Taking Photos?

[Freakie_frog]

Ok so heres my question. I have a Fugi finpix f10 6.0MP camera takes great pics look on my gallery at some from the zoo to see. However my pics of my snakes...well...suck. Washed out or dulled colors. I have been seeing some out standing photos on here. Can someone give me some pointers. Lighting, Types of lights you use, backgrounds, surfaces, ect. Also how to take photos on black acrilic. Just some tips. And just play with it isn't a tip. LOL Please I am at my witts end here. Also any photo editing software you might use for Allpying company logos to pics and so forth.. Thanks in advance for your help.

[jdmls88]

well when you put them on the comp use some editing and adjust the contrast i believe it makes the pics look tons better!

[Alicia Marie]

well, for the pics I took of Nocona, I used the fast action feature. . . it only works with the flash, and I get great light and color. For scaping, i just put some plastic and silk plants on the floor with a coiled vine underneath to raise them off the ground. It works well cause it keeps him busy, and he feels secure. I'm not sure of your camera type, so I can't inform you on how to set it, but the book should tell you. I have a canon powerhot S2 IS.it has 12x optical zoom. The setting dial on mine for fast action looks like a telescope. I doubt that'll help you find yours, but I thought I'd throw it in there. Can't wait to see pics from you when you have it working .

[Freakie_frog]

I have a Fuji fine Pix F10, and Nikon 700 35mm with telephoto, macro, and doubler.
Does any one use any special lightbulbs or light filters?

[kavmon]

lighting is one of the most important aspects of taking good pics. even more that the camera, imo. any 3 meg or better cam can/will take good pics for the internet use.


lighting "temperature" or color is expressed in degrees of kelvin. daylight is around 5500 k. find bulbs that are close to this to reveal true colors. on the packaging this will be printed somewhere. use alot of light (watts) more than you think you'll need. just experiment alot until you find what works for you.

http://www.venturelighting.com/TechC...r_of_light.htm




vaughn

[Freakie_frog]

Vaughn I love the pic above is that a 5500K with matte white background? Will I need an indiredct diffuser or will direct light exposure with a reflector hood work also?

[Nate]

As far as software goes, Photoshop is IMO the best software you can get. It can be a pretty complicated tool that takes a lot of time and effort to learn, but once you learn it, you will be glad you did.

[iceman25]

Ok so heres my question. I have a Fugi finpix f10 6.0MP camera takes great pics look on my gallery at some from the zoo to see. However my pics of my snakes...well...suck. Washed out or dulled colors. I have been seeing some out standing photos on here. Can someone give me some pointers. Lighting, Types of lights you use, backgrounds, surfaces, ect. Also how to take photos on black acrilic. Just some tips. And just play with it isn't a tip. LOL Please I am at my witts end here. Also any photo editing software you might use for Allpying company logos to pics and so forth.. Thanks in advance for your help.

Like Vaughn suggested, lighting is very important when it comes to photography. Personally, I find window lighting to be best when it comes to shooting inside. The diffused soft light that comes through can be used to create some wonderful exposures. Make sure that you test the quality of light before setting out to snap any shots.

Example of harsh lighting(avoid this):



In the above picture, you can see the sharp shadow cast by the hard day light. This type of lighting situation should be avoided for portrait type picture taking.

In the picture below, you can barely see any kind of shadow being cast(photo taken in shaded area). This kind of lighting is desired because illumination is even through out and will provide us with an exposure that is pleasing to the eye.



Another device that you should consider using is a tripod. This is useful when you are shooting something that is moving, like a bp for example. If you have a sport mode in ur camera, try switching over to it so that you can take advantage of high shutter speeds.

Shooting on black or white surfaces can be tricky sometimes. This has to do with ur cameras Light Meter. Most modern cameras, including SLRs and fixed length digital cameras have some kind of Matrix metering system built into them. The purpose of this metering system is to analyse the light and determine what shutter speed and aperture combination to use. The metering system averages out the different tones in your scenes to an 18percent grey on every single shot. This turns out just fine in most cases because the scenes tend to have many tones to them. The problem occurs when the shot you are about to take predominantly contains white or black. In such a situation, the light meter is "tricked" and usually ends up giving you greyish washed out images.

To compensate for this you can try a couple of things. If your back ground is black, try and reduce ur exposure by 2 stops(depends on the make and model of camera). If the background is white, increase your exposure levels 2 stops. You could also try the "grey card" technique. Check with your local photography store and see if they sell "grey cards." These are just regular cards that are surprisingly 18percent grey color and can be obtained in several sizes. Place this directly in front of the subject to be photographed and zoom in until only the card is visible. Then gently press down on the shutter halfway until the light meter gets a correct reading. Remove the card and then fully depress the shutter. This should give you the correct exposure for the scene that you are shooting.

I will be writing a tutorial on photography and some of its little tricks in the future. Stay tuned.

[TekWarren]

I don't alter any of the photos I take or have any "professional" type equipment. I just take a ton of photos at all different angles and usually a couple come out nice. I also finally broke down and opened the manual and know how really use the camera I have rather than just point and click. -It's amazing!

[Freakie_frog]

Ok guys let me know how I did?

white poster board, exp +.05 and a 3200k GE true white buld in my office.