How do u photography your corals?

Rudedog1212

Rudedog1212

Member
I love looking at my corals and love taking pics of them but if I have a coral that really stands out in a blue light i can not capture that color in a picture. I do have a dslr camera but can not see investing 500 plus dollars on a macro lens. Any suggestions out there?
 
I had a thread here somewhere. The macro lens is a must. The camera is just a tool. I got my nikon macro in eBay for less than $500. I also use Lightroom software . You have to shoot raw not JPEG and play around with the picture in Lightroom to capture the right color. The Lens is shot in manual mode so you don't need autofocus.
 
Whenever I do photographs of my tank I normally turn off the blue lights just for a while your camera cannot copperhead incandescent and daylight at the same time. If you turn out the blue you should be in good shape give it a try and show us some photographs please . Phil
 
I have not purchased any software yet for my computer for editing photos. I have purchased some magnifying end caps, not sure of the name, but it was not what I was hoping for. I'll try to take some pics and post them. If im not happy with the outcome maybe a eBay purchase is in my future...
 
I have a phone and it too has a macro setting. As of right now I have a nice investment in my camera and my cell phone takes better macro pics than my camera. But to be fair, I'm very new to photography and do not have a macro lens.
 
get a tripod, make share it doesn't shake.
shoot straight not at an angle.
macro lens is not needed unless you want to shoot really close up pics.
any low f stop lens will do. I've shot with a 50mm 1.8 before, and it turns out nice.
Don't need very expensive equipment to shoot decent pics, I've got nice pics from iphone.
don't really need to shoot raw, jpeg is fine for most beginners. if you shoot a nice pic, little to no post editing is required, maybe just a few adjustments (very minimal) in photoshop should be fine. shooting raw and doing lots of post edit for newbs is too complicated, it's a whole another game on it's own....
for coral pics and really close up pics, you wanna try to shoot manual focus because it'll focus exactly where you want (1/2" off the coral and focus is wayyyyy off). for fish pics, you're gonna want to shoot autofocus with a pretty fast lens.
as for color, you have to pretty much do a manual white balance setting prior to get the color you want.
MOST IMPORTANT TIP: practice, practice, practice.......
here's a few for you (in my other lifetime, i was a photographer):





 
AND here's my favorite pic:


BTW: these were all shot in jpeg, and very little to no post edit to actual pic.
 
And none of that was with a macro? Did you have your iso bumped up high to freeze the action? I do have a 50mm 1.8 and a 18 to105 and 70 to 300. I do have a tripod and the pics that I took were either not in focus or the coral looked very small. Maybe I can trade corals for a quick lesson... Lol. By the way the pictures look AMAZING!
 
I'm new to photography, but have been trying to soak stuff up. A tripod seems to have made the biggest differnce in my shots. I would highly suggest getting one. Also turn the pumps off.

Just play around with settings and have fun. I don't have any photo editing program other then the standard windows picture viewer. I also only own the stock lens and the 50mm 1.8 on my t3i. Here is one of my fave pics so far.

12576072103_5dc9d3742e_o.jpg
 
There are lots of methods and opinions on photographing our underwater worlds. For me, shooting corals is using a tripod, my 70mm macro lens, and post processing to correct white balance. Shooting at an angle perpendicular to the glass will prevent distortion, and manual focus is a must. With a tripod you can use a lower iso, better color and less noise, a higher f-stop, which gets you a deeper field of focus. For general shooting composition is the key. You can have great color and perfect focus but without a good composition the pic is just not pleasing to the eye.

For moving fish, a faster shutter speed is necessary. This limits your options. A faster shutter speed dictates a higher iso and generally a lower f-stop. BTW the f-stop numbers are just opposite shat you would think. a lower number means a larger aperture, (larger opening), and a higher f-stop means a smaller aperture.

It truly takes a lot of practice and patience.

Here are a few of my favorites:

tube anenome by rworegon, on Flickr

blue spot goby - close up -09-24-2013 by rworegon, on Flickr

blue spot goby 09-24-2013 by rworegon, on Flickr

eagle eyes macro by rworegon, on Flickr

Bam Bams by rworegon, on Flickr

fire n ice 01-05-2014 by rworegon, on Flickr

yellow cucumber at night by rworegon, on Flickr

star in zoas by rworegon, on Flickr

fairy wrasse 04-11-2013 by rworegon, on Flickr
 
A 70 mm macro lens is out of my budget. :-( trying to get pics with what I have. We're all thoes pics from the 70mm macro lens?
 
Rudedog1212 said:
And none of that was with a macro? Did you have your iso bumped up high to freeze the action? I do have a 50mm 1.8 and a 18 to105 and 70 to 300. I do have a tripod and the pics that I took were either not in focus or the coral looked very small. Maybe I can trade corals for a quick lesson... Lol. By the way the pictures look AMAZING!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words. The close up coral pics were taken with a macro. The fish pics generally I just use the 50 1.8. If you're taking pic of a colony of coral and not super close up, you can use the 1.8 and it'll come out fine. The setosa was definitely with a macro ;). If you're new, then use a little higher f stop that way your focus is more forgiving, if you use low f stop, say 1.8 or 2.0, if your focus is off a tad bit, your pic is no good. Get a good tripod and practice with your lenses, with those lenses you have, you should be able to get pretty nice pics.
Try setting a custom white balance, and shoot on a tripod squared to your tank. Turn off all flow and manual focus with a Mid ISO with faster shutter and lowest f stop, which for your lenses may be 3.5. Then try doing it with the 1.8 at higher f stops so your focus and dof is a little wider.
 
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