Mother and child reunion (Ahhh!)

[john]

Does anyone remember the larva I was raising in a breeding trap? Well, I opened the top of my Tylototriton verrucosus "female" tank tonight to change some water and look what I saw:

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[jennifer]

I'm sure glad this wasn't a mother-child luncheon

You get a fantastic level of detail in your photos! I just love that skin texture.

(Message edited by jennewt on May 25, 2004)

 

[john]

Hi Jen,

Yes, I'm very pleased with this digital SLR - it enables me to take very pleasing photos, if I do say so myself.

This exercise has become a little bit of an experiment really. From what I have observed, the adults don't treat youngsters as food once they pass 5 or 6 cm. This metamorph is about 8 cm long, perhaps 9 (I haven't measured it). The adult in the photo probably isn't its mother - it's more likely that it's its half sibling, the mother being the even bigger newt to the right.

I knew the water quality must not have been the best because two out of the three females were on the platform - they only leave the water if it starts to get a little nasty. I feed them thirds of freshly caught large earthworms, Lumbricus terrestris. Due to their size and the fact that they don't survive long after capture, these worms rot and pollute the water very quickly so I have to constantly keep an eye on the water quality and I change 2/3 of the water every 2 weeks or so. This is very different to the situation I had in the UK but I believe the water type over there supported much higher levels of bacteria than my local water.

Tonight I must take some photos of my Cynops ensicauda popei metamorphs and show them off. I know there's a grand dad on the other side of the world who will be interested in seeing how they are getting on.

 

[joeri]

Lovely creatures, great pictures.
It's a gift to make newts look so pretty in pictures.

 

[alan]

OK, now gotta ask anorak DP questions!

These *superb* images are 700x465 pixels, 108/128KB.
How do you post-process the images to look so good? Photoshop? JPEG compression ratio?

Ta,

 

[francesco]

Hi john
how long is your baby tylo?

 

[john]

Thank you for the praise of the photos.

You're not going to like the answer to your query, oh anoraked one ;P.

Both of these images were taken in Nikon RAW format (as opposed to JPEG). They come out of the camera at 3000x2000 pixels (6 megapixels) and all I did to both was increase the saturation of colours slightly, export to photoshop (I could have used any program, from irfanview, a free image manipulator/viewer, to photoshop) as an 8 bit colour TIFF format file (the images are 12 bit colour in RAW format), resize to 700 pixels wide and use a slight unsharpen mask (I have in-camera sharpening set at low for various reasons I won't go into). In all, about 20 seconds work apart from adding the copyright and the watermark.

That's it.

If I showed you the original, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference (the only one being the slight increase in colour saturation/intensity). These aren't cropped at all, i.e. they're the full original images, just resized.

Does that help?

From memory, the EXIF information for these images is as follows:

Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: AF 60 mm f/2.8 D "micro"
Camera Mode: Manual (i.e. I set the aperture and shutter speed myself)
Focal length: 60 mm (not much of a choice...)
ISO equivalent speed: ISO 200
Shutter Speed: 1/200th of a second
Aperture: f/14 (playing off depth of field versus the optimal sharpness/contrast performance aperture of the lens)
Flash: Yes, built-in camera flash only
Flash Exposure Compensation: -0.3 eV (I probably should have used -0.7 : I don't like the flash reflection to be quite so obvious)
Exposure Compensation: 0 eV - the camera's metering is quite good for scenes like this.

Pretty good memory, huh? Make a good post doc wouldn't I (sorry, just kidding). That's all of the relevant info I think.

If I had had the time I would have used an off camera flash, but right now my flashgun will only work in manual mode with the D70 and I was pushed for time. When the budget exists I will probably buy one of those brand new Nikon SB-800 Flashguns and an SC-17 off camera flash cable for it.

I'm sure that's too much information .

To my own credit (blows own trumpet), I am pretty skilled at the macro photography of newts, having had years of experience. These photos were taken in a rush too because I was afraid the youngster would move away before I got my camera out. I find the photography of newts and salamanders out of the water is what our American friends would call a (relative) cake-walk. The main problems are minimising reflections and getting the exposure right. Photography behind glass is more problematic and I admit to getting mixed results some times.

That's enough for now!

-John

 

[john]

Oh, I forgot something. The JPEG compression ratio is about 85% using my watermarking software known as pictureshark (not a lot of compression). I think it corresponds to a setting of about 8 or 9 in photoshop, or 85% in Paintshop pro and Irfanview.

