Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So, I was over at a buddies house Sunday w/ a camera and took the chance to shoot a few of his critters.. He has some fantastic animals.. What do you think? constructive criticism is much appreciated.

Thanks!

first up a few chondros

and a few neo emmie's!

this little gal is starting to change colors now

and another cute little girl

and a few of a wicked looking boy!

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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

A few comments. Generally they are nice, but I have a few niggling comments...

These first three juveniles suffer from the same problem. They eye isn't sharp. It doesn't matter how much of the rest of the shot is sharp, if they eye isn't, the photo will look out of focus.

This photo of the dark one is cool, but it has a strange "dropshadow" appearance. Did you process the background somehow to create this?

I like this shot. I wonder if it might be better if you rotate is slightly so that the snake is more horizontal, even if it wasn't really sitting that way.

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Thanks Chris.. I agree with chondro being rotated.. I saw that shortly after I posted it. I guess that is what I get for editting in the middle of the night after few beers, I think I was leaning so the pic looked right.

I agree with the eyes too.. I am going to work at them again and manually focus..

I saw the drop shadow too.. I have been struggling to avoid it, but have not found a way yet.. The yellow board in the background is dirty and there was some dust in the lens.. so I used the gaussian blur to cover the spots/dirt. In the process I ended up with drop shadow.. I am self taught with PS.. so if you have another method that works better, it would certainly be appreciated. I like the pic.. but I think it can much better..

Thanks - Tim
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

Chris, while I was typing the reply above, I had a brain fart.. I think this works much better? How about you?

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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

That is much better. The previous technique gave it a sort of cut and paste look.

If I have things to remove, I tend to use the clone tool with a feathered edge rather than blurring out problems. Some problems are better off blurred, but cloning can help remove a lot of them.

Here's a shot of a Rock Rattlesnake we took this week. I was unhappy with the bright rock under his head.

Here he is with the rock cloned out -

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

That's amazingly crisp. The "fake rock" isn't even noticable. How is that done?

Rich

I used the clone tool (the thing that looks like a rubber stamp). I select an area I want to copy from (alt click the area) then paint that onto the rock I want to cover.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

>>I used the clone tool (the thing that looks like a rubber stamp). I select an area I want to copy from (alt click the area) then paint that onto the rock I want to cover.
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>>Chris Harrison
>>San Antonio, Texas

Hi all, I just got the sony R1 and love it. This is my first digital camera. My question, is the editing program your using PS, Photo shop?? If so, what does it cost and how do you like it. Clint
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1.0 Hogg Isle Boa-(Boa Constrictor Imperator) "Peeker"
1.0 Brazilian Rainbow Boa-(Epicrates Cenchria) "Houdini"
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