How to deal with this

[markyboy.1967]

Im looking at photographing various brightly coloured reptiles and amphibians in the next week or two as i have wanted to do this for a while now.I will be photographing frogs, chameleons etc on stems, leaves and flowers.Now i want also to photograph them on a black mirrored type flooring-something like black perspex etc. How do i keep light from the flooring considering they will be sitting directly on the floor and are very small,

I want the frogs etc to have a mirror image sitting on the black flooring.I have a few lights, stands etc etc and have also gor use of a light tent if i want.

This is a link to what i want to achieve.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/john_starkey/8187401143/in/photostream

 

[Garry Edwards]

Take a look at this tutorial on the Lencarta lighting blog, the principles are identical.

You'll see that an overhead softbox, pointing both downwards and forwards, will provide pretty well all the lighting you need, although you may find that you also need a small piece of white card to catch 'spare' light to the front of the subject. The first trick is to keep it simple, and this is as simple as it gets.

Trick No. 2 is to get the camera height right - whatever both suits your subject and achieves the required semi reflection - not difficult.

Once that's done, trick No. 3 is to remember that the angle of incidence = the angle of reflection. If there is light showing on the tile (or whatever) when you look through the viewfinder you need to change the angle of the softbox. Again, very straightforward.

Getting your subjects in the right place and getting them to stay there is your problem

 

[markyboy.1967]

Cheers Gary. I think my main concern is that the black gets well lets say "lass dark" due to light spilling on it.I thought about using the light tent and have the perspex at a very slight slope...I take it that your tutorial is the better way of doing this?

 

[Garry Edwards]

Yes, it's all about the angles, as per my tutorial. As long as the light is reflecting away from the lens, the light spill won't show. Try it with a suitable still life subject.