A couple reptile portraits...

[Natalie]

Here are a couple close-ups I've gotten with my new 100 mm macro, and I'm seeing if anyone has any C&C about them. I know it's (usually) not good to put the eye right in the center of the frame... That sort of escaped me when I was taking the photos. The flash on my camera is currently out of order too, so that's why the DOF is so shallow.

The reflections on the turtle kind of bother me. Would a polarizer have helped that a bit? Does anyone else shoot reptiles and have some advice?

Shutter speed: 1/200 sec
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 400

Shutter speed: 1/320 sec
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO: 400

 

[bazooka]

I think the turtle shot is great, it doesn't bother me that his eye is centered. The snake shot seems kinda bland. I don't know what I'd suggest though.

 

[Overread]

Some nice work there - looks like you're getting nice and close with your lens! I have to say the snake portrait looks the better, though it might be a little "hot" on the white scales (though it could be my screen as is an uncalibrated LCD).
Depth of field in both shots looks good to me, you have the focus where it should be and a great angle of shooting on the snake to get as much in focus as you could.

As for the light on the turtle if it is from the sun I would recomend trying to shoot in the shade a little more or using some sort of diffusion material to block the sun out a little and lessen its harshness *look out for a 30cm 5 in 1 reflector good for macro and it has a diffusion layer just for this kind of use*. The polarizer can help, but it will also strip away two stops of light which will make lighting more tricky if you are working only with natural lighting. If working with flash you might want to look into cross posterization flash. I haven't got my link on this (its on the other computer which is at present in another county) though if you can't find anything through google I should be able to give the link in a few days

 

[DubbinTy]

sweet snake :thumbup:

 

[Natalie]

Thanks for the comments everyone! The turtle was in the shade, and the reflections are just of the cloudy sky. It was pretty dark that day, so I guess if I had a polarizer on there it would have been harder to get the shot without a slower shutter speed and/or higher ISO. The reflector is a good idea, I will have to look into that! Once I get my flash fixed, maybe then I'll consider getting a polarizer.

I agree the snake shot is a bit bland. I think that's because of the composition... The leaf underneath the snake is very similar in color to the animal and since it spans the entire length of the photo, it is distracting and takes away from the snake. The photo is also not focused as well I would like (it seems to be focused on the space between the eye and the nose rather than the eye), but Rosy Boas are notorious for being hard to shoot because they don't stop moving around. I think I took at least 50 shots of the snake, and this one was the only one acceptably focused!