DSLR's are tricky

[Useful_Idiot]

I got a cannon t5i 18-135 lens and lightroom 5. Man this isn't as easy as my old powershot d10. When shooting in raw and adjusting what are the main adjustments I should be tweaking? Assuming I learn to take a decent photo?

 

[nemosworld]

white balance aka temp
whites
blacks
highlights
sharpness
clarity

 

[Siebo]

White balance and shutter speed are the big ones for shots of fish. Slow shutter will give you trails in the pic when your subject swims. Make the F stop as fast as you can.

 

[Siebo]

50mm prime lens works great for tank shots. They are fast and crisp. Other option is to buy a Marco lens but that is another price point for a good one.

 

[Useful_Idiot]

Thanks Felix.
Thanks Siebo I shot t he fish that weren't moving for that reason. I'm hoping to have a macro by Christmas.

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

my best friend is a professional wildlife photographer. He consistantly kicks out the most amazing photography Ive ever seen... heres his work http://curtismix.smugmug.com/Nature
However, whenever he came over and tried to shoot my reef, he couldnt come away with a single top notch image. It frustrated him to no end. All this is to say, it's tricky to shoot aquariums. It takes a time and experimenting. Youre off to a good start from what youve posted. Dont expect to just jump in and kick out pics like Aaron

 

[frankyrivera]

Hey Patrick nice shots man. A macro lens will change your life, but it will set you back a couple $$$

Did u go Nikon or canon

 

[Useful_Idiot]

All this is to say, it's tricky to shoot aquariums. It takes a time and experimenting. Youre off to a good start from what youve posted. Dont expect to just jump in and kick out pics like Aaron

Thanks. I guess I was used to how good the d10 photos were and with a better camera I expected even better results not realizing how much the auto+processor in it did for me. Not to mention the macro setting. I can take pics of the kid no problem though.


Were the wild things are lol

Hey Patrick nice shots man. A macro lens will change your life, but it will set you back a couple $$$

Did u go Nikon or canon

Thanks. Canon t5i I'm in luck the camera store told my wife that it's great for portraits as well as the reef and she's prepared for the price. From looking at my pics in lightroom zoomed in I'll need a tripod as well, most are blurred.

 

[IslandCrow]

It looks like you have some good "raw" material with that first shot. As is normal with aquarium shots, the white balance is a bit too cool (i.e. too much towards the blue spectrum). Try increasing your color temperature until it looks more natural. You may have to adjust the tint a bit as well, but I have a feeling it's pretty close (keep in mind, I'm looking at this on an uncalibrated monitor at the moment).

Next, you have some blown highlights in the sand (also pretty common). Use the highlight slider and pull it towards the left. Then, I'd pull the shadow slider to the right to open those up a bit. If this makes the image too flat, you may want to try using the tone curve in addition. To increase contrast, the curve should look like an 'S' with the left side of the curve slightly below the diagonal line (i.e. the line without any adjustments) and the right side slightly above that line. The tone curve is a bit more of an art, and it's going to be impossible to explain all the intricacies in this post.

Your saturation and vibrance (these two are similar, but not quite the same) look pretty good, but if you haven't already, you can tweak those to taste. Lastly, you can add sharpness both with the clarity slider towards the top (this adjusts midtone sharpness) and the sharpening sliders about midway down. One useful hint on the sharpening sliders, if you hold the Alt key (assuming you're using a PC) and move the Mask slider to the right, you can see the exact areas where sharpening is applied. As you move the slider further to the right, you'll notice less white, which means it's only sharpening the harder edges. This is very useful in avoiding unnecessary noise by sharpening areas of the photo without a lot of detail. Again, this is an art, but depending on the photo, I usually have the mask slider anywhere between 50-80%.

Obviously, there's a lot more you can do, like selective editing, but hopefully that at least gets you pointed in the right direction. I'd definitely invest in some actual instructional books and/or find some good videos on Youtube, join a website like Kelby Training, etc. . .depending on how serious you are about improving your skills.

 

[marcgrantphoto]

Patrick... if that doesn't look like your tank colors then it's a WB (white balance) issue. Learn how to set your white balance on your camera to where it reads Kelvin. You can then tweak your white balance so that the photo is correct with the light you're seeing. Keep in mind 5400K is very close to sunlight. The lower the number goes, the more blue that is added. The higher the number, the more yellow. If you have a lot of blue light then you may want your white balance to be set upwards of 7000K. I seriously doubt you'll need to go the other way to add blue light.

