Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I spent the weekend at the herp expo here with a friend. We took some pics of some Red-eyed Treefrogs, just because we couldn't resist.

Here's the standard view -

and an alternate approach -

People often ask how you get the black background. Simple. My friend held the log and glass and was wearing a black shirt. Add a fairly low f/stop and you have a frog against a pitch black background.

I did have to clone a few water spot of the glass and some dirt off the frogs venter, but otherwise they are as shot with a little cropping and USM.

Shot with
Konica Minolta 7D
Konica Minolta 3600 HSD flash with diffuser
handheld
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Here's a pic of another friend actually doing the same thing.

Notice Tim holding the frog on a branch in front and away from of his black T-shirt. With the appropriate f/stop, you can achieve a dark black background with ease.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Great stuff. Nice colors and I like the fresh view in number 2.

Those are incredible pics. What F stop did you use? Those are shots that I dream of getting. Thanks for sharing. Derek

I could have opened up more on the bottom as I doubt I needed much more than f/5.6 for that shallow a subject.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Nice shots Chris!

Love the bottom pic, the top is good but it that shadowing on the front leg is (to me) distracting, I suppose either a bounce board or a twin flash would helped this but great photo nevertheless!

Cheers,
Scott Eipper

Thanks Scott. I had a reflector but it was silver and gave too much light to the underside. Plus holding it was difficult due to the situation. So I just took what I could get.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Nice photo but the real question is who won the most games in yahtzee.

robert