Quote Originally Posted by kc261 View Post
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.
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:


Cinnamon Mystic with hard surface under the cloth:


Pastel Mystic with hard surface under the cloth: