Nikon D7000

I cant get my geckos to stay still long enough for pictures haha. I would try using more light in your pictures so you can lower your ISO. Lower ISO's normally yield sharper images. I'm not familiar with any of the SB flashes, but if you can increase the power, I think that would help a little.

Those eye shots are AMAZING. The first one is my favorite, the colors and textures are just fantastic. (And yeah, I do the same thing with my cresties and balls, I'll go do photo shoots just for fun!)

Originally Posted by KelliH

Thanks. I think when I save the photos in Photoshop it erases the Exif data. I shoot in the Aperture-Priority mode. My ISO was set at 1000; white balance was set on Auto-2. The next set I shoot I will leave the exif data and post them in this forum.

Lightroom (also by Adobe), which I strongly prefer to Photoshop, does preserve the EXIF data (as well as RAW data if you shoot in RAW).

Originally Posted by Nickrows

I cant get my geckos to stay still long enough for pictures haha. I would try using more light in your pictures so you can lower your ISO. Lower ISO's normally yield sharper images. I'm not familiar with any of the SB flashes, but if you can increase the power, I think that would help a little.

Thanks for the suggestions! My Flash is at maximum power, but I like the effect of less shadowing when I bounce the light off the ceiling, so I compromise with the higher ISO setting. The D7000 performs really well at higher ISO settings, which is good for my images.

Originally Posted by SirenSanJose

Those eye shots are AMAZING. The first one is my favorite, the colors and textures are just fantastic. (And yeah, I do the same thing with my cresties and balls, I'll go do photo shoots just for fun!)

Originally Posted by SirenSanJose

Lightroom (also by Adobe), which I strongly prefer to Photoshop, does preserve the EXIF data (as well as RAW data if you shoot in RAW).

Thanks! Yes I can amuse myself for hours in my gecko room with my camera.

I've never heard of Lightroom, but I will check it out, thanks for the suggestion.

Originally Posted by KelliH

Thanks! Yes I can amuse myself for hours in my gecko room with my camera.

I've never heard of Lightroom, but I will check it out, thanks for the suggestion.

It usually runs about $200 (on amazon), $300 directly from Adobe. They have a 30 day free trial from Adobe's site. Info on it (and a link to the trial download button) is HERE

It's basically, as I had it described to me, Photoshop re-imagined for actual photographers. You can't really do image "editing" or creation like Photoshop lets you do, but it lets you do all the image tweaking very, very easily -- white balance adjustment, color curves, cropping, noise reduction, clarity, etc, etc.

A friend of mine who's a professional photographer (and who I continually bother with inane beginner questions, poor guy!) pointed me at Lightroom, and I love it.

Originally Posted by SirenSanJose

It usually runs about $200 (on amazon), $300 directly from Adobe. They have a 30 day free trial from Adobe's site. Info on it (and a link to the trial download button) is HERE

It's basically, as I had it described to me, Photoshop re-imagined for actual photographers. You can't really do image "editing" or creation like Photoshop lets you do, but it lets you do all the image tweaking very, very easily -- white balance adjustment, color curves, cropping, noise reduction, clarity, etc, etc.

A friend of mine who's a professional photographer (and who I continually bother with inane beginner questions, poor guy!) pointed me at Lightroom, and I love it.

That sounds perfect for me! Thank you for the additional info. I'll let you know if I end up getting it.

Originally Posted by KelliH

Yes, I haven't quite gotten the exposure thing figured out yet. I think that's the hardest thing for me, getting the image to have perfect exposure. Any suggestions anyone?

Well, I always gauged exposure based on the 18 percent gray rule of thumb. What that means is that typically cameras expect the entire frame of a photo to average at to being 18 percent gray. Which means a PERFECT exposure will meet that requirement. So the more background you use that is as close to 18 percent gray as possible (and bear in mind that COLOR can also resolve to that 18 percent gray if converted to gray scale) the more likely that your total exposure will be dead on.

That is why light subjects on black backgrounds get over exposed, and dark subjects on light backgrounds get underexposed. The camera is trying to adjust the ENTIRE photo to that 18 percent averaging. In other words, it is trying to make that background into gray instead of black or white. And that correspondingly shifts the exposure on the subject. Once you understand what the camera is trying to DO, you can compensate for it either by under or overexposing at the camera, or if you are using a chosen background medium, by choosing carefully the gray scale of the background to match the exposure you are trying to get.

Bear in mind that with colored backgrounds, they can also affect the color BALANCE of the subject as well, so you can get quite a bit of leeway by not only choosing the exposure balance, but the color balance as well. White balancing is the technique that many people use to try to adjust color balance, but I honestly never used that technique much.

Hope that helps, but it might be more "old school" than is relevant these days. A lot of exposure problems can be fixed quickly and easily simply by using spot metering, if your camera has that capability.

But if there is one notable advantage that digital media has over film, that is that you can take as many practice shots as you want, and it doesn't cost you the development costs just to learn your camera. So PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

I actually prefer to learn the old school techniques when it comes to photography. I'm still stuck on shooting in the Programmed modes. I haven't ventured into full manual mode yet!

Here is a shot I just took of a couple of my beardies, Lucy and Ethel. The composition is crap, really just a snapshot, but I wanted to share the exif data. These are the same settings I used when I took the above leo pics.

BTW, I spend a lot of time on this website-
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm
I've learned a lot just from that.