I use the wife's Camera (cannon mk2) and the 50mm lens when she lets me, a light tent, and Photoshop. I only edit to clean up the background, fix lighting issues, and watermark. I know this has some affect on the snakes appearance but I don't saturate or alter colors (beyond whats affected with lightening things up or darkening them...depending on how I messed them up) to bolster an appearance from which they don't truly represent. Nothing fancy really, Light tent with lights was like $100...but certainly well worth it.