 

[chris]

John
How big are your adults? How often do you feed them?
Chris

 

[alan]

Not too much info, 2nd answer is what I wanted to know, i.e. 85% compression. I'm interested that you get that sort of quality at ISO 200. Looks like you have a very good built in flash, and obviously better positioned for this sort of work than the built-in in a compact.
I've just been playing around with JPEG compression ratios, and honestly, I can't see any difference between 100, 66 and 33%. Will have to investigate RAW/TIFF further.

 

[john]

Chris: Biggest male and biggest female are 16 cm, maybe a little bigger for the female (really beautiful male, who has given me an even nicer and potentially bigger son). I feed the females twice a week at the moment, the males nearly every day. The males eat less and the females tend to really stack up on food.

Re cameras again: I think I can hear the stampede as people rush out to buy the Nikon D70. Might I also advise the consideration of the Canon EOS 300D (aka the Digital Rebel/Kiss) - it _is_ cheaper than the D70 and has ISO 100 (thou shalt not covet they neighbour's camera *stares at Tim's Canon*). The D70 is closer in capabilities to Canon's EOS 10D than it is to the Rebel/300D, so that's another possible one for people to think about.

For those considering the purchase of an SLR, be warned: you'll find that the initial cost of the SLR is only the tip of the iceberg. The real cost is in lenses, such as the lens I used on this camera. If the camera cost me $1000, the 4 lenses I own would cost several times that amount (ack I shouldn't have added that up). The moral is that the longer term costs of SLR photography can be deceptive, addictive, and home-breaking!

 

[alan]

Hmm. Canon Ixus 500 JPEG only.

 

[john]

Hi Alan,

All of my photos prior to the above were taken in JPG (including the verrucosus photos from March). Experience with this sort of photo counts for a lot.

As for ISO, the ISO performance of Digital SLRs is much much better than that of compact cameras because of the size of the light sensor/CCD/CMOS. In digital SLRs the photo detection sites are further apart on the sensor, meaning there is less "overflow" from one to the other, leading to less noise. That's why I never considered using ISO speeds greater than 100 on my old compact cameras. The D70 starts at ISO 200 and I use up to ISO 500 with little second thought because of the low noise of the DSLRs.

As for JPG compression ratios, if you zoom in on a highly compressed image and compare it to a low compression version you will see the difference - the compressed one will look far more blocky.

The built-in flashes of digital SLRs are not professional quality (most pro SLRs don't even have a flash at all) but they are positioned further from the lens, giving less stark reflections.

(Message edited by john on May 25, 2004)

 

[meghan]

Beautiful pictures!! I haven't seen Tylototriton verrucosus around anywhere (pet shops, etc). They're gorgeous! I'm raising some of Jennewt's karelinii larvae and I have 2 ambystoma maculatum. What an awesome hobby! Do you ever advertise any of your Tylototriton verrucosus larvae?

 

[alan]

I've just been wandering through the DPs I've taken so far and come to the conclusion that the major problem is lack of light. My long-time belief is that there is no substitute for natural daylight, so since I'm not about to construct elaborate artificially-lit (strobe) photo setups, I need to concentrate on daylight.

 

[john]

Meghan: I do sell them sometimes but I live in Ireland, a long way from you. Legally sending them would be expensive. I'm glad you like the photos though.

Alan: Most flashguns are tuned to emit "daylight" coloured light. The trick is to spread it evenly around so it looks natural (which I haven't done in the above photos). You can accomplish this for £15-£30 max if you want to. How? Go into Jessops or Jacobs, tell them you want a slave trigger (a little jobby that detects flash light), a PC cable (not a personal computer cable, different PC) and a cheap PC-socketted flashgun. You will have to manually adjust the flashgun output but with a digital camera that shouldn't take more than a few test shots. You put the photo sensor somewhere in the view of the front of your compact camera (they usually have a sucker, ideal for sticking on the outside glass of an aquarium) and you hold the external flash. When you take your picture with your own camera it will flash and that flash will trigger the external flash and your scene will be more evenly lit. If you want to be really good, you could rig some tinfoil on a piece of cardboard in front of your camera's flash so that its flash doesn't directly light the subject but is visible only to the slave flash trigger (does this make sense?). I did this for about 3 years with my coolpix compact camera.

(Message edited by john on May 25, 2004)

 

[alan]

Duh, like this?
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S28D53468

I have a Vivitar flash, bracket and cables from my ancient 35mm existence, long, long ago. Should work, n'est pas?

 

[john]

Yes, that slave unit is the one I bought in Jessops in January 2001 . So you should be all set now. Let us know how you get on.

 

[chris]

Thanks John - forgot to say - lovely pics.
Chris

 

[TJ]

I haven't read this whole thread yet but lemme just say for now: what a wonderful picture, John! They both look very healthy too.