You can also use the Custom White Balance feature by setting the camera to that option and then taking a photo of a white card next to your tank so that the same light is falling on the card as in the tank. In fact, if you had a white piece of plastic and put it in the tank and then took a photo of it and then press the SET button, you're telling your camera that the blue looking card in your tank is really white and it will automatically adjust for that light on all your shots. Just remember to change it back when you change lighting.

If you put the photo you posted into Photoshop you can tweak the Curves in RGB (red, green, blue) to achieve a better image. If you use the RAW converter software that came with your camera you can tweak in more efficiently in RAW before converting it to JPEGs. Under WHITE BALANCE and SHOT SETTINGS (CANON CAMERAS) in the RAW converter software are selections that are preset such as Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Incandescent, White Fluorescent, Flash or Color Temperature (K - Kelvin).

 

[Useful_Idiot]

Progress!

Progress!




Thanks for the advice everyone it really helped a lot. I'll post some more good ones when I can. Any more suggestions are welcome

 

[frankyrivera]

Patrick those shots are sweet love that jack o lantern

 

[Useful_Idiot]

Thanks Franky, I think that's the best picture I've ever taken. I was getting frustrated until I loaded these into the computer last night and was surprised at the difference from the last attempt. Now I wanna go home and try some more.
Also when I turn the temp up to get most corals to the actual color the reds and oranges are more intense than they look in real life. Am I going past the right temp or should I be turning the reds down?

Marc or anyone else does it matter if I set a custom white balance before shooting? I have white balance cards. I was under the impression that if you shoot in raw that doesn't matter.

 

[Reef Bass]

Marc or anyone else does it matter if I set a custom white balance before shooting? I have white balance cards. I was under the impression that if you shoot in raw that doesn't matter.

Your white balance settings have no impact on the data in your raw file.

As such I don't mess with trying to white balance in camera. Also, my lights are 20,000K, so there is no light color preset (Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight, whatever) that matches and provides satisfactory results. If I felt custom white balances delivered as accurate color renditions as shooting RAW and then adjusting the wb myself, I would use custom wbs. But I don't.

IMHO, this is a matter of personal preference. Some people find value in their process trying to wb in camera. I can see if you're also shooting companion jpgs and want those to look as close to what you're seeing as your camera will allow. However, keep in mind that if cameras could properly wb under high color temp lights to start with, many people wouldn't be shooting in RAW to show accurate color in their photos.

Not saying custom white balances don't have their place. They do. And there are lots of people who enjoy using that technique. For me, shooting in RAW, I don't have a need to go there. Explore and see what works for you.

 

[JaYbIrD1969]

Your white balance settings have no impact on the data in your raw file.

As such I don't mess with trying to white balance in camera. Also, my lights are 20,000K, so there is no light color preset (Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight, whatever) that matches and provides satisfactory results. If I felt custom white balances delivered as accurate color renditions as shooting RAW and then adjusting the wb myself, I would use custom wbs. But I don't.

IMHO, this is a matter of personal preference. Some people find value in their process trying to wb in camera. I can see if you're also shooting companion jpgs and want those to look as close to what you're seeing as your camera will allow. However, keep in mind that if cameras could properly wb under high color temp lights to start with, many people wouldn't be shooting in RAW to show accurate color in their photos.

Not saying custom white balances don't have their place. They do. And there are lots of people who enjoy using that technique. For me, shooting in RAW, I don't have a need to go there. Explore and see what works for you.

I totally agree with you reef bass. I try to avoid making adjustments in camera that may, if I forget to change them back, mess up my next batch if, say i go out and shoot birds or bugs or something. I want to shoot my tank, change lenses and shoot birds, change lenses and shoot the sunset, change lenses and shoot my sons graduation, etc, etc. All I want to concern myself with is the "BIG THREE" and then concentrate on the shoot. Do it in raw and make adjustments later. K.I.S.S.

By the way. The first pic in the 2nd batch is dynamite! Really good image! The others are quite good too! I do see digital noise in the shadows. Great progress!