Poor Mans Light box photography

Hey guys,

I did something different the other day, and I wanted to share because the result came out pretty great, and I think that it's applicable for a lot of people on here who want to get those "pro" looking shots when they try and showcase their animals on a website, forum, or potential buyer on craigs list ;-). Never the less, this method cost 5 dollars or less, as long as you have an alright quality camera, and you will be pretty happy with the results.

Backstory: I had some prints done as I'm putting together a gallery from my last big trip down to South America, where I spent time in the amazon photographing herps, birds, and mammals, and one of my prints was a 36"x24" monster print of a Hoatzin ( http://www.pbase.com/codyconway/image/151155886 ) and when they were mounting the picture for transport, it included this very clean white board that was made of some kind of styrofoam. It came to find out that it is the back for certain frames, and they sell it at places like Michael's. Never the less, for under $5 or free if you do large prints, this board is extremely reflective for highlights, and photographs VERY clean. Plus its RIGID, so you do not need to worry about the surface you place it on. What you are going to want to do is wait for a cloudy day, and bring it outside. With the clouds diffusing your sunlight, use the clouds / sun as a giant diffuser to break apart the light, killing MOST shadows, and making excellent representation of true colors. PLUS in post you can use the white background to set your white balance all custom like (talking to you RAW shooters).

Like with most snakes that are active, outside of the ball python realm that just kind of sit there, place the snake on the board, place a hide over the snake and pay careful attention to it for about 3-4 minutes. Once the snake is calm and does not want to leave the hide on its own. Simply pick up the hide off of the snake. NOW BEFORE THAT. Use your camera and make sure you can get your settings good (for those in manual) or adjust your exposure bias (for those in an automatic mode you may need to step down about 1 stop in order to allow for the excess light that the sensor is reading from the white background being reflected back). If you are using a point and shoot, use this time to set a custom white balance (look at your owners manual. This will MAKE your pictures) and if you can shoot in an aperture priority mode (most higher end point and shoots can) set your F stop to 8 or lower (higher number ironic I know . . .) and test a shot to make sure you have enough shutter speed.

Easy enough right? Free lights, its green friendly because you are using what some of us already have, and it uses only the energy of your camera, and the sun ;-), here's the set up and the results. . .

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3696/9...53d614ac_c.jpg
Genetic Stripe retic sitting on the setup while I do kind of a general setting shot . . .

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2851/9...175afb27_b.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2872/9...3557e78f_b.jpg
Couple final products with the Genetic Stripe female 6' roughly

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2847/9...8ab68c2e_b.jpg
And my Dwarf Goldenchild het Albino boy, looking INSANE, had to photograph him ;-) 3' long and a beast

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3834/9...bd50faf7_b.jpg
And because I wanted a nice shot of my young adult Caramel Pure Coastal Carpet Python . .

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5528/9...91481169_b.jpg
And because I took this on the same day and didnt want to start a thread to show it off ;-) 50% SD Female Tiger Reticulated Python, het Albino, 7' of beautiful snake! Notice the storms in the background. Those clouds made AWESOME light diffusers for the rest of my day of shooting 2 days ago now.

OK guys, hope this helps someone. Get out there and get shooting! I know I will be!

Cheers,

Cody Conway
aka Reptile Experts

http://www.pbase.com/codyconway/imag...5952/large.jpg

Still using this method when I get the time, and its still working fantastic :-)

Wow this is really amazing photos i like this actually the main thing is in this photos to take the different poses of snakes because the snakes or wild photography is not easy it's so dangerous for the photographer ........

Wow, how did I not see this!?!? Amazing pics!!!


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Wow! That's awesome :) The one I want to show off is 6 feet long or I'd use this method lol think she's a little too big!

I never get tired of seeing photos of your retics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by B.O.S Reptiles

Wow! That's awesome :) The one I want to show off is 6 feet long or I'd use this method lol think she's a little too big!

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Just get a bigger board and it will work!


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