Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's a couple of shots I got using the suggestions I got from you guys. It took a couple of shots to get it right but I got it. I have yet to try live subjects but those will come once I have some more time on my hands.
Taken indoor with only a hand held 10,000K fluorescent bulb from my fish tank for lighting. I used my Samsung Digimax 420 digital camera on a tripod. It's a "point and shoot" but I can get instant results.
2 feet away, zoomed.

8 inches away, macro.

2 feet away, zoomed.

How'd I do?
The focus is one thing I'm still working on but am struggling with. My macro shots pick up too much background light but my farther shots that I zoom in with don't get the deffinition I'd like. Any thoughts on this?

This last one is a recent one, more herp related, that I got outdoors with no flash on the same camera, handheld.

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bigdnutz
1.2 Suriname Boa
1.0 Venezuelan Boa

You certainly got the black background in that last flower shot. You can still be close to the subject and get this, only the background needs to be far enough away so it is not exposed with flash. If you can control shutterspeed, use a quick one. This will make the background more dark and also decrease effects of hand shake (and improve sharpness) if you're supporting with your hand only. Using a tripod or resting the camera on some sort of stable support will also improve sharpness.

Remember not to confuse focus with sharpness. If the photo is generally soft, the problem was probably camera or subject movement. If there are parts of the photo that are sharp, the problem is more likely depth of field or focus targeting.

Nice Boa, BTW.

Cheers,
WK