hamster photography + robo pics

[Yuki]

Hi everyone.

Anyone have any tips on photographing hamsters that don't sit still for a second? Idk but the pics just don't come out well when they are taken in the cage.

here are some pics I took while holding some robos.


The one above is the mother of the one in the picture below. This one below is my favorite in my colony right now. He is by far the tamest.

[Penguin]

Very nice pictures! The second one especially, his cheeks makes me want to hug him haha

It depends on what equipment you have.
From the pictures above I assume you have a pretty alright camera, I really hope this is the case or I might look like an idiot for typing all this xD
I'm not a professional but this might help you a bit.

Don't put your camera on auto mode. At first it can be overwhelming to get in touch with all the different setting that can affect your picture, but spend 2 hours reading about them and you'll get an idea of how they work. It might take a lot of playing around with before you make it work as you want it to, but I find that it is also worth it in the end.
Anyway, here are the most important things you should try to mess with:

Shutter speed:
If you happen to have a DSLR camera, you will be able to adjust the shutter-speed; and this really is the key to taking a sharp photo of a moving object.

For dwarf I would recommend a shutter speed around 1/250th of a second, for a syrian maybe 1/120-150th of a second would be enough.

A tripod:
A tripod or a way to keep your camera completely still can easily make the difference between a sharp and a blurry photo. If you don't own a tripod I would recommend finding a place for your camera to rest. Movement from unsteady hands and not enough light can really ruin a photo in no time.

I also find that pictures taken of a hamster in it's cage will usually turn out dull for multiple reasons (I dont want to make this post too long sorry), and placing it somewhere safe like on a secured shelf with a single object to pose with. Getting the right light can be difficult, i find that fluorescent light (how do you even spell that?) often is the best.

[Yuki]

Hi penguin,

Thanks for the pointers. I am a still learning how to take good pics. I have a Canon s110. Its a high quality point and shoot. Shutter speed is the same as ISO right? I just tried it and yup much easier. I just need to use better lighting.

[hammy2]

I don't think a tripod would be any good for hamsters because you need to be fast. Fast shutter speed to stop motion blur and not too wide aperture so you don't have a shallow depth of field. You want to focus on the nose and whiskers if they look blurred it doesn't look right. You may have to compromise image quality with a high ISO if the lighting is dim

[hammy2]

ISO is like film speed in old cameras. The higher the ISO the grainier the image because it is pulling more light in digitally

[Penguin]

The Canon s110 is great! I have often been impressed by the powershot cameras from canon and the s110 is a very solid camera with very nice features and very little 'lag' (or so to say) from when you press the button to when the picture is actually taken. It also has this feature that enables you to see if you are holding your camera straight. I really like that haha.

The ISO and the shutter speed aren't exactly the same. But don't feel bad about messing it up, they have a very close relationship. When shooting photos you have the ISO, the shutter speed and the aperture. I will try to explain, but when you end up more confused than before you'll know why I shouldn't ever become a teacher lol

The short and easy explanation: (taken from the internet because I couldnt word it myself >>)

ISO controls the intensity the sensor absorbs the light (higher = brighter but more grain, lower = darker)

Shutter controls how long its exposed (longer = brighter and more blur, shorter = darker and more crisp)

Aperture controls the lens opening. (tighter = less light, open = more light)

Long explanation:

ISO
The ISO decides the sensitivity to light. A general rule is that the brighter the environment the lower the number.

So on a sunny day you might only want the ISO to be 100 or 200 while if you wanted to take pictures at night an ISO that's around 800 isn't uncommon

Shutter speed
The shutter speed decides how fast or slow the shutter open and closes and is measured in fractions of a second.
I said in my previous post that a high shutter speed would help taking non-blurry photos, especially of a moving object. Now that said, why not just always keep the shutter at a high speed to ensure non-blurry shots then? Because the longer the shutter is open, the more light is allowed to pass through the lens. When taking pictures at nighttime you generally want a lower shutter speed

Aperture (is seen as the f(number here) on your camera)
Alright this might be tricky to explain. The aperture controls the amount of light allowed into the lens. It's basically like the iris in your eye. It's a thing (you could almost call it a hole) in the lens that opens up wide to allow more light to pass through; or closes down to a very small hole to allow less light to pass through. The aperture controls a couple of things like how clear or blurry your background will be, and how fast a shutter speed you can use.

[Yuki]

I'm familiar with the concepts in general but ti forget. The canon s110 is a really great camera in my opinion. I will have to figure out how web to adjust shutter speed I'm pretty sure I can do aperture , shutter speed and ISO. I'll do some pics later and post.

[Penguin]

if you want to play with the shutter speed but dont see the option on the other modes, try putting your camera on TV C:

[hammy2]

I've just taken a few snaps of Zoe so the background hasn't been set up or anything. She was by no means being very still XD like a bullet lol. These were the settings etc

Canon 7D (hand held/no tripod)
Manual focus
Built in flash at +0 brightness
Kit zoom lens 18-55mm (at about 24mm)
Shutter speed 1/200
Aperture F8.0
ISO 1250



Edit *I don't want to confuse you but depth of field is so important in photography! There's many lessons on the internet that could help you learn what changing the aperture does and how to use it.

[hammy2]

Did you take any more pictures? It can take a while to get the hang of camera settings but don't let it put you off, digital cameras do most of the work for you if you use the auto modes. And you can take great hamster photographs with a smart phone and sometimes it's easier