Suggestions for improving my pictures

[Critter]

I am open to any suggestions anyone might have.

Wat are the best ways to light.. etc..

on a shoe string budget...



for example...

[JuliusSqueezer]

"Light" as in husbandry or as in photography?

nm finally read the topic. The cheapest way to light any subject is to use that big burning ball of gas in the daytime sky. It makes some pretty clean light if you can manipulate the shadow issues. Without knowing what type of camera you have, it's hard to suggest what flashes to use. So back to natural sunlight for now. You know those fold out things you put in your windshield to keep your car cool? Find one with a silver foil looking finish. I bought some at the dollar store once so they can't cost much. They make pretty good reflectors. You can set your snake in the shade and reflect in light where you want it from the sun. Silver makes contrast, gold makes warmth, white makes softer lighting.

[Allysen]

You could try putting your subject on a contrasting piece of fabric, like a dark t-shirt, or a blue towel, to really get the colors to show up. Also, if you can get two lights, one on either side, you can minimize shadows. ESPECIALLY if you can fashion yourself a lightbox. We purchased ours, but if you have a white sheet and you can figure out how to hang the sheet in such a way that the lights shine THROUGH the sheet on either side to light your snake, you can get some very soft, but bright lighting. I've heard of people doing this between chairs, or flipping a small end table upside down (the kind with four legs and a top and not much else) and draping the sheet over the legs.

[JuliusSqueezer]

Cropping and abusing the auto levels button in photoshop if you happen to have it helps too.



the biggest complaint I have with your example is that too much is out of focus. You need more depth of field which will require a smaller lens aperture ...which will likely require a lot more light...or a wider angle lens also has more depth of field.

[Critter]

aye. it's a rebel xti.

thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely play around with it more tomorrow.

[JuliusSqueezer]

Oh good..a dslr. You have total control of the aperture then. Forget the auto settings and learn to meter. Then play around with the aperture (f stops). The larger the number on the lens barrel, the smaller the aperture and the greater the depth of field. The problem with using the really small apertures is that you either need a slow shutter speed or a lot of light to compensate. Every f stop halves or doubles the amount of light that is allowed in depending on which way you are clicking. F16 should get you enough depth of field for a pretty sharp close up photo if you don't use too much telephoto. In low light you will need a very still subject and a tripod though or you will end up with a wiggly photo. You can bump the iso up on the camera to overcome this but the higher the iso, the more noise (grain) you get so the image quality won't be as sharp. Sometimes this makes for some artistic expression but that's not for today's lesson


edited to add, with most dslrs, you don't adjust the f stops by turning the dial at the rear of the lens. Some of the newer lenses made for these cameras don't even have them anymore. There should be a command dial on the camera that changes the f stops and shutter speeds when in manual mode. I don't know where yours is though. I'm a Nikon/fuji guy. The last canon I owned was an old A1 35mm back in the early 90s.

[ssjsmits]

Test out different backgrounds and settings. Snakes on darker surfaces appear lighter and snakes on lighter surfaces appear darker. At least from my experience.