# Frogs on white like flies on...



## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Did some experimenting with taking pictures of frogs today on a white background. The whole setup was pretty slapped together: an aquarium set on its side and lined with printer paper, and me holding a clip-on desk lamp in one hand and a camera in the other. Thought I would share a few of the images:

_Ranitomeya ventrimaculata_ (Peruvian gold)









_Ranitomeya fantastica_
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_Phyllobates vittatus_
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_Oophaga pumilio _(Chiriqui Grande)









_Dendrobates auratus _(Costa Rica)


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

VERY NICE
that auratuscolors really pop on the white bg


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

well that turned out awesome!


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Fantastic shots!!! You know what you should try also? A piece of black marble tile. It creates a nice vague reflection on the bottom. I think it also makes the frogs a little more comfortable than sitting on a piece of bright white paper. They go for under 5 bucks at Home Depot or Lowes. Again, awesome pics. You should take some more.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Great vittatus shot, Ron.


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## pl259 (Feb 27, 2006)

Me like!




.


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## spinycheek (Jan 26, 2010)

Wow, those came out great!!! Love the auratus one


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## mtolypetsupply (Dec 18, 2008)

Nice pics!!!


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Ron you are a Genius!

Other then actually having to catch/disturb the frogs, it is a very nice way of cataloging ones animals and for reference shots for TWI and for the Care Sheets.

I would try leaving one side of the tank clear, and the opposing side the white paper. This way you can take a belly shot with a white background also.

Shawn


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## akraemer2 (Jan 3, 2010)

Great shots! I look forward to more!


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## nathan (Jul 24, 2009)

Really nice! 

I am a photography student and was actually going to do the same thing for one of my projects ! lol Either the white backgroung or we have a still life table in the studio that can be lit from under it , might make for some interesting shots

And if my pics come out half as good as yours I'll be counting on an A


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## brooklyndartfrogs (Nov 19, 2005)

Ron,
That fantastica is beautiful!
Andy


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## Morgan Freeman (Feb 26, 2009)

Cool shots. How difficult was it getting them in position?


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Morgan Freeman said:


> Cool shots. How difficult was it getting them in position?


Out of around 200 photographs, these are pretty much the only ones worth showing. Getting them to sit still, without them either hopping away or hunkering into a defensive posture, takes a lot of trial and error and results in a lot of botched shots.


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

Were the frogs sitting directly on the computer paper, or was it underneath the glass?


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## bricespice (Jan 4, 2010)

any advice on photopgraphing individual frogs like this?
I tried, but as soon as I got my camera up and aiming the frog jumped. Lol. I couldn't keep my citronellas in one spot to save my life. They were so active....ain't complaining about that though!


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

markbudde said:


> Were the frogs sitting directly on the computer paper, or was it underneath the glass?


I didn't even think about using a piece of glass...good idea! I will have to try that. So no, they were sitting directly on the paper, which didn't work well as it would warp from dampness and they would occasionally stick to it, producing some really unnatural looking poses.


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

_Oophaga pumilio_ (Isla Bastimentos)









_Ranitomeya ventrimaculata_ (a.k.a. "Red vent")









_Epipedobates tricolor _


















_Oophaga pumilio_ (Chiriqui Grande)


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## cheezus_2007 (Aug 20, 2009)

Very Cool!! gotta get me some of those bastis.


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## nathan (Jul 24, 2009)

absolutly stunning photographs!!!

One note on the glass over the paper. If you are using flash you may get unwanted reflection


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

_Ranitomeya lamasi_









_Ranitomeya summersi_


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

mmmm standard lamasi!


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

_Dendrobates auratus_ (Canal Zone)


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Good stuff Ron....thanks for posting.

Very rare to see them photographed like that.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

great shots Ron, i tried yoru method, mine did not work out so well, what kind of lighting are you using? also what kind of flash?


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Julio said:


> great shots Ron, i tried yoru method, mine did not work out so well, what kind of lighting are you using? also what kind of flash?


For lighting, I'm using one of these: http://www.dormbuys.com/images/products/20080718145732_9224_large.jpg Pretty high tech, I know. It has an old spiral compact flourescent screwed into it...maybe 26 watts or so with daylight spectrum (6500k).

I don't use any flash since I feel it washes out the colors of the frogs, so everything is lit with that clip-on lamp and whatever ambient light is coming in through the window.

Camera is just an old Kodak EasyShare point-and-shoot with the macro button turned on and autofocus. I hold the light over the frog with my left hand and the camera with my right.


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## D3monic (Feb 8, 2010)

Wow awesome pics! One heck of a collection you have going there.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Very cool stuff... They make special "plastic" sheets for pictures of macro items and I have always wanted to try them. With the proper lighting they are supposed to work well.


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## Ulisesfrb (Dec 8, 2008)

Awesome pictures. My jaw is a bit sore from slamming on my desk when I saw these. Great work.


Ulises


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Thanks for the compliments everyone. There is still a lot I want to adjust and improve upon, but for such a ghetto setup, I'm fairly pleased with the results.

Kyle, I will definitely have to look into some of those plastic sheets--paper just doesn't work well with damp subjects.


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## carbonetc (Oct 13, 2008)

There's someone on Flickr who's done this with a few dart frogs. It would be great if someone could collect a photo of every species/morph from the same angle one day. It'd make for an excellent poster.

