I absolutely need help with Nikon d3200

[Webmanny]

So I recently went on a cruise and decided to but a DSLR to take with me on the trip and it was great for normal pictures, but I can't take nice pictures of my tank to save my life. The camera is a Nikon d3200. This is what I have tried so far.

1. UV filter
2. The coffee filter trick
3. All the preset modes available
4. Manually setting the White Balance (The measure method always fails)

I'm about to return this thing and go back to taking pictures with my Nexus 5, but wanted to see if anyone here has the same or similar camera and can help me figure this out.


Thank you in advance for your help and I apologize in advance if I don't get it right away.

 

[Patwa]

do you shoot in RAW or JPG? id suggest the former and then adjust the white balance after the fact, like with Lightroom

I usually try and get my white balance set before i take my shots. My Nikon is set to auto white balance and usually does a great job. But i find the fine control I can get with RAW is just ideal for pinning down the perfect white.

BUT

if you have a bowfront like in your avatar, it most definitely will be tough to take pics...the wave like shape of the glass means the light bends and warps the image. the best pics are when you're shooting at flat glass with the camera at 90º - totally perpendicular to the glass. when there's angles + curves it gets tough for the camera to work properly

 

[xtm]

Whoa, don't return it! I can help you with this. Post a pic and describe exactly what you're having problems with. Bad exposure? Too much shake?

First thing I would do is put it on M (manual) mode, auto WB, ISO 200. You will want to shoot flat against the glass to avoid distortion and reflection. You want a fast shutter speed but you're gonna have to look at the meter and make sure you're underexposing a little to get a faster shutter speed and to not blowout your pics.

Also, if you're using the 18-55 kit lens, make sure that you're not hitting the minimum focus distance. All lenses have a specific minimum focus distance. If you get any closer, the lens won't focus anymore (that's when you'll need a dedicated macro lens that can go 1:1)

Like I said, post a pic and let me know exactly what you're having issues with.

 

[Webmanny]

Very good point about the BowFront. I had no idea that this could be causing it. I will try to play with a tripod and some angles to see if this changes my results.

As far as Lightroom goes, I have version 5.5 and I have also tried to play with it, but they pictures still don't come out right.

Someone suggested a red filter since my issue is with the pictures showing way too much blue and too bright as well.

I will post some sample pictures later today when I get home to share with everyone.

Just to share, the thing that makes me mad the most is that I can take beautiful pictures with my Nexus 5 without any adjustments, but my $500 Nikon needs me to jump through hoops on fire. I just don't get it. :mad2:

do you shoot in RAW or JPG? id suggest the former and then adjust the white balance after the fact, like with Lightroom

I usually try and get my white balance set before i take my shots. My Nikon is set to auto white balance and usually does a great job. But i find the fine control I can get with RAW is just ideal for pinning down the perfect white.

BUT

if you have a bowfront like in your avatar, it most definitely will be tough to take pics...the wave like shape of the glass means the light bends and warps the image. the best pics are when you're shooting at flat glass with the camera at 90º - totally perpendicular to the glass. when there's angles + curves it gets tough for the camera to work properly

 

[Webmanny]

Thank you for your suggestions. I will try these once I get home today and I will also share some pictures here so you can see what I am trying to explain.

Whoa, don't return it! I can help you with this. Post a pic and describe exactly what you're having problems with. Bad exposure? Too much shake?

First thing I would do is put it on M (manual) mode, auto WB, ISO 200. You will want to shoot flat against the glass to avoid distortion and reflection. You want a fast shutter speed but you're gonna have to look at the meter and make sure you're underexposing a little to get a faster shutter speed and to not blowout your pics.

Also, if you're using the 18-55 kit lens, make sure that you're not hitting the minimum focus distance. All lenses have a specific minimum focus distance. If you get any closer, the lens won't focus anymore (that's when you'll need a dedicated macro lens that can go 1:1)

Like I said, post a pic and let me know exactly what you're having issues with.

 

[Reef Bass]

+1 Bowfront issue. It's not a camera problem. You are not going to get a distortion free shot shooting through the bowed portion no matter what angle. It's like putting a fun house mirror in front of the camera and then blaming the camera when the image proportions are not right.

If the sides of the tank are flat / not bowed, try shooting straight through those and see if things don't improve considerably.

+1 for xtm's advice.

 

[IslandCrow]

I wouldn't worry too much about physical filters, except perhaps a polarizer. Colored filters are really not necessary with digital cameras, since their effects are easily duplicated after the fact. To correct the white balance, the best method is to buy a waterproof (i.e. plastic or some other waterproof material) white balance card from someplace like adorama or bhvideo.com. You'll need something waterproof, because you'll want to actually place it in the tank under the aquarium lights. Hold it mostly straight up and down, but at a slight angle (20 degrees or so) so it's reflecting the aquarium lights. Use this to set your white balance manually. Consult your user manual if you want to set a white balance in the camera. Otherwise, set the white balance to any mode except auto and take a picture of the white balance card (it doesn't need to fill the frame) and then shoot as normal. Afterwards, import all of your photos into Lightroom and then use the eyedropper to set your color temp and tint for the photo with the white balance card. Then copy these values to all of the other photos. You may still want to tweak the color balance a little (I almost always do), but this should give you a pretty good starting point. Now, the reason I said not to use auto white balance is this mode won't necessarily allow you to copy from one photo to all the others, because the white balance baseline can change between photographs. . .in other words, setting the white balance to let's say 5500 and -10 for one photo will not necessarily yield the same results for the next shot.

