EddieA
Resident trophy husband
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!
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!