photographing rabbits with red eyes

[NorthernAutumn]

Oh WOW! How did you manage to swing that, Patti?

 

[slavetoabunny]

NorthernAutumn wrote:

Oh WOW! How did you manage to swing that, Patti?

Haha.....connections. Actually, Mike is has been an online friend of mine for about 5 years. I have had the pleasure to meet him in person 3x at various rabbit events. The pictures I posted were taken at in Columbia, SC in 2006 (I think that's right?) at a rabbit forum gathering (not RO).

 

[Pet_Bunny]

slavetoabunny wrote:

The pictures I posted were taken at in Columbia, SC in 2006 (I think that's right?) at a rabbit forum gathering (not RO).

Mike used his Fujifilm S3Pro cameraat that time (similar to the Nikon D200 that I also have). He shot with a very fast lens (F 1.4) so he didn't need a flash. Then with Photoshop, he could adjust for lighting.

Here is a Mini Rex at our shelter. Again this is with a direct flash on the subject. You can see myshooting style isusing flashes, because I like tohighlight the details with light.

Nikon D300,14-24 zoom, ISO200,manual setting,1/80 of a second, F2.8,SB800 flash.

 

[MikeScone]

Pet_Bunny wrote:

Mike used his Fujifilm S3Pro cameraat that time (similar to the Nikon D200 that I also have). He shot with a very fast lens (F 1.4) so he didn't need a flash.

There are no secrets with digital photography, it's all somewhere in the file...

You can tell I used a wide aperture because of the limited depth of field in the pictures - that's how much is in focus from front-to-back on the pictures. That throws the background out of focus, so that Sparky and Scooter stand out more.

I'm not a big fan of flash, if there's enough light not to need it. The f1.4 lens gathers enough light to let me use available light where otherwise I'd need flash. The downside is that if the lighting is really dull, the pictures can be "flat" and uninteresting.

The flash diffuser does a good job of eliminating the harshness of the flash. Putting a layer of handkerchief over the flash will accomplish much the same thing (at lower cost), at least in cameras that meter the flash exposure.

Keeping the "catch lights" in the eyes is a Very Good Thing in taking pictures of bunnies, whether you're using flash or available light. It makes their eyes look much more lively. You can cheat a bit in Photoshop and put them back in if they're washed out by the redeye.

 

[luvthempigs]

Awesome pictures of some very cute bunnies! thanks so much for all the tips

 

[Pet_Bunny]

MikeScone wrote:

You can tell I used a wide aperture because of the limited depth of field in the pictures - that's how much is in focus from front-to-back on the pictures. That throws the background out of focus, so that Sparky and Scooter stand out more.

Yes, you can tell what is in focus and what is out of focus when you use a wide aperture. It is good to use a wide aperture with flash too, because the background is always too dark when shooting with a flash. I use to have a Konica f/1.2 57mm lens when I was in high school. So sad when I sold it, andgot intoNikons.

Nikon D300,14-24 zoom, ISO200,manual setting,1/80 of a second, F2.8,SB800 flash.

 

[MikeScone]

Here's how the red-eye tool in Photoshop works.

Start with a picture of Scone:

Then, select the red-eye tool, move the cross-hairs into the reddest part of the eye, and click:

And, presto!

 

[luvthempigs]

The camera I'm using is just a point and shoot Kodak EasyShare Z760. It doesn't look like I can change the f-stop myself.

I'm going to have to try a few different things and see what happens.

 

[MikeScone]

luvthempigs wrote:

The camera I'm using is just a point and shoot Kodak EasyShare Z760. It doesn't look like I can change the f-stop myself.

Yes, you can change the f-stop. From the Z760 manual:

Changing picture-taking settings You can change settings to get the best results from your camera:

1. Press the Menu button. (Some settings are unavailable in some modes.)
2. Press
   
   to highlight a setting, then press the OK button.
3. Choose an option, then press the OK button.
4. [align=left]Choose Custom Exposure Mode [/align]You can then choose a preferred capture mode.
   [align=left] Program (default) [/align] Aperture Priority
   Shutter Priority
   Manual
   
   If you put the camera in Aperture Priority mode, you set the f-stop and the camera sets the shutter speed as needed. You can set the f-stop at any value between f/2.8 and f/8 on your camera. As Stan said, the lower the number the wider the aperture. That's because it's really a fraction - f/4 means that the aperture is 1/4 the focal length of the lens, f/8 means it's 1/8.
   The larger the aperture (smaller f/number), the more light you get in so the less power the flash needs to use, which helps minimize redeye. You also get less depth of field at larger apertures, and can use a faster shutter speed if you're not using flash.
   
   You can also set the f-stop in full manual mode, but then you'd have to also set the shutter speed - without a light meter, that would be difficult.

 

[MikeScone]

I was taking some pictures of Scone for his blog, and also playing with the camera settings. Here's an example of how f-stop (aperture) effects flash pictures:

This version was taken at f/16 - a small aperture, hence large depth of field, and the least influence of existing light. That's pretty close to the default setting on the camera:

Now, the same picture at f/1.4 - a large aperture, small depth of field, and the existing light can illuminate the scene to some extent.

The following picture shows an interesting effect of using a large aperture, where there is enough ambient illumination so that the flash only supplies part of the light captured by the camera, as Stan said he does in taking the shelter pictures.

