Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Everyone's (I'm addressing the lurkers) input would be nice. What color background makes this snake look best to you? Mostly I'm talking about the background color, but what anyone has to say is welcomed. All pics are with incadescent overhead light, low flash, and distance of about 10 "/ 25 cm.

Here's the 1st one with 3 to follow:

...another female Peruvian.

Hey Sunshine..

Of the 4 you posted, I like the black (is it velvet?) one the best..

Something else for you to try though.. Honestly I think all of the backgrounds are a bit overpowering. The patterns seem to pull my eyes from the snake to the background, almost losing the subject as a result. If it were me, I would try something a bit more plain.. solid colors with little to no reflective properties.. Black always works well.. and honestly yellow does really good too. For various reasons, the yellow seems to really bring out the colors in the snakes (esp snakes with contrasting yellow colors in the scales). You can get project/foam board at most walmart type stores and many hobby shops that make a great background and won't distract from the subject. The other material that I have found that works well is colored aquarium gravel. This will give you a bit of texture.. but not over power the eyes.

If you want to make it more dramatic.. you can do that using light placement. Get a couple of the metal hooded lights that you usually see for heat lamps (with clamps in it) and get some of the screw in compact fluorescent lights (try to find the ones that are 6500 Kelvin, it is a nice color temp that will give you good colors and contrast.. Get a couple of the lights.. with clamps.. and play with the placement..

just my opinion..

you can see some snakes both on black and yellow backgrounds scattered throughout my galleries if want an idea of what it would look like.
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

But I think Tim had some really good advice. I found a pic in his albums that I thought really looked cool.

http://photos.xtremecombatsports.com/displayimage.php?album=36&pos=6

Use a mirror and an overhead light with flas on the camera...

looks like this

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1 CB Female BRB
1 CB Jayapura GTP
1 CB panther chameleon
2 WC scottish terriers

I agree, definitely go with black for the Peruvians - looks great and not overpowering.

Brian

Whatever background you use I would use something that is fairly "flat" looking without much pattern to compete with the snake. All of the backgrounds you showed seem to distract from the animal a bit.

...you have given me many ideas and I appreciate them! Thank you.

Linda

First of all, I don't like colored backgrounds. Just a personal bias, but I don't like pics of snakes on blue aquarium gravel. It does show off their colors, I just don't really like it. The problem with most of your choices is not the color, but rather the shinyness (?) of the material. The reflection off this material is taking away from the beauty of the snake.

I have a 3'x3' piece of black "velveteen" that I picked up at walmart for about $1 that I use sometimes. You have to turn it the right direction to avoid the material reflecting, but you can get some nice pics with it. With a little tweaking (darkening) in photoshop or similar program, you can even make the background "dissappear" -

Given a choice, I much prefer a more naturalistic substrate. Here's a young maurus rainbow boa shot on a desktop with a few leaves used as a substrate. I always like that "you could find one like this in the wild" look.

I guess the best suggestion is to look at all the great rainbow pics posted here, look at the substrates, decide which ones you like, and try and emulate that!

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Chris,
...Great post. I was thinking that I did not especially like the back grounds in Linda's PICs but I was not sure why. You described what I could not. Backgrounds should highlight the snake rather than distract your eye away from it. Some colors can add to the beauty of the snake but if they have too much busy detail or reflection they distract from the overall image.
Jeff

>>First of all, I don't like colored backgrounds. Just a personal bias, but I don't like pics of snakes on blue aquarium gravel. It does show off their colors, I just don't really like it. The problem with most of your choices is not the color, but rather the shinyness (?) of the material. The reflection off this material is taking away from the beauty of the snake.
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>>I have a 3'x3' piece of black "velveteen" that I picked up at walmart for about $1 that I use sometimes. You have to turn it the right direction to avoid the material reflecting, but you can get some nice pics with it. With a little tweaking (darkening) in photoshop or similar program, you can even make the background "dissappear" -
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>>Given a choice, I much prefer a more naturalistic substrate. Here's a young maurus rainbow boa shot on a desktop with a few leaves used as a substrate. I always like that "you could find one like this in the wild" look.
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>>I guess the best suggestion is to look at all the great rainbow pics posted here, look at the substrates, decide which ones you like, and try and emulate that!
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>>Chris Harrison
>>San Antonio, Texas

Linda,
Out of those, I think I like the green background. Green is the color opposite of orange, and that usaully makes a nice contrast. I actually like natural light with an opaque background the best, like a rubbermaid container near a window or outside in the shade.

Chris
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www.chrisolsonreptiles.com
Don't blame me, I voted for Pedro............................................