Capturing Pinks Bubblegums Hypo Plasma & the other pale colors

Another member recently asked PM'ed 'how do I capture accurate colors of pink snakes' , so I'll divulge.
Hey Cathy
You think photographing pinks is hard, bubblegums are worse. And then there's those pink & green ones from poppycorns (she calls them coral snows), and the fancy latest version of photoshop either corrects the green while making the pink turn white, or vice-a-versa.

I find they photograph best using the macro/flower setting. Do this in natural light, the kind that comes from the sun. Do this outside; the wavelengths of light coming thru a window will throw everything off.

Do NOT use flash.

Take the pictures in EVEN shade. Uniform lighting. Under the eves works well, or overcast conditions. Bright indirect light.

Finally, try to choose a setting in which all of the background is colors which are darker than the subject.

And then take a mess of pictures. Get down on your belly if you have to, so the picture makes the viewer feel like they are looking At the snake, not down On the snake.

Manipulate the snake into a natural position. A natural position means it is coiled correctly; because snakes do not crawl backwards, the tail should not be on top of the snake. Turn the camera on and continue positioning the snake. Might need to cup hands over it. Try to get the snake "together"; not spread out all over the place. Then the camera only has to focus on a compact/small amount of space.

Finally, when you download the pics, it still helps to use photoshop a Little bit. Some monitors are brighter than others and all that stuff. Hopefully your monitor is color calibrated correctly. ViewSonic makes some nice monitors. So does Samsung. Likely any kind of monitor made in the last couple of years will work well. Never did like the plasma screens, or those coated with plastic instead of glass.

In Adobe Photoshop versions 5.5 and higher, use the Filter>Sharpen.
Filter>Fade Sharpen. When you Fade Sharpen, use the dropdown dialog box and set it to Multiply.
Adjust the percentage variable so the colors are as close to true life as possible. And then back down 18% lower , or even lower perhaps, from that figure. This way, the snakes will be a little washed out. I prefer the pictures a little washed out so when people see them in person, they will say its more beautiful in person.
However...depending on the white balance or light balance your camera is set to, using "Screen" instead of "Multiply" might work.

If they (viewers, customers, friends &c ) see the snakes and the pictures look better than reality then they are disappointed and might say some not so nice things about deceit. So my personal preference is to 'dumb the picture down'. Having the snake with you is somewhat useful, but different wavelengths of Artificial (canned) Light can make the subject look differently inside than it really is when its outside.

At some point you'll need to crop and make the longest side of the pic to 800 pixels for most discussion board sites. ReSize Last. Otherwise you'll lose a lot of the other corrective work.
Hope this helps.
dave

You rock for sending me such a detailed response! I had to work early today, but I should get a chance to try again tomorrow!

Awesome writeup! Especially thanks for the Photoshop part...I'm always worried about touching the image in Photoshop, because I don't want to lose or alter the snake's colors. And my snow and lavender are so difficult to get true-to-life pictures on.

I recently set up a table on our porch which should be very good for strong, even, indirect light. I'll have to give it a try out there and see what I can do with the snakes Great write-up and tips though. Thank you.

Thanks for all the tips. I am going to try right now on our Bubblegum.

Good stuff Dave!, I can certainly relate to alot of those very things.


BTW, what type of corn is the orange one with the missing orange pigment on the head in your avatar? .......Is it an aberrant Lava?


~Doug

Today's photoshoot was much more successful.

Originally Posted by DMong

BTW, what type of corn is the orange one with the missing orange pigment on the head in your avatar? .......Is it an aberrant Lava?
~Doug

Doug, that's an ultramel/ultramel lavender paradox. She went with a coral snow this year, in the nest box now. .

Cathy, getting there- just to toss another wrench in the works, you might find that during Summer, early morning and late afternoon lighting are more photographer friendly
cheers, thanks for sharing. dave

Originally Posted by dave partington

Doug, that's an ultramel/ultramel lavender paradox. She went with a coral snow this year, in the nest box now.

Ah, okay,........thanks!


~Doug