Wanted: Chicken Photography Tips

[HorseFeathers]

OK all you professionals, spill the beans! How do you get those stunning chicken pics? Is it lots of shots? Waiting a long time? What do you use for backgrounds and how do you get the chicken to stay on them?
I got a Nikon D60 SLR about two months or so ago and have managed to get some pretty good photos. I wish I had more contrast between background and subject though (in reference to blurriness of the background).

Here's some shots:
The Flock:
Starting with Phoebe the BR, continuing to Rita the Red Sex Link, then Fatima and Charlotte the EEs, then Ophelia the sweetest little Welsie, Lillith the EE, then Olympia the Black Aussie, the lead hen.

Ophelia:

Fatima the EE (find her whole story in my sig):

Lillith the EE:

Phoebe, who is molting:

 

[tiki244]

Those are beautiful pictures Envirogirl.

I am not a pro photographer but do have a few tips I can share.

1. Set the camera to take continous shots and you will get a series. Then you can pic and choose the best.

2.Pros take tons and tons of pictures of the same subject and then only keep the best of the best.

3. For the blurriness in the background set your F-stop to the smallest number. The smaller the F-stop number is the shorter the depth of field will be. (meaning you will have bluriness in the front and back of your focus subject) That may be Av setting on your camera? I am not familiar with that model.

4.Using your longest lense equivelant you can zoom in close up to your chickens and get little else in the picture. Use this with the F stop( Av ) at a small number and I thiink you will be happy with that.

5. Another thing to do is set your Av or F-stop to the highest number and you will have a clear picture from the front all the way to the background. This may show up dark in your led but clear in the picture. Just take a lot of experimental pictures.

6.Try Av at the largest number and then the lense to the shortest length and take a picture close to the ground shooting up a bit and you will get an all encompassing landscape type picture. You could get a ton of chickens in a pic like that and compose it in all sorts of ways.

7. Just play around and take lots of experimental pics, you can always erase them.


You can also play around with the time exposures and light, and let the camera set the Av for you. Take pics in different lights with out really caring what the pics look like, then when you have the camera down and all its features, ideas will just come to you.

Just have Fun!!!! Hope this helps

 

[Buff Hooligans]

My conclusion after deleting approximately 12,000 stupid shots of chicken butts and blurry run-bys, is to get a chicken, have it snuffed out, have it stuffed, set it in direct sunlight, use a tripod, and snap away to your hearts content.

 

[HorseFeathers]

Thanks, I do take tons of pics, but the AV/F thing really helped... I'll go try it out now

Anyone else?

 

[tiki244]

I should saye are EXCELLENT pictures Envirogirl. I especially love the Lillith and the Barred Rock ones.

 

[tiki244]

Quote:

Too funny

 

[byrandom]

Take TONS of pictures. With most digital camera, mine (a Canon Rebel XT) automatically assigns each picture a number. I went outside for an hour to take pictures of my chickens. I was on picture 100. Whenever I came in, I was on picture 850. So I took roughly 750 pictures of my chickens, and only kept 5-6 of them. Some were blurrier in areas that I wanted crisp, etc.

 

[HorseFeathers]

Quote:
Ho boy, I know!!! Soooo many pics, ALMOST just right... but not... I have to lock the ones I want top keep so I don't delete them by accident...

 

[tiki244]

Got any new pics to share???? I was playing with my new camera today and I was taking pics of my black cat inside. I had the flash up but I put my fingers in front of the flash (not touching it) about 1 1/2 inches away from it. Well some pics came out really cool. Just her eyes were exposed on the pics and they were either yellow or red. I gotta post that sometime soon.

 

[HorseFeathers]

I have some pretty nice ones of them out in the snow that I'll download today.