Salamander Photo C&C

Natalie · Dec 31, 2011

My goal of getting interesting photos of salamanders has been complicated this winter by the lack of rain (driest December since 1989). Since we got some light drizzle yesterday, however, I went out today and managed to turn up my first (and last!) Yellow-eyed Ensatina of the year. With no more rain in the forecast I had to seize this opportunity to photograph the salamander.

Because amphibians tend to be more fragile and easily-stressed than reptiles, I don't like to spend too much time photographing them. Just enough time to get them in a good pose and snap a few shots (today I only took five) and hope that maybe one of them comes out acceptable. Today I managed to get one that I'm not too embarrassed to put online. The lighting looks a bit weird because right when I got the salamander where I wanted, the sun came out from behind the leaves and illuminated the salamander while leaving the background dark. I was planning on just using the ambient light (shade), but when the sun came out I had to put on my flash. The background still looks a bit dark though. :meh:

Thoughts?

Edit for EXIF: 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400, flash used

cgipson1 · Dec 31, 2011

cute little guy! You caught him well! I think a nice crop to get rid of some of the distractions in the foreground would allow better concentration on him!

Would have been even better if you could have gotten eye level with him!

Natalie · Dec 31, 2011

Thanks for the input! I have another photo more along the lines of what you were suggesting.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/midasvanderhand/6610043189/]

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cgipson1 · Dec 31, 2011

Natalie said:
Thanks for the input! I have another photo more along the lines of what you were suggesting.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midasvanderhand/6610043189/

Nice! Any particular reason you shot at F5.6??.. stopping down would have brought more of him into focus.

Natalie · Dec 31, 2011

I dunno, I've tried shooting salamanders with small apertures, and it just sort of looks weird no matter how I do it. I think it's because when I shoot them at something like f/22, I have to crank the flash heads up high and can't make use of any ambient light. I don't have a softbox yet (just a couple little Gary Fong puffers on the flash heads), so the lighting looks really terrible and harsh - and since amphibians are shiny, it means millions of little hotspots too. I just ordered a Honl Traveller8 softbox today though, so I'll have to play around with that when it comes and see if I can get some satisfactory amphibian shots with a smaller aperture.