Hopefully that helps you out with the white balance part, which is usually one of the toughest obstacles. As for the bowfront, it's certainly possible to take very good pictures. I owned a bowfront for years, and it really wasn't a big issue with the proper technique. Avoid the far right or left edges of the front of the tank. That's where you get the most distortion. Otherwise, just shoot as perpendicular to the glass as possible. Objects towards the back of the tank will also generally show significantly more distortion. And if none of that works, the sides of the tank are flat, so if you can get the shot from the side, that often makes it easier.

 

[xtm]

This is what I have tried so far.

1. UV filter
2. The coffee filter trick
3. All the preset modes available
4. Manually setting the White Balance (The measure method always fails)

1. Toss that UV filter away. It probably adds to the problem that you're having. (flare, softness, etc)

2. What is the coffee filter trick?

3. Stop using the preset modes. Set your camera to manual and we'll go from there.

4. Use Auto WB for now and set it to RAW (NEF).

 

[Webmanny]

1. Toss that UV filter away. It probably adds to the problem that you're having. (flare, softness, etc)

2. What is the coffee filter trick?

3. Stop using the preset modes. Set your camera to manual and we'll go from there.

4. Use Auto WB for now and set it to RAW (NEF).

The coffee filter trick is kind of the same thing IslandCrow suggests above, but out of water rather than inside. Some people online claim to have great success with it, but who knows.

On your other items, I really appreciate the suggestions, I am pretty sure I have already tried most if not all the possible modes on this camera, but I will take another swing at it tonight.

 

[Webmanny]

+1 Bowfront issue. It's not a camera problem. You are not going to get a distortion free shot shooting through the bowed portion no matter what angle. It's like putting a fun house mirror in front of the camera and then blaming the camera when the image proportions are not right.

If the sides of the tank are flat / not bowed, try shooting straight through those and see if things don't improve considerably.

+1 for xtm's advice.

I'm pretty sure it has little to do with the shape of the tank. I have see some beautiful pictures of Bowfront tanks like the ones below and I have also tried taking pictures of the sides of the tank, which are flat, with the same effects.

It has to be something else, but I appreciate the suggestions.

 

[xtm]

Are you talking about a Gray card? These are for fine tuning a custom WB. IMO, I wouldn't worry about that stuff for now. Learn the basics of exposures first.

Here's the viewfinder of a D3100 (same as D3200):
Put your camera in MANUAL and pay attention to # 11

# 11 is your exposure meter. It tells you if you're overexposing or underexposing. "perfect" exposure is zero (middle). On a typical well-lit reef tank, you want to underexpose a little, so your meter should be on the negative side by 4 notches or so.

Do NOT use Auto ISO. Put your ISO at 200 or so.

# 5 - Aperture doesn't really matter at this point. Choose f/5.6

Shutter speed (# 4) is very important. You want something reasonably fast, around 1/250 or so. Remember, you still need to watch your meter (# 11) and make sure you're not severely underexposing or overexposing. On the D3200, you change the shutter speed by turning the back dial. You change the aperture by pressing the aperture button and turning the same dial.

# 2 - is the focusing dot, also known as the green dot. When this is lit, it means the camera has acquired focus.

Play with these settings until you get proper exposure.

Also, post your troublesome pics.. make sure they are the originals and are unaltered so we can see the EXIF info.

 

[Steve Ruddy]

Now that you have had a few comments tank some shots full tank, and close up so we can see how you are doing and hone in on the advice. Also tank a few from the side so we can compare with the front shots.

 

[AndrewNS]

tagging along for info

 

[Webmanny]

Sorry it has taken so long to update this thread, but I have been busy with other things and haven't been able to do much with the tank.

As you know, I have tried every possible seeing on the camera, played with the white balance among other things, but nothing within the camera gave me proper results. Of course I was able to fix the images using software, but that wasn't the goal I was after. I knew there had to be a way to accomplish this without software and I recently found it.

I went on eBay and I purchased the kit below. This comes with colored transparent pieces of plastic that allow different combination of colors to offset the blue in my tank.

This is the kit I got.

I took a bunch of pictures, but I haven't downloaded them to my computer. I will try to do that later and post them here, but you can see this post of a guy that went through something similar and has some great before and after shots.

I will try to share mine later.

Thanks to all that tried to help, I appreciate all your feedback.

 

[gbru316]

From another relative newbie to dslrs, here's my advice.

Remove the mode setting from automatic and shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, and shoot some more. It's digital, "film" is free. Don't just focus on the tank. It's imperative that you learn about the relationship between ISO, aperture and shutter speed. After you have that down, things like white balance and depth of field. From my experience, shooting a tank is much more difficult than most other things you'd want to photograph. Get the basics down first and it should help you take better shots of the tank as well.

Yes, there's a steep learning curve with a camera of this caliber (I have the d5100, fwiw), but the results can blow away anything you can get from your Nexus 5.

 

[3dees]

all the advice above is good. you have a fine camera, but you must learn to use it. if you use it on auto everything you might as well use a point and shoot. if you can, turn down the actinics a bit.