How To Show Your Favorite Bunny –
In A Favorable Light, Taking Photos Of Your Bunny
By Ursula Glasser
Good pictures depend on several factors: camera, position of the camera,
Camera:
There are two systems: digital cameras and the old fashioned analog cameras with film that has to be developed. The little tricks for good pictures are the same for both systems.
Know Your Camera
Set The Scene
Watch The Light
Digital photographing is fast, cheap (as you do not have any costs for films and developing) and it allows you to see the resulting picture immediately. We have a rather old Leica digital camera with a resolution of not more than 1.3 megapixels. But the lens system of this old lady is so good that sharpness of its pictures are better than the quality of the newest gigapixel cameras. If you buy a camera, do not have just eyes for a high pixel resolution but be aware of a good quality of the optical lens system!
Setting the bunny in scene:
The camera sees things more or less the same way as you do with your eyes. But your eyes focus onto the things you are interested in. Your camera sees everything even if it has nothing to do with your subject So,choose your background carefully!
It should not dominate the bunny. You should not see anything that doesn’t belong with your picture composition, when you are looking through your camera. For preparing your scene you can take a double for your bunny, e.i. a soft toy. Look through the camera and imagine how your photo will be. Do you have the right angle? There is a great difference if you are standing while you take the picture or if you lay down on the floor and take the picture face to face with your bunny. The proportions of the rabbit look different! Take photos in several positions (angles) and watch the difference. Go as close as possible to your bunny. Bring the Bunny’s eyes into the focus!
Light:
It is the most important thing in photographing! Light has different color qualities: the morning and evening light is warm and reddish. The light at noon is hard, cold and bluish.
From which direction does it light up your bunny? If it comes from the side, you will have no problems. If the light is behind the photographer, be aware that his shadow doesn’t fall on your bunny. If the light is behind the bunny and shining towards the camera, you will get a shiny halo around the bunny. Very striking especially for satin angoras! Perhaps you have to use a slight flash to brighten the bunny’s face.
| Dukat – This picture is made beneath a roof, it was rather dark, but the evening sun (with its reddish color!) just lighted up the beautiful red satin buck Dukat. The light comes from the right side (from the back of the buck). |
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| Habibi – This is a backlit photo. |
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How to photograph a bunny in full action? Well, there are the same rules as above, but you have to be much quicker. Take as many pictures as you can and hope that there is a good snapshot among them. In snapshots it is important to lay down to the bunny’s level. It is much better to choose a tame bunny if you want to take pictures in the wild
| Here you see a little disadvantage of automatic focusing cameras: the grass is in focus not the rabbit. |
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This would not happen if you would focus manually. Though you risk to be to slow by focusing manually. Though you risk to be to slow by focusing manually. Perhaps the bunny would have been in focus if it was still in the picture.
Pictures By: Ursula Glauser, Thunstetten, Switzerland