How to photograph cetaceans

Contribute to science while improving your cetacean photography

How to spot cetaceans

Taking good photos of whales and dolphins is not an easy task: here you will find some tips to spot cetaceans and to capture perfect shots or videos, which are very useful to scientific research.

Features to look at 

First of all, you should be aware that dolphins and whales come to the surface to breath, therefore they can be seen as unusual movements below and just above the water. Besides, they can be spotted by few distinctive features: while dolphins can be recognised by the splashes and the dorsal fins, whales can be seen from far away thanks to their blows.

How to photograph cetaceans

Useful photos and videos can be obtained by a simple mobile phone, but if you wish to take a step forward, you can find below some guidelines for a great cetacean photography:

• keep the sun behind you (backlit photos are useless and cannot be taken into consideration)
• if the animals are far away, use the telephoto lens (200-300mm) with possible overexposure
• with animals under the bow of the boat, use a wide-angle with possible underexposure

What to photograph

The use of photo-identification is nowadays crucial for scientific research and, as a consequence, for the conservation of these marine mammals. Individuals can in fact be recognised by specific natural markings, which are different for each species.

In order to allow researchers get the best of your pictures, follow these simple rules and check out the features that must be photographed in each species.

• Photograph the dorsal fin for dolphins and fin whales, the fluke in case of a sperm whale.
• Always frame perpendicular to the animal’s feature, rather than diagonally (which would distort shapes and patterns and make the comparison with other shots impossible).
• Photograph the whole body and if necessary, setting the camera to Continuous shooting mode (AF-C) to track your moving subjects.
• Possibly, separate the series of shots of one individual from the others by taking a random photo in order to not mix them up later on.

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Is it a cetacean?

Cetaceans can often be confused for other marine animals that reach the surface for different reasons, such as sharks, sun fish and swordfish. The main differences you should take in consideration to confirm whether it’s a cetacean or not  are the up-down movement of the fluke and that they regularly breath air from the blowholes.

Different species, different photos

SPECIES:

Bottlenose dolphin

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • Dorsal fin profile
  • Any marks on both sides of the body
bottlenose
striped-dolphin-jumping-ecomarine

SPECIES:

Striped dolphin

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • For this species, which is very abundant and has few natural markings, there are currently no studies based on photo-identification.

SPECIES:

Common dolphin

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • Dorsal fin profile
  • The white patch in the center of the dorsal fin
commondolphin-dorsalfin-ecomarinemalta
risso-dolphin-dorsalfin-ecomarinemalta

SPECIES:

Risso’s dolphin

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • Dorsal fin profile
  • Scratches on both sides of the body

SPECIES:

Sperm whale

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • Tail profile from behind at the time of diving
  • Any marks on both sides of the body
  • No need for dorsal fin which does not have a clear outline
spermwhalefluke-ecomarinemalta
pilotwhale-dorsalfin-ecomarinemalta

SPECIES:

Pilot whale

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • Dorsal fin profile
  • Any marks on both sides of the body

SPECIES:

Cuvier’s beaked whale

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • Dorsal fin profile
  • Any marks on both sides of the body
beaked-whales-dorsalfin
finwhale-blaze-eomarinemalta

SPECIES:

Fin whale

WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH:

  • Dorsal fin profile
  • Any marks on both sides of the body
  • White coloration behind the head on the right side: because of its asymmetrical coloration, only the right side is used for photo-identification
  • The left side should only be photographed if there are scars or special marks
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