Snake Movement help.

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Findmeareptile

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Name
Tom
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hello everyone.

i am new to photography but would love some advice.

i am a snake breeder, and take many snake images but i cant seem to get the clear image of the snake tongue as its "flicked"....

is it the ISO or the shutter speed that needs to be higher to catch this?..

im using a canon 550D.

Regards.
 
Fast shutter speed I should imagine, for which you'll probably require more light, a wider aperture or higher ISO.
 
ok i will try a faster shutter speed, i have it set to 6400, and ISO set to 100, i will use a flash next time round, i just long to get that tongue shot!!

would having my camera set to contiunues ( spelling? ) shooting help, while on a tripod?
 
This looks to be a fascinating project.You will certainly need flash to stop the motion.I dont know anything about snakes but from what I have seen the tonge flicks in and out at a fair rate.
I suspect the answer may lie here

http://www.canon.co.jp/imaging/flashwork/functions/stroboscopic/index.html

I have never tried stroboscopic flash but I know the 580 EX has it,I'm not sure about the 430EX.
It seems to me that you would have to shoot in high speed burst mode,.jpg so the buffer does not fill too quickly and the normal flash will not cycle fast enough, but the strobe might do it.

It will be interesting to see how you go on.

Chris
 
Hi Chris...

i will try with a flash, and higher shutter speeds, i have an external flash, as you can tell im new to this, so excuse any silly phrases.

i will take some this weekend, and see how i do...lol
 
When using a decently powerful flash the need for a higher shutter speed goes away. You'll find your camera will have a 'flash sync speed' (look in the handbook), and that's the speed to use.

What a good flash will give you is the ability to stop down the lens (bigger f number) which will increase your depth of field.
 
Findmeareptile said:
Hi Chris...

i will try with a flash, and higher shutter speeds, i have an external flash, as you can tell im new to this, so excuse any silly phrases.

i will take some this weekend, and see how i do...lol
Click to expand...

If you are going to use high shutter speeds the sync speed on your camera is 1/200 sec.If you exceed that you will get black lines at the top and bottom of the image.
You will need high speed sync on the flash to exceed the sync speed.
You should not need a high shutter speed if you have a canon flash.
Put the camera to manual,shutter at 1/200 or less,aperture to give you the DOF you want,iso at about 400 ,put the flash to ETTL and let the flash sort the exposure out.
Play with the aperture ,shutter speed and ISO to expose the background,the flash will freeze motion.
 
Personally I wouldn't like to use flash with snakes - as they have no external eyelids is there a danger that it could damage them? I don't know, and would be interested in hearing what people think. Until I'm convinced it's harmless though I wouldn't risk the snakes eyesight.

I have always found the biggest problem is anticipating when the snake will tongue-flick. Otherwise it's pretty straightforward, if you can get a shutter speed of over 1/500, to freeze it. This was taken with a Fuji S5600, 1/850 at f4.5, ISO 200.


Grass snake by yellowhammer_01, on Flickr

It's much easier with captive snakes than wild ones! Hope this helps.
 
You could try video mode and 'Save as Still Image' using ZoomBrowser.

I've tried this before using handheld test shots yet have never been that happy with the result. You should end up with a 1-2MB file of average quality. It might give you another option as timing is critical, of course the light would need to be optimum. What you got to lose :)
 
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