A Reef in the Sky...scaper
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SimonSKL
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Howard, awesome close-up and top down shots of your corals! The color and the detail are just amazing.
Did you shoot these pictures thru an underwater acrylic box? What brand of macro lens did you use? I know your LED fixture is inches from the water surface so how did you manage to move your LED fixture out of the way yet still have good lighting on the corals to take these shots.
I have a corner tank but the curvature of the front glass causes distortion of any close-up picture that I try to take thru the glass. Any macro shots have to be from the top
Did you shoot these pictures thru an underwater acrylic box? What brand of macro lens did you use? I know your LED fixture is inches from the water surface so how did you manage to move your LED fixture out of the way yet still have good lighting on the corals to take these shots.
I have a corner tank but the curvature of the front glass causes distortion of any close-up picture that I try to take thru the glass. Any macro shots have to be from the top
Acrotrdco
New member
Thanks :rollface:
Howard, awesome close-up and top down shots of your corals! The color and the detail are just amazing.
Did you shoot these pictures thru an underwater acrylic box? What brand of macro lens did you use? I know your LED fixture is inches from the water surface so how did you manage to move your LED fixture out of the way yet still have good lighting on the corals to take these shots.
I have a corner tank but the curvature of the front glass causes distortion of any close-up picture that I try to take thru the glass. Any macro shots have to be from the top
Simon,
I'm using an old small glass aquarium (I think it's a 1/4 gallon tank) which is about 5"x4"x4" when I take the top down shots, since I like the clarity of glass over acrylic. That small glass aquarium actually floats by itself on the water which gives me some added flexibility when I'm taking top-down shots
I'm using a Nikon D90 with AF-S 105mm VR micro lens, I didn't have to move my LED fixture out of the way, I just have to slide it 1" go give me enough room to take the photos, thanks to the rails.
When you're taking front shots you always have align your camera so it's pointing at the glass perpendicularly, otherwise you'll experience the distortion you just mentioned.
syedjilani
Active member
Very beautiful......
Acrotrdco
New member
Thanks Felix, since you mentioned macro shots, I've done more just for you, this time I've disabled the Nikon Vivid mode and taken these shots with standard mode, see if they look more natural.
First the same purple tip teal acro:
Some others:
Acrotrdco
New member
Thanks!
Thanks Michael
Yes I'm using a tripod (with VR2 turned off) when I'm taking FTS and hand-held (with VR2 turned on) when I'm taking top-down shots.
With just the actinics it's not possible to get a true representation of color as seen by the human eyes, to be captured by the camera.
The best you could do is something like you seen on my avatar - a very dark photo with some fluorescent pigment on the coral.
This is because the human eye react to fluorescent pigment in blue color quite specially (you can google about it) - while camera is very "honest" when it captures light into photos.
Acrotrdco
New member
Bernie,
It takes a LOT of practises, and I mean LOTS, to get the right setting for your tank, since each tank has different lighting, color, background, etc.
I've taken literally thousands of photos since I've bought my D90 less than a year ago, and here's some tips I could share with you:
1. Use a tripod - no matter how steady your hand is, or whether your lens have VR/VR2 stablizer, if you want to take crisp photos, you need a tripod. Get the cheapest one you can find since you probably won't be carrying it anywhere else.
2. Try using M mode, and adjust ISO / shutter speed / aperture and white balance, and take a photo on each setting until you get the right one.
3. Because our tanks are usually very bright as it's constantly lit by an external light source, i.e. LED/T5/MH, you want to control your photos so it won't be over-exposed. You want to get the darkest photo you possibly could take without it under-expose, so normally I'd suggest telling people to start with the smallest aperture, highest shutter speed and lowest ISO to make the photo under-expose, then adjust the setting one step at a time, until you get it right.
Here's some settings I'm using.
* ISO (max at 400 or 800, I rarely use anything higher because of the noise and over-exposure)
* White balance - 10000K or use a white card to manually pre-define white balance.
* Shutter speed - I usually use between 1/125 up to 1/500s
* Aperture - f/5.6 up to f/11, the best shots are usually around f/7 and f/8
Depends on the position of my coral, I usually just adjust the shutter speed and aperture so it'll produce a photo that's not over-exposed. Some folks suggest you could use -ev to -0.7 or -1.3, which is pretty much the same thing, but I'd like to do it with shutter speed / aperture, since it'll give me a different prespective and depth of field when I adjust the aperture.
Also try to play with manual focus on your macro lens - auto focus usually focus around the center, while using manual focus you can focus to whatever the point you want, which is very useful when you want to focus on a certain polyp / group of polyps and produce that photo you wanted.
westreef
Lost as usual
Thanks for the useful tips. I came to the same conclusion of #3 a few weeks back. I was wondering why the edges of the polyps were blur. Then I purposely under exposed it and it was better.
In regard of white balance, I don't find any temperature values in the settings. And how do you use the white card to adjust the white balance. Do you put the card inside the tank?
I know I have to take lot of pictures to get my skill up. Thanks.:wavehand:
Bernie
In regard of white balance, I don't find any temperature values in the settings. And how do you use the white card to adjust the white balance. Do you put the card inside the tank?
I know I have to take lot of pictures to get my skill up. Thanks.:wavehand:
Bernie
Acrotrdco
New member
You're right, the D5000 may not have the 10000K white balance setting as in D90.
For how to setup manual white balance, check here, Ken's site has TONS of useful tips that I think every Nikon owner should read.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/whitebalance.htm
I haven't actually use the manual white balance, but to use it you really need to either put the card in your tank (if it's plastic) or outside but under the same light as the tank (so you may need to position your fixture so it'll lit the card).
As for the blur edges, besides being over-exposed, try using a tripod if you aren't already using one, it'll help.
Acrotrdco
New member
You're welcome
p.s. I almost forgot, when using a tripod, also use a 2-sec timer (or remote if you've one) on the shutter, because when you're taking macro shots, any movement (including the moment you press on the button) will make the camera nod mildly and thus giving you a blurred photo.
westreef
Lost as usual
You're welcome
p.s. I almost forgot, when using a tripod, also use a 2-sec timer (or remote if you've one) on the shutter, because when you're taking macro shots, any movement (including the moment you press on the button) will make the camera nod mildly and thus giving you a blurred photo.
Yes, you are so right. In fact, I had a flimsy highly portable tripod before, and I had a super zoom heavy lens on my camera. Using the super zoom I could magnify the subject a bit. However, even I had 10-second timer on using this tripod, the shutter actually shook the camera during exposure.
Christmas I got a really robust tripod and that issue was drastically improved. In addition, now I have a much lighter new Nikon 85 mm macro lens -- this help a lot on vibration. Thanks for pointing this out because people may not aware these minute interactions can affect the quality of the picture.:wavehand:
By the way, just love your built. One of these days, I will be visiting HK and hope to pay you a visit if you don't mind.
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