Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello...

I am using an Olymous D-370 1.3 megapixel digital camera.
I have multiple problems with this camera...
(ie, hard to photograph white snakes, when the flash is off the pictures are always BLURRY?!?!)
Mainly tho, the flash totally washes out color in my pics, this GTP is a green snake with white markings, why does it look fuzzy and why it is to YELLOW?? The fake vine looks green, but why doesn't the snake? Should I just buy a new camera? (dreaming of an SLR...)

I've tried wrapping saran wrap over the flash, I was told this would help soften the brightness but it didn't seem to help at all. Thanks for any ideas or help...
-April

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'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow

I'm guessing it's not the flash, I think the snake would still look green in some of the shadowed areas if the flash was the problem. I'm guessing pics are coming out blurry with no flash because your camera is doing longer exposures to compensate for the lack of light (flash), so unless you use a tripod it's tough. I'm sure someone else can help further, I am not an expert. That's a shame, thats one pretty snake, that would drive me nuts too.

Matt

Hi Matt,

I think you are right about the blurry pics with no flash, that would make sense. Too bad there's no way to adjust the shutter speed (at least not that I see.. I am a total camera newbie).
The only thing I don't understand about the pic is how the fake leaves look such rich green but the snake doesn't at all. It's so odd and I've never had this problem before.
Reading thru these threads I may need to start saving up for the sony f848
thanks,
-april

some of the pics it takes come out fine, so who knows...

Find a selection of objects in various bright colors and take a picture of them together. Make sure you cover at least red, blue, green and yellow. And see whick ones look right. Your camera could be picking up too much yellow or not enough blue. Or maybe that snake just reflects a specific frequency that you camera can't see. Do you have the same problem with other subjects?

Also, check your camera manual and see if it has some sort of a white balance adjustment...

I will try what you suggested and see if I get certain colors not showing up correctly. I haven't noticed this problem before (I've had the camera for 2yrs now) but then again usually I am taking pictures of boas which are mainly shades of brown yellow and pink, no green.
I did look through my manual a while back for a white balance setting but there was nothing listed and I went through all the menu options in my settings, nada. The only real options I have are for flash (with flash, no flash, bright light, red eye) I haven't had luck with any of the other flash settings.
thanks for the ideas!!

-April