Lighting or general photography advice is needed.

[Chris633]

I think I need some lighting or general photography help. For the life of me, I cannot seem to take a decent picture of any of my snakes. I've got a light tent (one of those cubes) and I am using 100 watt daylight bulbs for lighting (23-Watt (100W) Daylight CFL Light Bulbs from Home Depot). And my camera is a Nikon DSLR 5100. What seems to be happening is that the snakes looks really good and well lit in the light tent, but then the pictures come out dark and nowhere near true to the snake. The first picture is with a light tent and the second is with the same lighting but with no light tent. As you can see the tent doesn't seem to make much difference with my picture taking skills. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Tent


No Tent

[spitzu]

My pictures are pretty crappy so take my advice with a grain of salt, but you could try increasing the exposure time a bit. You're using 1/80 and 1/100 which is faster than you really need. You can still take pretty good shots at 1/20-1/40 while holding the camera as long as the snake is cooperating and sitting still. You can mess with the setting quite a bit more if you're using a tripod.

Also, don't be afraid to photoshop them a bit.

[barbie.dragon]

increase the exposure time!

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[Chris633]

Thanks for the advice! Your photoshopping looks better than mine.. Lol.. I'll definitely try messing around with the exposure time.


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[kitedemon]

Set your exposure compensation a bit higher many keep it at -0.7 or so if you try 0 it will try to keep the white background brighter. Adjust this until you get bright grey and use post from there. It is also likely 100w is a bit on the dark side. Most photo floods I have at 1000 -3000w but that is pro gear (mole richardson) it can be done with less but more may be helpful. I usually use electronic flash less heat and much more light and the snakes seem happier in lower light. Again pro gear it is easy for me to suggest more. I don't find CFL very useful personally but brighter is not usually a problem.

[ama1997]

Check out this video it will help explain the whole exposure compensation thing. http://youtu.be/O-H2IbHluLg also like stated the constant lighting isnt really the best. Some type of flash with either an umbrella or a softbox for each flash.. I use some cheap studio lights that I picked up from http://www.adorama.com/ I use a homemade lightbox, with two of the cheap monolight. Something close to these http://www.adorama.com/FPBF160.html The ones I have are a little older than the ones I linked you to. They work great for snakes. I have no need for anything bigger, because they are pretty much just used for snakes. I have those lights setup on light stands. With either 43in Wescott umbrellas or 28 inch Wescott softboxes. I do set a custom white balance. Using a gray card. If I dont want to use the two light setup. I will put the light on the stand, with no umbrella or softbox. Put it over the light box, and fire the flash into a translucent 5 in 1 reflector. With all the reflector cover removed.

Here is a picture of the setup with out the umbrellas or softboxes, and only a single light.


Then here are a few photos taken with this setup, I think most were taken with the Nikon d7000 and the Sigma 17-50mm lens.

[ama1997]

Also photoshop is not cheap, I use photoshop elements, when I need to. I think it was around 80.00 or so, but I bought it off amazon for I think like 39.00. For most of my editing, I use Adobe Lightroom, I think I paid about 120.00 for Lightroom. Lightroom does take a little getting use to. Working with catalogs and all that. If you buy it here http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Software.html right now, you get a pretty good DVD, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Crash Course. It will help you get started. I have found I can do pretty much all I need to in Lightroom. But it is nice to have some type of photoshop program.. Elements has most of the features photoshop does, but I think photoshop is around 599.00 or so. Both programs are from Adobe.

[SquamishSerpents]

Photoshop CS2 is actually free right now on Adobes site.

Also I would use a shutter speed of absolutely no less than 1/250 with snakes, as they are a moving subject. A tripod helps, but you need to be able to move the camera freely when you're taking photos of a moving animal in a small space.

Honestly I have no idea why every snake breeder with a DSLR buys a light tent - I NEVER use a light tent! All you need is a single speedlite and a white wall to bounce the flash off. Also, a poster board of your color choice.

Voila!

[ama1997]

I have herd that cs2 may not work on the newer computers. Ones running vista, or Windows7/8 The Shutter speed isnt that important if your using some type of flash.. With a speedlite or some type of studio strobe. You can use low shutters speeds 1/60 or so and still freeze motion, if you using a flash.. You will still have to be careful of camera shake. Also if your using some type of radio trigger to trigger your flash. Depending on what triggers you use. Some of them will not sync with the flash at 1/250. The cheap ebay triggers I use, only sync up to 1/160 so that could be an issue too. The flash speed is what freezes the motion, when using flash, when not using flash its the shutter speed. There is no problem with using 1/250 really. But you can freeze motion with a lot slower shutter speed, when using flash. I would use a tripod, but its kind of all up to you.. How you like to shoot... If you just shooting reptiles, you dont have to go and buy a really good tripod.. But like most things you get what you pay for. Buy a cheap tripod, it will last as long as a cheap tripod. I use a cheap tripod. I think it was 70.00 or so. But I only use it when shooting snakes, or maybe some macro stuff. I dont think my tripod has left my house more that two times. In the 5 years Ive had it. Now if your going to get into shooting some type of landscapes or something like that. Then your going to want to spend a bit of money, and get a decent tripod.

The reason I use a light box type of setup. And I guess its not really a light box, its more of a background holder. My setup using the tub all cut up like this. Allows me to a use different things as substrate, and not get it all over. It also somewhat helps me keep the animal where I want it.

[kitedemon]

I have herd that cs2 may not work on the newer computers. Ones running vista, or Windows7/8 The Shutter speed isnt that important if your using some type of flash.. With a speedlite or some type of studio strobe. You can use low shutters speeds 1/60 or so and still freeze motion, if you using a flash.. You will still have to be careful of camera shake. Also if your using some type of radio trigger to trigger your flash. Depending on what triggers you use. Some of them will not sync with the flash at 1/250. The cheap ebay triggers I use, only sync up to 1/160 so that could be an issue too. The flash speed is what freezes the motion, when using flash, when not using flash its the shutter speed. There is no problem with using 1/250 really. But you can freeze motion with a lot slower shutter speed, when using flash. I would use a tripod, but its kind of all up to you.. How you like to shoot... If you just shooting reptiles, you dont have to go and buy a really good tripod.. But like most things you get what you pay for. Buy a cheap tripod, it will last as long as a cheap tripod. I use a cheap tripod. I think it was 70.00 or so. But I only use it when shooting snakes, or maybe some macro stuff. I dont think my tripod has left my house more that two times. In the 5 years Ive had it. Now if your going to get into shooting some type of landscapes or something like that. Then your going to want to spend a bit of money, and get a decent tripod.

The reason I use a light box type of setup. And I guess its not really a light box, its more of a background holder. My setup using the tub all cut up like this. Allows me to a use different things as substrate, and not get it all over. It also somewhat helps me keep the animal where I want it.

That is not really correct. Yes sync speeds matter and yes they are slower. that is 100% true but the thing you have not considered is the duration the flash is 'on' for. Generally the flash in a studio situation is the brightest light source by far. So how long it is lit up for is the effective "shutter speed" my dynalite for example the is only on for 1:3800 of a second and some higher speed flashes run 1:10000 and faster. Flashes under these conditions will stop motion.