Photography Tips and Tricks!

[VicSkimmr]

I decided to try diffusing the light on the vivarium for a couple of frogs pics today, I think it turned out pretty well All I did was slip a sheet of regular white paper under the light before taking the pic. The un-diffused pic is on the left, the diffused is on the right. I like that it distributes the highlights on the frog better, showing off more detail and reducing the harshness.

[UncleChester]

Nice. I like the specular highlights that turn up on the otherwise black patch on the frogs back in the diffused example and that the highlight on its nose isn't so harsh.

Just make sure you don't leave your paper too close to the light unattended! Parchment paper (the usual cooking kind) is a more heat resistant option. Also note that most household diffusion options will change the colour temperature of the light. Easily correctable if you are using only one light source (your cameras auto-white balance will usually compensate) but can be noticeable if you are combining sources. "White" paper sometimes has blue in it to appear "more white" and can cool the light off, parchment paper (mine anyways) warms up the colour temp (mine takes a 5500K source down to about 4800K).

[VicSkimmr]

Hmm, I might have to give parchment paper a shot as a long-term solution. For this I just temporarily slipped a sheet under the light, but parchment paper might let enough light through that I could just keep it under the lights.

It didn't have much of an effect on white balance, but pretty much every pic I take needs some type of white balance adjustment.

[UncleChester]

Parchment paper (mine at least) still eats up about 1.5 stops of light. Probably enough to impact your vivarium if left on long term. By comparison my standard laser printer paper (75 g/m^2 density) eats up about 3 stops of light, so definitely better in terms of letting more light through and I find it diffuses the light sufficiently most of the time. Plus, since I bought a roll for photographic purposes I tried using it when cooking messy things like chicken wings. Cleanup is now a breeze.

[VicSkimmr]

I wonder if the frogs would come out more from the light being diffused? I don't have any really light greedy plants, so it may still be fine even with losing 1.5 stops of light.

[VicSkimmr]

I tried diffusing the light with parchment paper, MUCH better. I've got a sheet under there permanently now so we'll see if there's still enough light to support the plants. I've noticed the frogs being out and about more too