Reptile & Amphibian Forums

now that i have a camera im trying to take picture of my snakes.when i photo my sorong,the lime green and blue looks really great,but when i attempt my high blue,the blue looks pretty green in the photos.hes nowhere near super blue,but hes not green either.its a bit of a blue green that in photos just looks green.any advise??

oh yea,just thought id add that i have tried shooting under full spec light but everything gets washed out when i do that.he looks blue regardless if hes under full spec light or not(better in it but still blue either way)so under that light he almost appears white!

OMG...... welcome to my nightmare!!!

The only way I have ever gotten halfway decent pix of blue is outside on either an overcast day (don't have many of those here) or on the pation under shade cloth. Direct sunlight has too many dark shadows, flash washes it out... I've tried using the white preset... no help.

Looks pretty good from here....
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1.0~amel corn~C.S.
1.3~Aztec Okeetee corns~Coatl,Maya,Acatl,Tepin
0.1.1~Green tree python~Tempest, Whisper
0.2~Rhodesian Ridgebacks~Akilah, Ona
1.0~Black fat cat~Topper
3.0~Horses~Zaarah,Galliano,Achilles.....

The problem you're running into is digital cameras today will automatically adjust color to what it THINKS the subject should look like. Bright blue (cyan), bright yellow, or bright magenta colors will always be washed out. To prove it, take a pic of a yellow, blue, and pink highlighter, all the colors will be dulled out. Some cameras you can adjust/turn off the auto white-balance and it helps.

Specifically with your camera, the processor is adding magenta (I believe) into the equation (look around the pic, there should be some areas that have a red tint that shouldn't) to counter the blue. If you can't do anything with the camera, your only hope is to use a photo editor to remove the magenta that it adds.

On a side note, olympus is the only camera I've experimented with that actually had a yellow highlighter come out bright yellow.

Chris
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1.1.0 Irian x Jungle Carpet Pythons
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Albino/Het White-sided Black Rat-Stacey
1.2.0 Creamsicle Corns-Vince, Trish, Torrie
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.1 Green Tree Pythons Biak-Brandon, Aru-Orochimaru
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
2.4.0 Ball Pythons-Kritsy, Gretchen, Alexis, 100% het for albino balls- Naruto, Hinata, 66% het VPI Axanthic-Sasuke
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy

hey chris,thanks for the comment.i have noticed something weird also,maybe someone else who uses a digital camera can understand what im talking about.when i go to photo my blue chondro(or any chondro for that matter,and im looking at the video screen deciding when to shoot the picture,ill notice the color of my snake shifting,from like blue,to green,to sometimes kinda yellow.its kinda like what youre talking about.the computer or whatever is having a hard time deciding what color to shoot it as.im not even talking about the final picture.i mean before i even shoot the pic,what i see on the video screen is a new color every few seconds.if im quick enough,i can catch the blue(like in the 2 sorong pics i chose)but those are like 2 out of like 20 shots that even show the blue close to real life.the high blue pic i just posted shows as a weird color.you can see the green plants in the background that came out true,but the chondro looks really weird color.not very blue at all.i guess im gonna have to keep trying or get another camera

Thats pretty much what I'm talking about. It's the camera trying to figure out what color the subject is supposed to be. Normals greens and stuff are fine, but chondros are almost neon, and so it flips the camera out. You'll have the same problem trying to get pics of a citrus bearded dragon. The best advice I can give you is to take shots with a good flim camera, preferably a nice SLR with a good quality lens. It's gonna be your best shot at getting the colors right. Other than that, mess with the white balance setting and hope for the best.

Chris
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1.1.0 Irian x Jungle Carpet Pythons
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Albino/Het White-sided Black Rat-Stacey
1.2.0 Creamsicle Corns-Vince, Trish, Torrie
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.1 Green Tree Pythons Biak-Brandon, Aru-Orochimaru
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
2.4.0 Ball Pythons-Kritsy, Gretchen, Alexis, 100% het for albino balls- Naruto, Hinata, 66% het VPI Axanthic-Sasuke
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy

i wouldnt even know how to start with the white balance setting.any idea how i do that?i know all cameras are differnt but maybe explaining how you do it on yours may help me.thanks chris

Well, for starters, what camera are you using?

On all cameras, if you go into the menu or setup mode, there should be a option for "white balance mode" (may be worded differently). On some cameras, you can simply turn the auto feature off. If you can, it MAY work. If not, simply using a white or black background, and using the flash from far enough away that it doesn't wash out could work.

I wish I could be of more help, but I spent waaaaay too long trying to solve this problem for somebody else and quite honestly haven't come up with much other than 35mm is the way to go.

Chris
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1.1.0 Irian x Jungle Carpet Pythons
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Albino/Het White-sided Black Rat-Stacey
1.2.0 Creamsicle Corns-Vince, Trish, Torrie
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.1 Green Tree Pythons Biak-Brandon, Aru-Orochimaru
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
2.4.0 Ball Pythons-Kritsy, Gretchen, Alexis, 100% het for albino balls- Naruto, Hinata, 66% het VPI Axanthic-Sasuke
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy