Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been trying to take some nice close up photos of my rhacs. Any suggestions for lighting? My pictures are usually either washed out or blurry. I'll try the photography forum as well, just wondering if anyone here has any ideas. Thanks.

what kind of camera are you using?

It's a Fujifilm finepix S3100.

If you haven't already learned how to adjust your aperture ( f#) shutter speed, ISO, manual focus, and possibly flash output, I would start with learning those things. It looks like it is about equivalent to my previous camera ( canon s2) which I got down to a science with the on camera flash. While you are limited with what you can do with the on camera flash, you can still take some great photos if you learn how to use it correctly. Other lighting options usually don't apply to non SLR cameras.... the only thing you can really do is take pictures in day light, or as bright of conditions as possible, or with a tripod. Here's an example photo of what you can get when you start to get the hang of the on camera flash

not rhacodactylus of course.... but taken with an almost identical camera.

ohhh, one more thing... I forgot to suggest setting the camera on multi-shot if your shutter speed is less than 1/60 of a second. that way hopefully you, or your object won't move atleast one out of a few shots ( if you don't have a tripod). You also need to learn how to use your macro ( and/or super macro) functions. Here's another example of what you can get without the flash, and just regular room lighting if you play around with it a little ( I used a tripod for this one)

and even with the on camera flash you can still get something like this



minor post photo adjustments can make a great addition to the final image appearance.

Wow! great pics! Thanks for the info. I'll read up on my camera and give it another shot.

Those are some awesome shots, my goodness you have come a LONG way with that camera, I remember when you first started with it, LOL I'm impressed,

Nice to see you, all our buddies on the leafy forum seemed to have dissappeared
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PHEve / Eve

Contact PHEve

Thanks Eve. I've noticed the uroplatus forum as pretty much dissappeared too...
haha, just think, about 18 months ago I was on there saying how I didn't like digital cameras and thought they sucked.... LOL!

And back to the topic at hand.... just remember, stay within your cameras limits. Your first auric photo was very clear. Too many people try to exceed their cameras limits by getting too close, or doing something that just doesn't work for your camera. A nice clear photo from further back will blow a blurry close up photo out of the water any day in my book. Lots of practice, and a lot of light are key.