I definitely concur with not using the flash in this sort of shot (or almost any other shot), unless it's diffused.


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

Emily posted some similar shots a while back, but they were tree frogs I think.


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## nathan (Jul 24, 2009)

Joel Sartore is the name of a photographer that did this with darts as well as a ton of other animals . . .


Its a really nice method I love the photos of frogs done this way. Keep up the good work!!!!


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

Have a couple more pictures that I thought I would update the thread with.

_Oophaga pumilio_ "Blue Jeans" (CB offspring from the '99 Nicaraguan imports)










_
Agalychnis annae_


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## btcope (Jan 7, 2009)

these. are. awesome.

i need to locate me one of those "frog tubes" so i can catch mine for stuff like this without stressing them too much. 

thanks for sharing!,

brett


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## stevenhman (Feb 19, 2008)

Awesome photos!


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

A few more:

_Epipedobates anthonyi _"Rio Canario"









_Phyllobates vittatus_









_Dendrobates truncatus_ (blue)









_Epipedobates anthonyi_ "Rio Saladillo"









_Epipedobates anthonyi_ "Santa Isabel"


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

Looking good, Ron. You need to get your focus on the eyes, though. Try using center focus as it will come out nice and crisp.


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## Rusty_Shackleford (Sep 2, 2010)

The blue trunc is smoking hot!


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## skylsdale (Sep 16, 2007)

stemcellular said:


> Looking good, Ron. You need to get your focus on the eyes, though. Try using center focus as it will come out nice and crisp.


I know...but I'm working with a point-and-shoot with the AV set way down and on auto-focus. When I'm doing this I have the camera in one hand and a spotlight in the other and trying to snap a picture before the subject attempts to hop away...which it inevitably does. So I have to reposition it, grab the camera, grab the light, sometimes accidentally hit a button on the camera, click back to the menu...crap, there goes the frog...grab the frog, make it stay, pick the light back up, grab camera, move in for a close-up...dang it, there goes the frog again...

So yeah, always getting it to focus on the eye can be difficult. The irritating part is that the little square that pops up on the screen to indicate the focus point is almost always on the eye, but when I bring them up on my computer, I can clearly see the the point was on the back leg. By that point I've already put the frog back in the tank and don't want to put them under too much more stress.


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## Azurel (Aug 5, 2010)

With all of that going on and still getting wonderful pics.....Kudos.


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

Fantastic Thread, great photos


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

skylsdale said:


> I know...but I'm working with a point-and-shoot with the AV set way down and on auto-focus. When I'm doing this I have the camera in one hand and a spotlight in the other and trying to snap a picture before the subject attempts to hop away...which it inevitably does. So I have to reposition it, grab the camera, grab the light, sometimes accidentally hit a button on the camera, click back to the menu...crap, there goes the frog...grab the frog, make it stay, pick the light back up, grab camera, move in for a close-up...dang it, there goes the frog again...
> 
> So yeah, always getting it to focus on the eye can be difficult. The irritating part is that the little square that pops up on the screen to indicate the focus point is almost always on the eye, but when I bring them up on my computer, I can clearly see the the point was on the back leg. By that point I've already put the frog back in the tank and don't want to put them under too much more stress.


Its called a headlamp, Ron. Works wonders!


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## JL-Exotics (Nov 10, 2005)

Fantastic shots Ron. If you have a Tap Plastics or something similar in your area you can swing by and pick through the scraps table and find yourself a nice piece of white polyethylene. They have a nice white, but not glossy, finish that is perfect for projects such as this. Grab a piece of black poly too, you should be able to find something with a flat finish to eliminate glare. A nice small scrap will only cost you a couple bucks and they are easy to sterilize between subjects too. Keep up the good work - and let me know when you have some of the old line peruvian vents available. I'd love to pick some up from you.


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## VicSkimmr (Jan 24, 2006)

skylsdale said:


> I know...but I'm working with a point-and-shoot with the AV set way down and on auto-focus. When I'm doing this I have the camera in one hand and a spotlight in the other and trying to snap a picture before the subject attempts to hop away...which it inevitably does. So I have to reposition it, grab the camera, grab the light, sometimes accidentally hit a button on the camera, click back to the menu...crap, there goes the frog...grab the frog, make it stay, pick the light back up, grab camera, move in for a close-up...dang it, there goes the frog again...
> 
> So yeah, always getting it to focus on the eye can be difficult. The irritating part is that the little square that pops up on the screen to indicate the focus point is almost always on the eye, but when I bring them up on my computer, I can clearly see the the point was on the back leg. By that point I've already put the frog back in the tank and don't want to put them under too much more stress.


You might be too close to the frog. The camera has a minimum focus distance and if you get inside it, you'll end up missing and will focus on something behind it (usually the background).

Also, if you're shooting with a shallow depth of field (dependent on how far you're zoomed in) and you're hand holding the camera... you could be focusing on the eye to start with but by clicking the camera button you inadvertently move forward just a hair, causing you to miss the focus.

Putting the camera on a tripod and using the 2 second timer feature is a great way to overcome that issue, and it insures that you won't have any soft shots from camera movement.


They're still fantastic pics, but yeah missing the focus on the eye kills me. If they weren't already good I wouldn't bother giving any constructive criticism


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