whether there are suction cups, and whether there are horny thorns on the abdomen and chest. For salamanders, the characteristics to be paid attention to when shooting include body shape, close-up of kiss, number of ribs on the side of trunk and so on.

For some specific species groups, such as gecko, skink, salamander and so on. Because their morphological characteristics are too conservative, it is not easy to distinguish them. Therefore, it is often necessary to combine their origin information when shooting to accurately determine the species. It should be noted that when shooting reptiles in the wild, it is also necessary to record the shooting location in detail.

Emerald lizard

Amphibians and reptiles also need to "pose"

Scientific photography requires photographers to adjust the posture of animals according to their needs, so it is also a great challenge to control the subject. Amphibians and reptiles are often restless and difficult to photograph. At this time, you can use the container to buckle them on the selected shooting scene, and then cover the whole container with opaque clothes. When it is quiet, slowly remove the locked container to shoot.

When shooting, frogs can let them crawl naturally; Lizards and salamanders let them crawl naturally, and then try to put their tails back to their side; The snake let it roll up naturally. You need to be patient and take your time when adjusting the shooting posture of animals. At the same time, it can be operated with a small stick, which can reduce the interference of human hands on the subject. When shooting amphibians, there are often mud or fallen leaves on their bodies, which will affect the shooting; At this time, you can prepare a bottle of water. On the one hand, it can clean the impurities contaminated by amphibians, on the other hand, it can ensure their skin moist to beautify the shooting effect.

Capture amphibians and reptiles from multiple angles

As far as shooting angle is concerned, scientific photography of amphibians and reptiles usually includes the following "reserved angles": full-body dorsal photography, full-body dorsal photography, head-side close-up, head-back close-up, head-abdomen close-up and full-body abdominal photography.

Longchuan frog

As the name implies, dorsal photography is to shoot the whole body of an animal from the side at an angle of 30~45 degrees. When taking photos back, try to keep most parts of the animal's body and eyes in the same focal plane, so as to show the overall morphological characteristics of the animal to the maximum extent while focusing on the eyes. The back photo is taken from the top of the animal, and the focus is on the back details that the animal back photo can't show. Because amphibians and reptiles don't want to "show people with their bellies", it is difficult to close up their bellies.

Although in the process of scientific photography, it is often necessary to interfere with the natural living conditions of amphibians and reptiles, but excessive stimulation to wild animals should be avoided in the process of shooting. In addition, unless it is a special scientific research need, try to keep the living environment of reptiles from being destroyed when shooting, and only take photos after shooting to create a beautiful living environment for amphibians and reptiles.

(Author: From the September issue of "Knowledge is Power" magazine 20 16, by Wang Xu)

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