First try and flashlight/night tank photography

[Blazer88]

I am really running out of things to shoot in my tank so I've now resorted to trying completly different approaches with light. I used a small single white LED flashlight to illuminate the corals. I also did full manual on the camera (really for the first time) as the sensor really had a hard time determining exposure in Av mode. Questions and comments are always appreciated!

Green open-brain coral (probably my favorite pic of the morning)

Frogspawn:

Hungry Orange Crush Acan colony:

I loved the green polyps on this SPS:

The color didn't come out well on this one, oh well:

Green/Pink Hammer Coral:

 

[Blazer88]

Here are the last few, a couple shots of Zoanthids:

Eagle Eye's:

Unknown Orange:

 

[dominga]

What camera are you using, and what macro lens?
Great pictures. I should give it a try.

 

[Blazer88]

I should have learned to include that by now, lol. It's the Canon XT and 100mm F/2.8 lens.

Here's my Sun Coral:

 

[DarthBaiter]

Very nice shots.
The flash light seems to be working like a micro spotlight.

 

[Ebn]

Very nice shots. I really dig the single light source and the vignetting it naturally produces.

 

[PoukieBear]

That first pic took my breath away! Absolutely stunning work!!

 

[loosbrew]

the shadows are a great byproduct of the light source. great shots.

 

[InvaderJim]

Your photos get better and better every time I see them. Great work.

 

[Blazer88]

Shadows aren't something you normally see with corals, I thought it would be fun to try something a little different. Now I wonder how a laser pointer would look...

 

[nightOwl]

Once again some great pictures. You make me want to go out and buy a new camera. The level of detail is insane.

 

[jwedehase]

What color is the LED light... if you had to guess Kelvin? Do coral colors actually "pop" under it? I have an LED flashlight that probably rates just a tad higher, or around, 10000K. I see nice blues and purples in my corals when I use it.

 

[kwl1763]

Outstanding!

 

[edwing206]

those are sweet. What kinda camera and lens do you use? Wait it's in your sig. Oh not it's not.

 

[Blazer88]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9321466#post9321466 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jwedehase
What color is the LED light... if you had to guess Kelvin? Do coral colors actually "pop" under it? I have an LED flashlight that probably rates just a tad higher, or around, 10000K. I see nice blues and purples in my corals when I use it.

That's a good question, I'm not sure what the color temperature would be. The corals don't exactly "pop" under the light but it is enough to bring out some color and not wash it out like a regular flashlight. I did also keep my moon lights on when I took the shots. You can see some pics that have light falloff and you can see the blue in the background. Maybe that helped keep some of the color. I know a regular flashlight made it look like someone took a pee in the tank and was really overpowering. The single LED was just enough power and had a nice crisp white color.

 

[jwedehase]

Oh, yeah.. the moonlights probably helped bring out some pop as well. As mentioned, these are all very nice. Now you make me want to experiment.

 

[shiftyfatdwarf]

that first pic is flippin sweet. i give you many props and congrats

 

[BigBlue187]

I really like the pic of the Frogspawn.