taking pics-General Reef Topics-3reef Forums

bmshehan · 01-25-2008, 03:48 PM

Any advice about taking pics of your tank without the annoying flash blur? I want to take some overall aquarium pics and detailed pics... any advice would be great!!

amcarrig · 01-25-2008, 03:50 PM

Easy, don't use the flash

What kind of camera are you shooting with?

geekdafied · 01-26-2008, 01:04 AM

a good quality camera is the first step to taking good pics.

Camilsky · 01-26-2008, 01:26 AM

Hey! There are few things you should remember:

1. Try to get "in front" of your subject. This will make your AF system work faster and allow to get rid of fancy chromatic/geometric abberations caused by bowed glass.

2. Adjust the "sensitivity" to be at least ISO200 with max ISO800! Experiment a bit with that! Higher ISO = better sensitivity + color saturation!

3. Avoid taking photos with external/back light on! Reflecting light on the surface of your bowed glass will make AF go crazy and cause auto-exposure metering of your camera choose the wrong program, yielding under- or over- exposed photos! Use native (tank) light only!

4. If you got image stabilizer turn it on, however pictures taken from the tripod should be shoot with IS-off!

5. IMPORTANT if you shoot a picture of fish or coral use SPOT-metering method! It will give a priority to the center of your focusing system, making the AF-adjustments faster and more accurate!

I can imagine your frustration. I spen few days scratching my head and figuring out how to make best use of my camera and lenses.

Here are some of my shots:

Reefdiver72 · 01-26-2008, 05:00 AM

Also adjust your white balance in your tank take something white put it in your tank and take a picture of it and set your white balance to it and your pictures will come out alot better.

amcarrig · 01-26-2008, 08:06 AM

And here I was assuming that the OP's got just a regular point and shoot camera

reef_guru · 01-27-2008, 09:29 PM

my advice listen to camilsky

Otty · 01-28-2008, 04:34 AM

Might try and shut the actinics off if they are causing problems with the picture, and the white balance if you have it on your camera.

Camilsky · 01-28-2008, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otty

Might try and shut the actinics off if they are causing problems with the picture, and the white balance if you have it on your camera.

Yup! It's a good idea! However, white balance can easily be adjusted in photoshop!

Tangster · 01-28-2008, 08:19 AM

Do what I do LOL I just look and don't do pictures LOL My favorite camera was a old Box brownie LOL Then I got me a Kodac Insta-matic in about 1972 LOL