frustrated w/ my pics f/ Sony H2. Please advise

[mskohl]

I've been having trouble getting good pictures. I think I can get decent focus, I just can't get the lighting right. I have the aquarium lights on, all the room lights (which is a lot) and often, sunlight coming in the room too.

If I don't use a flash, this is how they turn out:

If I use the flash, this is how they turn out:

Please let me know what I need to change or if this is easy to edit in a program.

Thanks

 

[gregr]

What were the settings for the non-flash pictures? What exposure mode were you using? Odds are you will have to use a high iso to get fast enough shutter speeds for the tangs. I generally use aperture priority when I'm not using the flash-- if you want to give that a try set the aperture to f2.8 and see what shutter speeds you are getting. You need pretty fast shutter speeds to get sharp pictures of moving fish- at least 1/125 unless you can catch them when they're not moving [or moving verrrry slowly like Clownfish do sometimes]. Each time you raise the iso (i.e. from 100 to 200 or 200 to 400] you will be able to double your shutter speed [i.e. from 1/60 to 1/125 etc.]. The downside is the higher the iso the grainier the picture will be.
Another possible issue... sometimes the bright yellow of a Yellow Tang fools the camera into thinking the image will be too bright, so the camera will intentionally underexpose the shot- if that's what's going on you just need to set positive exposure compensation; like +1 stop or so.
Greg

 

[mskohl]

Thanks Greg. That's helpful and gave me a place to start. Here are some of the pics with the iso on 400 and f2.8 - no flash and just tank and window light. The first is blurry, but much better color.

How do I remove or take a pic without all the flecks and stuff?

 

[gregr]

The specs are a real pain in the neck...
You can remove them with something like the rubber stamp tool in Photoshop- it's time consuming but effective. Using a flash minimizes the specs, and can be good for certain subjects. Acros, zoos and some other corals turn an unnatural color when you hit them with a flash. Full tank shots generally look bad with a flash- the colors kinda wash out. Fish and clams, shrimp etc. look good with a flash- you just have to experiment and see what works/looks best for you.
Play around with exposure compensation too- sometimes you can underexpose an image slightly and it'll saturate the colors quite a bit.
In your first shot it looks to me like it came out blurry because the camera chose a shutter speed that was too slow- take a look and see what it was to give you a hint of what doesn't work. The other shots are much better When I'm using a point and shoot I'll press the shutter release button halfway to get a focus lock and then I'll wait til the composition is good (keeping the button pressed halfway) and then take the shot-- little things like that can help a lot.