Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there. I am desperately trying to take some pictures of my beardies, but have been striking out miserably. I've followed photo threads in this and the photo forum, but can't pinpoint the problem. Here's the story:

- I am trying to take color accurate pics of my yellow and sunset hypo beardies

- I don't have a fancy digital camera, but it's not completely pathetitic (I don't think). I have a Nikon Coolpix 3.2 megapixel.

- Per the recommendations of the photo forum, I purchased a bunch of black velvet to use as a backdrop.

- Per the recommendations of this forum, I purchased a stand with 2 500 Watt Halogen work lights for illumination.

- Every photo I take is really washed out, and captures none of the yello and orange coloration on the animals.

So... I have a couple big questions.

1) Is the problem my camera? Do I just need to bite the bullet and buy a really expensive one?

2) Any suggestions to maximize the results I can get? More/different lightind, different backdrop, etc?

I've seen some gorgeous photos posted on here, and I am hoping that you guys can bring me into the fold, so to speak. If your advice helps, I'll post some of my pics on here as soon as they improve to the point of no longer embarrassing me.

Thanks so much.

Kris

Hi-

I was having the same problem with getting my two yellow beardie's colors to show. I have an epson 3000z photo camera. Well, my mom got a Sont Cyber-shot 5.0 Megapixel......I borrowed it and it is just awesome. Here is a picture of Clyde. No retouching at all.

Wendy

You have 2 500 watt Halogen bulbs? How close to the beardie are you putting these two lights? That is one possibility of why they might look washed out. Try moving the lights back, or trying different backrounds. Just be thankful you have a digital camera, remember the film cameras? You can make that camera work, just try moving things, changing the settings on your camera (F-stop, brightness, shutter speed, etc.) Play around with it. No hurry, none of us are going anywhere.

-Lins

Hey,
Definitely sounds like your lighting is washing out your dragons...One suggestion might be to make sure your dragons are all colored up and take some pics in natural sunlight and see what happens. I have a really crappy digi cam and I actually get some good pictures...

Rachel

I don't know that I would say that you even need the background. I have taken many good images just in my cage (just make sure your White Balance is set to tungsten). Shoot in aperture priority mode probably using 200 or 400 iso (the coolpix's I think have a lot of noise around 400 though).

If you're shooting on a black background with 2 500 watt halogens or whatever you said - then your problem is probably double fold. First of all - if the black makes up a decent percentage of your composistion, then the camera is being thrown by it and trying to make it brighter than than it's supposed to be (your camera is going to try to make everything neutral gray in tonality). So you will have to bump the epxosure compenation down about 1 1/2 to 2 stops. This will get a correct exposure.

BUT - if those lights are kicking out too much light - at a short distance - then you're camera may not be albe to shut down enough to get a dark enough exposure - hence blowing it out. Try one bulb - like from your tank, (you should be able to get plenty of light from it. The camera can take good pics - it's just getting familiar with it.

good luck