How to choose a portable device to shoot portraits of wild animals

Introduction: This chapter teaches you to take professional biological photos with simple photographic equipment when you are doing leisure activities and hiking in the wild in an easy-to-understand way. You don't need professional equipment and special technology, just a machine, a mirror and some simple accessories, and you can easily leave beautiful portraits of small creatures you meet in the wild. Come and have a look!

Many people think that macro eco-photography needs professional lenses or special equipment, but it is not. With a simple digital SLR camera and an ordinary flash, you can get a glimpse of the macro ecological beauty and easily record the beautiful and interesting gestures of flowers, insects, butterflies, flies and frogs everywhere around you.

Jadeite tree frog

Aperture: F8 shutter speed:1100 second sensitivity: 400 white balance: sunny exposure compensation: EV0 exposure mode: m image quality: JPGNational PE-36S flash output: 1/8+ soft mask.

Bud-eating flies that spit in the sun

Aperture: F9 shutter speed: 1/320s sensitivity: 200 white balance: sunny exposure compensation: EV- 0.3 exposure mode: p image quality: JPG.

Golden flower worm playing in the morning

Aperture: F 1 1 shutter speed: 1/80s sensitivity: 640 white balance: 5000K exposure compensation: EV0 exposure mode: m image quality: JPG SUNPAK PZ42X flash output: 1/8.

Selection of light source

We are used to using flash and reflector when shooting portraits, in order to get the aesthetic feeling we want through extra light when the brightness and angle of light in the shooting scene do not meet the requirements.

The same is true for shooting insects, plants and macro-ecology in the wild. More than 90% of the natural light and direction in macro eco-photography scenes are not what we want. Due to the influence of weather, grass and shelter, natural perfect light is almost impossible. Therefore, it is necessary to build your own light source. Moreover, because the scene can't be arranged (you can't always ask the bug to turn its head or move to another place with sufficient light and brightness), bringing its own controllable light source has become an important factor in macro eco-photography.

At present, flash products that can be used for macro eco-photography on the market can be roughly divided into the following categories:

? Ring flash

For example, Nikon TTL macro speed light SB-29s.

? Macro special lamp

Such as Nikon r 1-c 1/ Canon mt-24ex.

? led light supplement lamp

It can shine and fill the light for a long time, and has a square or round luminous body. Originally, it was used for dental photography, and macro photography was used to fill the light, and the effect was good.

? Top flash

? ? The above picture shows the flash cover of the set-top box made by the author, which is made by sticking two white mouse pads or foam pads with adhesive tape. You can also use overhead flash and self-made soft mask for macro eco-photography.

Aperture: F8 Shutter speed:1100 second Sensitivity: 400 white balance: sunny day

Exposure compensation: EV0 exposure: M image quality: JPG

Fuselage flash+soft light cover

Directly use the built-in flash of the camera to fill the light, which is suitable for the medium and long distance of about 0.5M~3M ~ 3 m, and it is easy to produce shadows due to lens occlusion when shooting at close range. There are several small accessories on the market that can be installed on the flash. You can avoid shadows by changing the angle and light intensity, so that the flash at the top can play more functions.

Comparison of various artificial light sources

These special macro lights, in addition to the flashing lights overhead, are heavy and expensive, and the size is even more amazing. Coupled with accessories such as peripheral adapter rings and battery packs, the photographer's burden is not small. For those who want to step into macro eco-photography, it will cause learning disabilities.

Moreover, it is undoubtedly a chore to shoot with so many equipment in mountainous areas and outdoors, which will bring a burden to photographers who are interested in shooting outdoor ecological macro.

Other options and peripheral accessories? Tripod and extended lamp holder

When shooting some ecological scenes, you need to wait for a long time at the scene. At this time, you need a tripod to fix the photographic equipment and shoot at the same interval. Such as the pupation of butterflies and the appearance of cicadas. But staying outdoors for a long time is a time-consuming and laborious job. A good tripod is a burden in terms of price and weight, and the price of an advanced tripod can even buy a digital SLR camera! Therefore, if you are not a professional eco-photographer, or plan to record a certain creature systematically for a long time, the tripod can actually not be included in the necessary equipment.

Extending the lamp holder is a sharp weapon to extend the artificial light source or adjust the angle, paying attention to the photographic effect, hoping to produce more three-dimensional sense and avoid the image being too flat. This kind of equipment that extends the operating range is more suitable for shooting slow-moving creatures, and creatures with high alertness are easy to escape because of too many equipment and operating actions.

When looking for creatures in grass or Woods, it is easier to disturb creatures because of the large equipment, which is suitable for fixed-point shooting.

The author suggests that if you really want to improve the light control ability and pursue the effect, it is more practical and practical to use double lights with off-board flash or wireless trigger flash accessories.