How To Take Better Photos Of Your Chickens

[jolenesdad]

@ChickLover21 great job!!!

@sadness child yes absolutely! If the sun is out, early morning and late afternoon are best.

as an additional comment the most uniform light is shade and cloud cover. There will be no harsh shadows.

 

[Sadness Child]

And here is just a simple cropped out version of that picture.

 

[SegiDream]

Ugh I can’t believe I forgot that. Yes. Noise.

when I take photos of animals I usually have a various set of noise making options, and of course my voice. When I’m taking picture of a dog, I meow or bark (yes I know I look crazy....), or I use a duck call around my neck that you can get for a few bucks at the sporting good store. That duck call works for any animal. One time I was at the biggest photo shoot of my life, a really big celebrity at their home to take photos for a magazine. They’re on the couch with their dogs and assistants are all over and I started barking at their dog and everyone in the room absolutely lost it. They were trying not to laugh and it all fell into a fit of laughter. It really broke the ice, AND I got a great shot.

squeaky toys and balls, etc. with chickens, I’ll crow or make their favorite sound I use for treats or a brand new sound they’ve never heard.

with chickens who sometimes just don’t give a %^#! What you’re doing you have to get really creative. I’ll make strange sounds, low growl type things, high yips, or clicks and clucks or kissing noises with my mouth. If you can raise them up on a fence or picnic table or box or whatever, these sounds will usually work to get an inquisitive expression on their face.

When I put a radio outside in an attempt to scare off hawks it really had the chickens' attention for awhile. That might be useful...

I've never been much of a photographer though I have attempted it a little bit over the years. I have more experience at editing photos than taking them LOL! An underexposed picture is easier to correct than an overexposed one fyi. And some people (me) point towards the light to get some effects. My favorite camera was a panasonic slr I absolutely loved that camera. I use an olympus pen mirrorless camera now which is a bit smaller and lighter and doesn't quite stand out so much in a crowd but I still miss that camera...

 

[ChickForLife]

Another #3

 

[jolenesdad]

An underexposed picture is easier to correct than an overexposed one fyi

Fabulous Tip!!!!! ESPECIALLY in digital photography, there is NO rescuing over blown white areas.

Love the bridge photo and I love breaking rules and shooting into the light!

 

[SegiDream]

Fabulous Tip!!!!! ESPECIALLY in digital photography, there is NO rescuing over blown white areas.

Love the bridge photo and I love breaking rules and shooting into the light!

Thanks, thank you for creating this thread this has been very enlightening and inspiring and I appreciate your insight. Our chickens might be in for a photoshoot when the weather dries up a bit.

 

[hmarg06]

Yes you are exactly right. But they also were color balanced to the light you should be using them in.... I left that off cause it wasn’t really talked about. But absolutely the ISO is specific to the speed of the film and it’s sensitivity to light only and doesn’t have anything to do with color.

it also happens that the iso films were typically color balanced to tungsten (indoor) and sunlight (outdoor). You could always choose between them but the average was tungsten at 400 and higher and sunlight under 400.

the color temperature of the film was also printed on the box but people really only paid attention to indoor outdoor ISO. I should have clarified!

Perfect, thank you for explaining, it makes total sense! I think film is really cool and maybe someday will get back to shooting some. My roommates dad gave me his camera for my class in college so I should really put it to use. I was a biology major sneaking into a Mass Comm class haha. This post is great and will help out a lot of people I think!

One thing I think you could add to your post might be about... perspective? I see a lot of people take pictures of their birds from above. You get a much more pleasing to the eye photo when you get down to their level most times. I think that's a big place to start, then put all the other principles you wrote about into play. Not that you can't get a great photo from above, or below, don't get me wrong! In general, I'd say the pictures are most pleasing when you are at, or near their level. Example below (though I do feel I broke a few other of the general photo "rules" with this one):

Oh, and focus on their eyes, it usually makes for a more pleasing photo also, I'm really bad at that and always end up with in focus noses on my dog photos, example below. I think it would have a been a better photo if her eyes had been in focus.

Sorry, I'll stop now, I'm not trying to hijack your post. I just enjoy talking photography and don't get to do it very often!

 

[hmarg06]

When I put a radio outside in an attempt to scare off hawks it really had the chickens' attention for awhile. That might be useful...

I've never been much of a photographer though I have attempted it a little bit over the years. I have more experience at editing photos than taking them LOL! An underexposed picture is easier to correct than an overexposed one fyi. And some people (me) point towards the light to get some effects. My favorite camera was a panasonic slr I absolutely loved that camera. I use an olympus pen mirrorless camera now which is a bit smaller and lighter and doesn't quite stand out so much in a crowd but I still miss that camera...

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Either Tennessee has an identical bridge/levee as my town, or you've been here? This really caught me off guard haha.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

A BLRW roo?? *Swoon*

 

[ChickForLife]

A BLRW roo?? *Swoon*

So true!