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Photography Techniques and Equipment This forum is for the discussion of technical details of how to take good pictures as well as discuss the equipment used in that pursuit.

How I get my shots...
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Old 06-23-2011, 05:33 PM   #1
EddieA
How I get my shots...

Ok, I am by NO means a pro. I just figured this out by trying different things and it gets an effect that I personally like, so I have stuck with it.

The equipment I use are Pentax K10D and K7 cameras, Vivitar 285HV flash, and my little homemade snake studio. The "studio" is an old molded plastic guitar case that I lined with black coat wool (very non-reflective), and even glued a small cardboard box under the wool on the left side in case I want to take a shot that is a bit higher than the case floor. It is also cool that I can store some of my props in it.

Here's the studio:


Up close with my technique, I get something like this:


And this:


I start out with the F-stop around 4 and a shutter speed of 125 or so and adjust from there. The other thing I do is I mount my flash backwards (full power) and angle it 45 degrees over my shoulder and bounce the light off the kitchen walls. I also find that manual focus works better for me when doing snakes. You have to be fast sometimes though!
 
Old 06-23-2011, 05:42 PM   #2
toxiclight
What a fantastic idea I've been planning to make a light box, but as half my snakes are very pale morphs, I worried about them bleeding into the background. I love the black background...now to find something around here that will serve instead of a guitar case (since I don't happen to have one :/)
 
Old 06-23-2011, 07:20 PM   #3
azhketh
Forget the tips, I want that first snake! That second pic is awesome, looks very professional.
 
Old 06-23-2011, 10:00 PM   #4
Miqote
I love the definition on the scales. Very beautiful!
 
Old 06-23-2011, 10:44 PM   #5
idloveaguinness
Quote:
Originally Posted by EddieA View Post
I start out with the F-stop around 4 and a shutter speed of 125 or so and adjust from there. The other thing I do is I mount my flash backwards (full power) and angle it 45 degrees over my shoulder and bounce the light off the kitchen walls. I also find that manual focus works better for me when doing snakes. You have to be fast sometimes though!
Nice shots.

ISO?
 
Old 06-23-2011, 10:48 PM   #6
idloveaguinness
Oh....and do you use a tripod with a remote? I think that's what I'll probably try once I start taking more pics of my sons snake. I figure with a little setup like that, you can frame the shot ahead of time and just finesse the snake into position, then hit the remote trigger. Or have another person finesse the snake....

I'm finding that a wider DOF is probably better for whole body shots with these guys as they move around a lot .
 
Old 06-23-2011, 10:51 PM   #7
EddieA
ISO 100, no tripod. Too busy constantly focusing!
 
Old 06-23-2011, 10:59 PM   #8
idloveaguinness
Quote:
Originally Posted by EddieA View Post
ISO 100, no tripod. Too busy constantly focusing!
Oh....you're totally old school. Nice. A prime lens, I presume? I've gotten lazy - especially with the focus tracking that the D7000 has. I only manually focus when I have to, like when the snake is hiding in vines and all the camera wants to do is lock onto those instead.

Anyhow....again, great shots. Looking forward to more sometime soon.
 
Old 06-23-2011, 11:05 PM   #9
EddieA
50mm f1.4

Auto focus is excellent on the K7, but I still prefer to do my own focusing.
 
Old 06-24-2011, 04:17 PM   #10
idloveaguinness
Quote:
Originally Posted by EddieA View Post
50mm f1.4

Auto focus is excellent on the K7, but I still prefer to do my own focusing.
Fast lens....you have a nice setup.
 

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