Best lighting for showing off snake colour

[Dan40D]

Hi all,
I'm currently buying materials and designing my new enclosures and i'm up to looking at lighting. I'd prefer to keep it as energy efficient as possible. Is there a specific type of bulb or colour temperature that shows of the snakes natural colours better than others. I was thinking something with a natural sunlight colour tempraure around 6500k might be best.

Any suggestions.

 

[Grogshla]

sunlight is the best in my opinion

 

[ScalyMung]

A twin batten fluro A NEC T10 Blacklight with a cool white fluro produce near daylight conditions
Cheers Deano

 

[Ricochet]

I've gone with "white" LEDs. have got 2 strips (I think of 20 LEDs) that attach to car headlights or mirrors. These just stick onto the edges of the cage that hold the glass facing into the cage. Low voltage, do not take up room and don't require a cage as they produce no heat. I run them off a small 12V power pack on a timer. For 3 hours after they turn off I run a strip of blue LEDs so it give a nice blue moon look.

 

[ianinoz]

Any reasonably bright lighting will do, all you then need to do, if you have the ability to adjust your camera's white balance is select the appropriate white balance and the camera will compensate automatically. Refer to the camera's manual.

If you want perfect white balance go to Ebay and buy a white balance card (it's grey) and take a photo if the card under the lighting you'll have and you can then use the camera's internal U-processor to create a custom white balance that you can save and use in future.

The white balance can also be compensated for with a WYSIWYG colour palette tuned monitor via PS or similar image processing packages on your computer . When the card's image on the WSISWYG screen looks identical colour to the card in bright sun light - you've got your images colour balances / curves sorted.

 

[snakeynewbie]

Ian hes talking about lighting in a tank, not taking photographs

 

[BigWillieStyles]

A nice UV light in a globe will provide some nice natural light and bring out the colours of you snake. They are very low wattage and wont use very much power. Use one with a timer.

 

[ianinoz]

Ian hes talking about lighting in a tank, not taking photographs

He wants to show the snakes he'll house in the tank - so white balance is pertinant if he or smeone else wants to photogaph them.

But if he isn't then he can easily disregard my post.

 

[snakeynewbie]

No hes designing his new enclosures and deciding on lighting options for them

 

[longqi]

We did a display last night at a club with black lights
Not sure ow practical this would be for everyday lighting
But the snakes colours just exploded into view
Particularly the white spots etc

 

[abnrmal91]

Sunlight is the best but it's very hard to replicate. Just beware that some fluros do put out alot of heat so. I just am just using a 5watt fluro compact at the moment paired with a 40watt spot globe. Seems to give a descent light that looks alright with my albino.

 

[RHCP1]

A friend of mine uses Sylvana Aquastar floros in his room. They are good at highlighting the yellows and white colours.
In another room he has fluros that are 5500 kelvin. He tells me that 5500 kelvin is as close to natural daylight as you can get.

Neither seems to make any difference to pics taken as being inside the flash is used most times.

 

[GeckoRider]

Ian.. how did you possibly think he ment for taking photos.. didn't you read his post?

 

[Dan40D]

Thanks all for the replies.

Not using ths for photos at all, have a studio set up for that, just want to make a nice display and have the animals looking their best for viewing.