# Miscellaneous Herp Interests > Photography >  How to Get A Great Snake Pic?

## SCWood

I love breaking out my Nikon D3100 to photograph my animals but I can never get the perfect picture. I don't know how to create a solid background with enough light and space to capture the animals beauty while trying to keep them still lol any helpful tips?

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## bcr229

Build light box.

Put BP in light box.

Put large bowl over BP.

Get camera ready.

Remove bowl.

Quickly take picture.  Hope BP's head is pointed the right way.

It also helps sometimes to give them something to grab; they're less likely to take off immediately.

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_BumbleB_ (02-10-2015)

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## BumbleB

Building a light box will definitely help with your pictures. I haven't tried the above bowl trick but it sounds like a good idea. I usually jusy hope and pray that they stay still while I snap a few shots but next time I have my stuff out I'm definitely going to try the bowl.

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## Stewart_Reptiles

Light Box/Tent - Patience - 20 to 50 pictures to get a good 1  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic): 

This is the light tent and lights I use.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-40x40cm-P...item485722e5ea

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photography-...item2344a6943b

Adults I just shoot outside with natural light.

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_The Golem_ (07-05-2015)

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## SCWood

> Build light box.
> 
> Put BP in light box.
> 
> Put large bowl over BP.
> 
> Get camera ready.
> 
> Remove bowl.
> ...


Sounds awesome!



> Building a light box will definitely help with your pictures. I haven't tried the above bowl trick but it sounds like a good idea. I usually jusy hope and pray that they stay still while I snap a few shots but next time I have my stuff out I'm definitely going to try the bowl.


Me too 



> Light Box/Tent - Patience - 20 to 50 pictures to get a good 1 
> 
> This is the light tent and lights I use.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-40x40cm-P...item485722e5ea
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photography-...item2344a6943b
> 
> Adults I just shoot outside with natural light.


Here are my first 3 pics of a snake that I snapped and editted. 



Nothing special I just capture them in the moment.

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## ratchet

> Light Box/Tent - Patience - 20 to 50 pictures to get a good 1 
> 
> This is the light tent and lights I use.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-40x40cm-P...item485722e5ea
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photography-...item2344a6943b
> 
> Adults I just shoot outside with natural light.


Do you point the light directly at the snake, or is it diffused at all?
Those are pretty cheap, seems like a pretty good set up!

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## The Golem

> Light Box/Tent - Patience - 20 to 50 pictures to get a good 1 
> 
> This is the light tent and lights I use.
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-40x40cm-P...item485722e5ea
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photography-...item2344a6943b
> 
> Adults I just shoot outside with natural light.


Thanks, just ordered the light cube. Will be great for snake shots etc.

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## Tsanford

I made a DIY box.










If u check out my collection thread from my profile, the light box photos where all produced with my diy box.

Only change I've considered is a 3rd light coming in from the top.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

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maudie (07-05-2015),Megg (07-05-2015)

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## Stewart_Reptiles

> Do you point the light directly at the snake, or is it diffused at all?
> Those are pretty cheap, seems like a pretty good set up!


The lights are on each side of the light tent.

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## John1982

Take 100 pictures, delete 98 of them.

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_SmoothScales_ (10-20-2015)

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## ama1997

It looks like your light is way to harsh. You will need to figure out a way to soften the light. With a bigger animal like the one pictured. You may want to think of other solutions away from the light box/tent thing.  You can get off camera lighting that will work with your cameras built in flash.. A small speed light flash with an optical slave option/sensor. A 24 or 32 inch umbrella.. no not one for the rain..  And a light stand to hold it all. Id go with the bigger umbrella.. You can setup your nikon to trigger the flash using commander mode. Or you can spend the extra cash and buy a radio trigger and receiver.. trigger would go in the hotshoe on top the camera, the receiver would connect to the flash.. This wouldnt give you TTL ability with the flash, but it would allow you to at least shoot in manual.. Set a shutter speed to 1/200 ISO to 100, then a middle 5.6 to 8.0 aperture. Then the power on the flash you can raise and lower until you get the proper exposure. 

My basic setup is a roll of white or black paper for my background, on a small background stand.. Then I use an Alienbee B800 light on a boom stand. That allows me to put the light directly over the top of my background.  Then I attach a 24 inch beauty dish to the light. Then there is a diffusion sock that goes over the beauty dish to help soften the light. I then use a set of Paul C Buff Radio triggers to trigger the light.  I use a Fujifilm Xpro2 and mostly the 18-55mm lens to shoot with. I shoot Raw, auto whitebalance.  ISO 100, Aperture of 100, and a shutter speed of 1/125. I want to say the flash power is normally at 1/4 or 1/8.  

With that setup I took this shot last night. My whitebalance is a bit off, I can see a bit of blue tint in the bottom of image on the white. But then again that could be my monitor. 
BP-18-0022-4 by Shannon Donoho, on Flickr

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## Zincubus

> I love breaking out my Nikon D3100 to photograph my animals but I can never get the perfect picture. I don't know how to create a solid background with enough light and space to capture the animals beauty while trying to keep them still lol any helpful tips?
> 
> 0.2 Normal


Well .......

A good tip I was given was to get the snake in the right situation then cover it with a bowl or a hide and leave it for a minute or so ... don't walk away .. just wait .. then camera at the ready just lift the hide off slowly ....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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