New Light Kit

Well I finally purchased this light kit: http://www.amazon.com/Fancierstudio-...watt+light+kit. I am pretty pleased with it. I bought it for use with a still camera, but with the option of doing video later. It comes with 2 larger soft boxes for side lighting and 1 smaller soft box for overhead lighting. The soft box for overhead lighting takes 4 light bulbs and has 2 switches, so you can have 2 or 4 light bulbs on at the same time. The 2 larger soft boxes take 5 light bulbs each, and have a switch for each bulb. This really lets you control how much light you have. I found that for lighter snakes, like the Graphite Ivory below, you need less light, but for darker snakes like the Mystic Cinnamon, you need more light. Overall, this is a good kit with lots of versatility for the price. It comes with 14 light bulbs that are large, but good. My only concern is that it is not the most sturdy kit, but for $170, that is to be expected. Here are some pictures of the set up in my house and of some photographs that I took with it.

Light Kit Set Up:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...ight_kit_1.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...ight_kit_2.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...ight_kit_3.jpg

Graphite Ivory (his graphite markings are just starting to show up on camera, but you have to zoom in to see them). As I said earlier, I used less light (2 bulbs in the overhead and 2 in each side light).
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file..._full_comp.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...se_up_comp.jpg

Hypo Pastave (again I only used a few of the light bulbs)
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...opped_comp.jpg

Pewter Mystic (used all the light bulbs)
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file..._full_comp.jpg

Pastel Mystic (used all the light bulbs)
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file..._full_comp.jpg

Cinnamon Mystic (used all the light bulbs)
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file..._full_comp.jpg

I think a flat surface would be better. That looks like a doll's bed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grcforce327

I think a flat surface would be better. That looks like a doll's bed.

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It's actually a twin bed. This setup allows me to take pictures of any size ball python, or even 2 or 3 adults. I could set it up on a table or another hard surface, but it's pretty easy to just use the twin bed.

The pics look quite nice, and the snakes look like fantastic animals. I really like the cinnamon mystic!

I'm glad you posted the graphite ivory. I haven't heard much/anything about them in years (probably more my lack of keeping up with the BP world than anything else) and I've been wondering if what caused the graphite markings was ever figured out and can be reproduced predictably.

Since you are obviously wanting to improve your photos (or else why spend $170 on a light kit?), I'll make some comments that I hope you will find helpful. Note, I'm not much of a photographer at all, but just reporting what I see. In the pics where you show the set-up, that backdrop sheet thing looks fairly white. In all the snake images, it looks more yellowed, like an ivory color. Since the snake images have the whibal card, maybe it is the other shots where the color is off. But I don't particularly like the ivory-ish look as a background for the snakes, whether it is a true color or not. Also, whether it is a twin bed or a doll bed or whatever, you can tell that the snakes are sinking in to the surface just a little. A hard surface might be better. You could easily get a cheap board to lay on the bed under the backdrop sheet. Similarly, when you are wanting to produce really good photos, you'll probably want to iron that sheet or something to get rid of the wrinkles & creases, although I'm assuming this time around you were mostly just playing with the new lighting, so that wasn't your priority at the moment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kc261

The pics look quite nice, and the snakes look like fantastic animals. I really like the cinnamon mystic!

I'm glad you posted the graphite ivory. I haven't heard much/anything about them in years (probably more my lack of keeping up with the BP world than anything else) and I've been wondering if what caused the graphite markings was ever figured out and can be reproduced predictably.

Since you are obviously wanting to improve your photos (or else why spend $170 on a light kit?), I'll make some comments that I hope you will find helpful. Note, I'm not much of a photographer at all, but just reporting what I see. In the pics where you show the set-up, that backdrop sheet thing looks fairly white. In all the snake images, it looks more yellowed, like an ivory color. Since the snake images have the whibal card, maybe it is the other shots where the color is off. But I don't particularly like the ivory-ish look as a background for the snakes, whether it is a true color or not. Also, whether it is a twin bed or a doll bed or whatever, you can tell that the snakes are sinking in to the surface just a little. A hard surface might be better. You could easily get a cheap board to lay on the bed under the backdrop sheet. Similarly, when you are wanting to produce really good photos, you'll probably want to iron that sheet or something to get rid of the wrinkles & creases, although I'm assuming this time around you were mostly just playing with the new lighting, so that wasn't your priority at the moment.

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Constructive criticism is always welcome. I picked up some other material for possible back drops and hope to find some time to try them out soon. I had a piece of clear acrylic lying around and put that under the cloth and took 2 quick pictures to see what a difference it makes. Here are the pictures:

New Back Drop Materials:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...brics_crop.jpg

Cinnamon Mystic with hard surface under the cloth:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...2014-06-22.jpg

Pastel Mystic with hard surface under the cloth:
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...2014-06-22.jpg

Well, you just aren't going to go wrong taking pics of that cinnamon mystic! :gj:

I can see the difference with a hard surface under them and the pics are definitely improved. :)

As promised, some pictures with the different back grounds. I had 7 backgrounds, so I repeated the black (row 1, column 2 and row 3, column 3) and the white (row 2, column 1 and row 2, column 3) twice to give me a nice 9 for the picture collage. Tell me what you guys think.

Cinnamon Mystic
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...2014-06-26.jpg

Pastel Hypo het Pied
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...2014-06-26.jpg

Pastel Mystic
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...2014-06-26.jpg