A few of my Leopard Geckos.

[Ratman667]

All photos were shot in my homemade light box using my kit 18-55mm lens.

I shot in aperture priority at ISO 400. The only PP was to crop, adjust the levels and convert to JPEG. I also cloned out a few imperfections in the background.

I used one light overhead.

1.

2.

The guy in the second picture is only 7 grams, compared to the 55 grams of the first one. He was afraid of the camera and kept running, so I was in snap, snap, snap mode.

I have a few more, but on closer inspection, I missed a few spots in the background.

C&C is appreciated. Also, if anyone has any tips for shooting lightening fast tiny animals, I would love to hear them.

 

[tirediron]

Can you give me a discount on my insurance? :raisedbrow:

 

[LCARSx32]

First off, 3872x2592 pixel images is the reason no one is responding to your posts. Not everyone will wait (even a few seconds) for pictures to load. The best thing to do is to resize them to be no more than 800 pixels wide or 800 pixels tall.

#1: Needs more Depth of Field (DOF). Higher f/#. Any time you do macro shots like these, you'll need to pay close attention to dof. I would have liked at least his entire head and front legs in focus.

#2: Much closer on the DOF, but a bit grainy. Also, it's weird how his back end is awkwardly cut off. I would have either zoomed out some, or cropped the picture farther up his back (cutting off the back legs and tail altogether).

Not bad for a home made light box. You just need more light so you can step down the aperture without sacrificing ISO and shutter speed. Those magnifying glasses that have a ring of CF light around them work really well for shots like these. I have two of them above my homemade light box and they usually work pretty well.

My sister has two fat-tail geckos. Yours look much more colorful than hers, lol.

 

[Ratman667]

First off, 3872x2592 pixel images is the reason no one is responding to your posts. Not everyone will wait (even a few seconds) for pictures to load. The best thing to do is to resize them to be no more than 800 pixels wide or 800 pixels tall.

#1: Needs more Depth of Field (DOF). Higher f/#. Any time you do macro shots like these, you'll need to pay close attention to dof. I would have liked at least his entire head and front legs in focus.

#2: Much closer on the DOF, but a bit grainy. Also, it's weird how his back end is awkwardly cut off. I would have either zoomed out some, or cropped the picture farther up his back (cutting off the back legs and tail altogether).

Not bad for a home made light box. You just need more light so you can step down the aperture without sacrificing ISO and shutter speed. Those magnifying glasses that have a ring of CF light around them work really well for shots like these. I have two of them above my homemade light box and they usually work pretty well.

My sister has two fat-tail geckos. Yours look much more colorful than hers, lol.

I will resize.

The first one, I agree, but when they keep walking around, it is really hard to frame shots.

One the second one, I had to just snap a bunch of photos and hope for the best. Most of them, I missed the focus on. Imagine having something the size of your little finger running around really fast lol.

The light box is 5 pieces of plywood shaped into a box, sanded smooth and painted white. I cut a hole in the top for the light, and am going to make two mounts for front lighting.

 

[Derrel]

Hey, you know, there was a guy on dPreview, who used to photograph his geckos by using the camera's built-in flash,and a simple diffusion device made out of a piece or ordinary typing paper. He cut a short "tail" as it were, in the center of a sheet of paper at the bottom end, and one at the top. He then taped the "tail" down to the top of the pentaprism's hotshoe area, and then looped the remainder of the sheet of typing paper up, around,and then stuck the second "tail" down with a second piece of tape. This created a rather wide, cylinder-like "tube of light" that made a very beautiful catchlight in the eyes of the geckos.

Have you tried this method??? He did his gecko photos pretty close-up, like you are doing,and the results were pretty good. Just a thought, since you too have geckos.

 

[LCARSx32]

One the second one, I had to just snap a bunch of photos and hope for the best. Most of them, I missed the focus on. Imagine having something the size of your little finger running around really fast lol.

I get you. I was just saying you could crop it in post processing to make it a more visually appealing image. Something like this:

 

[Ratman667]

Hey, you know, there was a guy on dPreview, who used to photograph his geckos by using the camera's built-in flash,and a simple diffusion device made out of a piece or ordinary typing paper. He cut a short "tail" as it were, in the center of a sheet of paper at the bottom end, and one at the top. He then taped the "tail" down to the top of the pentaprism's hotshoe area, and then looped the remainder of the sheet of typing paper up, around,and then stuck the second "tail" down with a second piece of tape. This created a rather wide, cylinder-like "tube of light" that made a very beautiful catchlight in the eyes of the geckos.

Have you tried this method??? He did his gecko photos pretty close-up, like you are doing,and the results were pretty good. Just a thought, since you too have geckos.

That might be worth trying. I will definatly give it a shot.

I get you. I was just saying you could crop it in post processing to make it a more visually appealing image. Something like this:

I see what you did there. I still have a lot to learn. A tighter cropping never crossed my mind.

 

[LCARSx32]

You might also want to play with the contrast settings of whatever image editor you use. I upped the contrast in the cropped photo and it made the colors pop.

I really like the coloration of the smaller gecko.

 

[Ratman667]

Thanks for the tips.

I am trying to figure out that defuser still. I will get something, I am sure.

When I take photos of my geckos, I normally post them on my website or a gecko forum. I have to be very careful with my contrast and saturation adjustments...

People get mad if it looks "brighter" than natural. So, I tend to edit a bit duller than I should.

What you did is a good edit, I didn't even notice the contrast correction, as it looks just like him.

 

[Bryce]

You know I have got to give credits here. I photo animals all the time. I have snakes, mice and leopard geckos. They don't care what you are trying to do they just squirm and fight you and you have to work the camera and deal with a naught creature at the same time.

I normaly close my aperature all the way down when dealing with small cratures. Some people like the short depth of field and I have seen it work somtimes but I like the fullest depth I can get. I also use a +4 macro filter. I have been using the macro filter on my 18-55 for the longest time.