The effect has to do with "white balance" or "color temperature". That is, what we see as "white light" is seldom really true white - your eyes are really good at knowing what's white and making you think that's what you're seeing. Cameras are simply honest - they show what's there. Incandescent light (light from ordinary light bulbs) is warm, sort of reddish or amber. Fluorescent light varies depending on the kind of bulb, but it's generally sort of unpleasant greenish light (lacking in red). Flash is neutral, neither warm (amber) nor cold (blue).

My living room is lit by incandescent flood lights in ceiling fixtures(ordinary light bulbs, not compact fluorescent). In this picture, Scone was lying in a fairly bright spot under a light. You can see how the color of the rug is warm, where it's mostly incandescent light - except in Scone's shadow, where the flash renders it as the actual tan color it appears to the eye. You can see it in Scone's fur, a bit, as well - his ears and back are rendered warmer than his nose.

 

[Djakarta]

I take pictures of shelter bunnies for the shelter website. I find the combination of natural light, no flash and the macro setting gives fairly good results. Posing them next to a window ( so the light is coming from the side) also makes the most of the limited light in the shelter setting.

Polly - This is her website "glamour shot"

The next two are just candid shots taken for daily reports.

Finnegan- look at those dreamy eyes !

Chill

 

[luvthempigs]

Wow, I am going to have to take a better look at my camera (that is once I have had my morning coffee) lol It would be great if I could get this figured out! Here I have always blamed the camera when indeed it's operator error :blushan:

Mike, I'm amazed at the difference in your photos from just a small adjustment to the camera. Scone is indeed a hadsome bunny :inlove:



Great pictures of the REWs Finnegan's photo really shows his beautiful eyes.

 

[hartleybun]

apologies for slightly hi-jacking this thread but it's helped me with my blue-eyed rexes! thank you everybun

 

[BSAR]

Okay here is the pic I was talking about. Sorry it took me so long to get it up!

Again as I said previously I try to take all of the bunnies photos in natural light, so not only are the REW's eyes the right color, but so is all the color in the picture!

Amanda

 

[MikeScone]

BSAR wrote:

Again as I said previously I try to take all of the bunnies photos in natural light, so not only are the REW's eyes the right color, but so is all the color in the picture!

Natural daylight is the best, if you can get it. Unfortunately, I can seldom get daylight for pictures of Scone, since I'm not often home during the day and he's very much an indoor bun.

Available light is next best, but it may not be sufficient for a constantly-moving subject, especially if your maximum aperture is fairly small (many zooms are only f/3.5 to f/5.6). You need to deal with color balance problems, too - pure incandescent light's not bad, but if you have a mix of light, like some florescent bulbs and incandescent bulbs lighting the same scene, it can be nearly impossible to correct. You get multiple shadows in different colors, and so on. Most cameras have a way of metering a white piece of paper and adjusting the white balance if you're in that spot.

So, flash becomes a necessity...

 

[delusional]

This thread got me wanting to play, so I snapped some pics of the ever-photogenic Raspberry using flash with a quickly home-made diffuser (basically a paper pyrimid hastily sellotaped together).

As you can see Raspberry's eyes came out nice and pink, as they should, but the background is yellow, obviously due to the incandescent lighting.

So I have just made a quick attempt at post-processing in Photoshop to clean up the background...

I know it's not great but it was a spur of the moment type thing.

 

[MikeScone]

delusional wrote:

So I have just made a quick attempt at post-processing in Photoshop to clean up the background...

Well done... now let's take the next step. The background color's OK, but Raspberry's fur is a bit "flat" and slightly off-color (at least, I think it should be whiter).

Use the "levels" command - the shortcut is "ctrl (lower case L)" - and you get this display:

Notice that the right-hand side of the "input levels" (histogram) graph is flat for a long way. This means that the whitest points in the picture aren't white, but are really the gray tone on the "output levels" graph below the point where the graph flattens out. We could just drag the white pointer under the graph to the left until it hits the curve, but because the fur's slightly off color, we'll get better results doing this for each channel individually.

Start with red:

I've moved the white pointer just a bit into the flat area, because I didn't want Raspberry's head fur too washed out. If you hold down "alt" when you drag, you can see what's being changed. Drag until the whitest spots in the picture just start to appear in the black.

Then change to green channel and do it again:

Finally, do the same for blue:

Notice how far left you have to go on the blue channel - that means that the original lighting was lacking in blue.

Here's the result:

There is a shortcut - if you select the right-most of the three eyedroppers in the levels window (the one filled with white) then click on something in the picture which should be white, it will make the same adjustment automatically. You can also use the middle eyedropper and select something which should be neutral gray, but usually white's easier. I tried that with this picture, but I thought the result was a bit too blue-shifted, so I did it the hard way.

 

[delusional]

Hehe, thanks Mike.

I actually had it something like that at first, but whenever I get to the levels bit I always wonder if I didn't like it just a bit softer.. then a bit softer.. then chicken out and put it right back how it was before I started with the levels.

Guess that's something I'm going to have to get over, because it does look better after you've had a go. :rollseyes

 

[Pet_Bunny]

MikeScone wrote:

There is a shortcut - if you select the right-most of the three eyedroppers in the levels window (the one filled with white) then click on something in the picture which should be white, it will make the same adjustment automatically. You can also use the middle eyedropper and select something which should be neutral gray, but usually white's easier. I tried that with this picture, but I thought the result was a bit too blue-shifted, so I did it the hard way.

I have a simple editing program that came with my Nikon D300. It's called Capture NX used for Nikon raw pictures.

On the picture, I did two steps. I used the black eye dropper and selected a black spot. I couldn't determine a true white spot so I used the slider on the histogram curves to get the whites.

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Becca

Mike

Stan