Hi all. I was wondering if there are any aggregated resources for recommended practices to photographing based on the taxon you are photographing?
I found this couple year old thread but it doesn’t seem to have gone beyond the thread?
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/photo-taking-recommendations-by-taxon/1962/13
Yes, thank you I had no idea this was part of the website. And I guess others too from the number of guides
Guides are just not supported anymore, so there’s not many.
@chrisfrazier Welcome to the forum! I’m not exactly sure what you are looking for, but for adult Lepidoptera a shot of the dorsal surface is ideal. Side shots are not great. If you can get the hind wings in as well (often hard) it also helps ID.
For many groups vetral side is very important too, many Nymphalids and Lycaenids are ided only with both sides photographed.
It heavily depends on the taxonomic level that you are talking about. General information about photographing certain taxa can probably only be given at the level of orders or families. As soon as you dive into genera it heavily depends on the genus. I’m mostly writing with the perspective of an entomologist in mind, though.
For one genus it might be necessary to photograph the hind legs and for another genus it might be necessary to photograph the form of the mandibles. But then you would already need to know in the field which genus it is and if you are able to tell that, you would probably also know which the necessary morphological characters are that you need to photograph.
Generally, get as many angles as possible and as many details as possible. For arthropods a dorsal, lateral and frontal (especially for spiders) shot will already give a lot of information. And the organisms should be in focus (that’s a point that many people don’t seem to be aware of).
There’s a pdf somewhere that an iNatter made a while back, but I can’t find it. It’s perfect for answering this question.
I am sure everyone is always aiming for a photo in focus. Alas, efforts are often thwarted by the photographer’s poor skills, inadequate imaging tools, wind, or the subject itself.
And of course Murphy’s law – even if you succeed in taking 100 pictures of the specimen, eventually the identifiers may well tell you that the one key aspect that would allow identification is not visible. ;-)
Example: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/83641602
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