My Reef Photography Problems

[Staaan]

Hey guys..

Besides being fairly new to reefing (got into the hobby about 2 years ago)...

I'm totally new to photography..

As reefing and photography go very well together... reefing dragged me into photography (as I'm sure it did to a lot of you).

My current setup..

-Canon EOS Rebel T1i
-Tamron 90mm Macro Lens
-Canon EF-S 18-55mm Lens
-Velbon Tripod (got this sucker off ebay for $20.. its from the 70s, but its heavy & sturdy as hell, and easy to manipulate)
-Remote Release Timer

So what are my problems?

I have gotten pretty comfortable with my camera & other photography goodies... especially when it comes to daylight tank shooting. At first it presented a problem, but I think I got pretty decent...

Here are some examples from the very well known ReefBum's gorgeous tank

So.. what are my problems exactly?
Adobe Lightroom.

When it comes to rendering daylight shots.. lightroom makes no "mistakes".

But when it comes to actinic shots (specifically under blue LEDs)... lightroom makes a mess out of each photo. Maybe its not always a complete mess, but no matter how much tweaking I do, I can never get it to look like the original jpeg preview...

Anyone know any good calibration profiles or something along those lines that I can use?

What I have been doing for my actinic shots is just using Canon's program called Digital Photo Professional, exporting them as jpeg...

 

[Misled]

Shoot in RAW, adjust WB in post while still a RAW image.

 

[Staaan]

I do shoot in RAW.

WB is not the issue.
Using a custom WB doesn't require me to really tweak the picture in LR or PS.

The issue is the rendering of the RAW file... when using the stock canon software all RAW files are represented correctly. Not the case with LR, because Canon does not share their raw tone curves or something like that with Adobe. So Adobe has to guess to off a RAW file.

I know there are some calibration profiles that can be loaded.. just haven't found any yet.. wondering if some one has?

I'll post up 2 pictures in a few.. one with the stock canon program and one with lightroom..

 

[Staaan]

This is the image as it looks on the camera when I took it, and how it looks on the stock Canon program...

This is what happens to the image when I import into LR. I have all import options set to off. Tried 1:1 render and Standard.. no difference...

 

[BlueCorn]

WB is not the issue.

Yes it is.


The issue is that LR does not read the WB as set in camera on a RAW photo (nor does any photo editor except Canon's DPP). You'll have to either manually balance it or take a peak at the settings in DPP and then use that as an approximate starting point in LR. Once you see what the settings should be, you'll have an easier time of it.

 

[Misled]

Ask Doug!!!!^^^^ lol

 

[Staaan]

Yes it is.

Interesting.. but how do you figure so?

I've played with the WB slider in both directions, and have not gotten a desirable result.

Did a buncha googling.. and came across an answer which points to this Adobe add-on program thing..

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles

Any one ever use it?

 

[Staaan]

Yes it is.


The issue is that LR does not read the WB as set in camera on a RAW photo (nor does any photo editor except Canon's DPP). You'll have to either manually balance it or take a peak at the settings in DPP and then use that as an approximate starting point in LR. Once you see what the settings should be, you'll have an easier time of it.

I understand what you're saying.. but I tried practically every numerical value on the WB slider (unless I'm missing something).. and nothing gave a desirable result.

I feel its more than just WB.. but I'm sure I'm wrong given I'm a newbie.. lol

 

[Brett9917]

Some of it also appears to be color saturation... If you are importing everything at neutral into LR, you lose some of your color saturation too. Along with WB, that appears to be the next big thing that I noticed.

 

[Staaan]

Thank you all for the comments/advice...

Any one else have any other ideas?

 

[RVANANO]

Doug (Beerguy) knows his stuff when it comes to photography.

 

[Staaan]

Thanks or the help guys.

I'll try out what you said Doug. Thank you