Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our "real" camera is being repaired right now so I've been doing some work on trying to get decent shots with my point and shoot (Canon PowerShot SD630). It was frustrating at first, but now I'm getting some decent results. Hope you all approve!

Aaron
A & B Reptiles

I have the same camera. I should read the manual some day--my pics stink.

Michael

Thanks! Yeah, it definitely took a lot of messing around with different settings to get what I was looking for. They're capable of good shots for people who know what they're doing. (I'm not one of those people!)

Aaron

Very nice pictures! please explaing your set up for the picture shoot! I have a Rebel XI and I have been messing with it and I want to do a set up to take some nice pictures.

Thanks
Tom
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Thomas Sierra

Sure thing. As far as setup goes, all of these pictures were taken outdoors in a shady area. (direct sunlight makes them overexpose for me) I'm just using some black velvet that I got from a fabric store. I set it up so that there is a flat area of velvet to place the animal and then a place a sweater box under the the other half of the sheet so that there is some velvet behind the snake as well as below it. This makes it feasible to shoot at angles other than straight down at the snake. I always have to rotate the setup depending on the time of day to find the angle at which the velvet is absorbing all the light and not reflecting any back at me.

As far as the camera settings go, I have found that the "portrait" setting works best for these macro shots. Then I just adjust the expose based on how bright it happens to be outside. On darker days, when I use a longer exposer, I use a tripod but all of these shots were taken without one. Hope that helps a little- like I said, I'm no expert!

That is a great explanation and great pictures. I wanted to know the same info but somebody else asked before I did and you answered wonderfully. I have one more question though...how do you keep the snakes from moving or slithering away before you take the shot? Nearly all my snakes won't sit long enough, unless they are in a container.
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PHLdyPayne

Haha...that's probably the trickiest part. I just do my best not to agitate the snakes too much before I shoot. Usually I bring their tubs right outside with me so that I don't have to do more than just pick the snake up and set it on the back ground. If you handle them before had or on the way to photograph them, they tend to get curious or anxious and once they start crawling around, it will be a long time before they settle down.

For more active animals like colubrids, sometimes placing a small container upside down over the animal will give it a chance to calm down a bit and then you can lift the container and shoot while they are (hopefully) a bit settled down.

Some animals will always be frustrating but for the most part, our BPs are pretty cooperative!

Good luck!

Aaron

How did you get the logo on the picture. My wife has done it for me but it didn't seem very easy. Can you do it to multiple pictures at once? What program do you use?

Thanks Mike

That's put in using Photoshop CS. If you have a logo on file, you can just import that file and size/place it appropriately by dragging and free transforming it. Hope that helps!

Aaron

what is in picture 3 & 7> Image file is called "pink"... is that a pewter of some sorts?

Thanks,
Bristen.

>>Our "real" camera is being repaired right now so I've been doing some work on trying to get decent shots with my point and shoot (Canon PowerShot SD630). It was frustrating at first, but now I'm getting some decent results. Hope you all approve!
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>>Aaron
>>A & B Reptiles
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www.RoyalGemReptiles.com

Yes. It's a weird looking pewter that looked like this as a hatchling, which earned her the name "pink pewter" around here.

Thanks!

Aaron

Just wondering what it will look like as it ages... I hatched something similar, but from a LTC female (may prove out to be a new line of cinamons or something new, who knows.. attempting line breeding this year)...

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www.RoyalGemReptiles.com

Thats a sweet looking snake! Congrats. Our animals is a late '07 animal and has darkened up some as it has grown. The pics in our original post is what it looks like @ about 8 months. We think it still has a pretty interesting look to it though. Best of luck with your project!

Aaron

Ours looked very close to yours when hatching... the picture I posted is something like 8 months (I forget to be honest)... it darkened up as well, but still remains quite interesting. It's a female and not sure what I'm going to breed her with yet!

Thanks for the good wishes, best of luck to you guys as well

Regards,
Bristen.

>>Thats a sweet looking snake! Congrats. Our animals is a late '07 animal and has darkened up some as it has grown. The pics in our original post is what it looks like @ about 8 months. We think it still has a pretty interesting look to it though. Best of luck with your project!
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>>Aaron
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___________________________
www.RoyalGemReptiles.com

I love that second shot with the downward angle. I always say: its not the camera its the photographer

Beautiful animals, by the way.
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Cheers!
• Chelsea Lynn Gardiner
(and Frank M. Wood)

.