I am really new at this.. any suggestions would be appreciat

[ksshane]

I am really new at this.. any suggestions would be appreciated

Thanks for looking

 

[metroshane]

Get a mongoose or exterminator.

 

[mrsid99]

I think you need to call animal rescue...there's a snake in your house!
All joking aside you've captured some neat shots but IMHO the lighting needs some work, perhaps some of the more erudite members of the forum can help since I work on the trial and error principle.
Welcome and good luck!

 

[ksshane]

I agree about the lighting. Im just not sure what to do about it.

lol @ animal rescue, mongoose, or exterminator

 

[metroshane]

I think your biggest problem is your backgrounds. They mesh with the snake too much.

 

[ksshane]

Metro,

Do you mean the black? I have tried a couple of different backgrounds, and black seems to bring out the best colors. For example in the last picture I used a wood type of background, and for some reason that seem to take away all the pinks and in my opinion made the snake look dull in color.

 

[mrsid99]

Please remember this is just an opinion but the first pic looks the best apart from the glare of light from the snake, perhaps a more diffused and more spread out lighting source?
Maybe a higher color temperature as well because again in the first one the lighting seems whiter and shows the snake better.

 

[metroshane]

see, i'm thinking an artificial turf or grass background would be best. Maybe a dull back ground that doesn't reflect as much light.

 

[ksshane]

Hmmmm.. Thank you both for your replies. I will take some more pictures over the weekend, and try some of your suggestions, and a few other ideas that I have found on this forum.

Thanks again

 

[metroshane]

Also, since snakes are so reflective...a diffused light source would be best. Someone posted a link to a tutorial on photographying shiny objects. Look for it.

 

[e_]

 
Hello ksshane

...interesting subject!

If you have a quick look at THIS thread and post back again, i'm sure someone will be able to help some more

You'll be surprised how a small tweak in technique will do wonders for the final result

Cheers!



e_

 

[ksshane]

e_,

Point well taken. I should have thought of that in the first place. Thank you.

I am really new to this, and what I mean by that is every picture I have ever taken was done with a simple point and shoot type camera. You know the cheap Wal-Mart cameras with the automatic zoom, and the "suppose to be" idiot proof auto focus.
These pictures are no different. The only difference is now I am using a digital camera (the Kodak EasyShare Dx4330). So instead of taking a whole roll of bad pictures I can take tons of bad pictures, and pick the ones that I think look the best.

For all the above pictures the camera used was the DX4330. I tried different amounts of zoom (of course with a camera like this it doesn’t tell you how much you’re using). The Dx4330 is a 3.1 Mega pixel camera, so I don’t expect professional pictures. I would just like the best pictures I can produce with this camera, and then I will upgrade as my skill level gets better.
For lighting I have used the automatic flash, a lamp (with different bulb wattages to see what effect the bulbs would have), and just the overhead room light.

I know most of this information won’t help anyone right now since I didn’t take notes on what I used for each picture, but from now on I will. I’m not sure why I never thought to look for help on the internet before I am an avid internet user, but it just never crossed my mind to look for help with taking pictures. So I have always just taken pictures on a trial and error bases. Never giving much thought to taking notes on what seems to work, and what doesn’t.


Like I said, I know this information won’t help much, but I am sure it shows everyone just how much I don’t know.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.

 

[ksshane]

Looking over the post that e_ had suggested I thought I would just make a little check off list for you to look at.



* lens = Automatic focus lens that is built into the Kodak DX4330
* lighting = Auto flash, stand up lamp, and the normal room ceiling light
* metering method = none
* exposure = Digital
* aperture (DOF) = Digital
* focal length (DOF) = Don't know
* film to conditions (if it was film) = Digital
* sharpening (if digital, or scanned from film) = No Sharpening
* etc

 

[TylerDCA]

Direct flash is going to hurt while shooting snakes because of the shine... While continuing with the Kodak, your best bet to improve things is in the digital darkroom. Getting good photoshop will help a lot.

Tyler

 

[mrsid99]

Does your camera have a function to compensate for the light source? Some of them have settings like: Sunlight, Tungsten, Fluorescent etc.
If so you would want to set it to Tungsten and get as much light on the subject as possible.
HTH.