Need quick tips on shooting

[91mini]

I take a lot of pictures and are very proud of them but when it comes to my tank I don't always get what is in my head and can't duplicate some that I see online. I participate on a website that has weekly photo challenges and this week the challenge is "Symetry in Nature." I would love to get some images of my Zoanthids for this challenge but past experience tells me that I will fall short of my goals.

I want to simulate something like this or this. I like the way the colors pop, how dark the surrounding area is, and how tack sharp the image is.

Here is an image that I tried a few months ago. No photoshop just straight from the camera.
Zoa
This was shot when the main lights in my BC14


My equipment:
Nikon D70
Nikkor 85mm 2.8
Nikkor 35mm 1.8
Nikkor 18-70 kit lens
Sigma 28-300mm 3.5-6.3
Extension tubes
speedlight
Tripod

Can anyone give me tips on how to capture my zoas better? I am also descent with PhotoShop so any tips on post processing would also be helpful.

 

[Misled]

If it were me. I would use the 85mm with around 36mm of tubes,(if you have the kenko set, it's the largest one). Shoot in raw and adjust white balance in post, (if you look into the stickys at the top of the forum, they explain tank shooting).

 

[91mini]

Don't have the Kenko set but a similar, cheaper one I found on Ebay. I can get some decent macros with it. May give them another shot. I think I'll turn off the pumps and let everything settle before shooting this time. I think the bow in the front of the BC's distort too much. Might be some of my problem.

Do most shoot with only actinics on to get the bright colors?

 

[91mini]

Heres one I took with the 85 with actinics and white lights on. I just can't seem to pull the colors I want out when shooting coral the ways others have.

 

[Misled]

I think the bow in the front of the BC's distort too much. Might be some of my problem.

That would be all of your focus problems. The other has to be the white balance. You can shoot with flashes which will help control the WB some.

 

[91mini]

Here are 2 that I shot tonight using extension tubes and 85mm. Let me know what you guys think. The star polyps were shot from the flat right side of the tank. It's a tight space and hard to get between the tank and wall.

 

[Misled]

Not bad. Two things you probably noticed.
1. When using tubes, DOF gets shorter.
2. The closer something is to the glass, the easier it is to focus when shooting through the curved glass.

 

[91mini]

Yeah, I kind of liked the way the clown positioned outside the DOF of the tubes. I had one of just the starfish but liked this one best.

 

[Recty]

I have a 14g Coralife Biocube and I wouldnt consider myself a reef shooting amateur. I cant for the life of me get a good clear shot through the curved front glass with a 100mm macro and a 5D mkII.

I think those Biocubes are basically built really cheap, the quality of the glass is poor AND the curved front causes tons of diffraction. IMO, you're never going to get a good contest winning shot through the front glass.

Arrange your corals, if possible, for the shoot through the side of the glass. Or, if they are just a frag that is easily removable, buy a 10g tank, or any small tank with nice flat sides, and transfer tank water to it, transfer the coral you want to that small tank, and once everything settles in 5 minutes, take all the great crisp photos you want and then place everything back in the tank. In effect, you're creating a little photo studio for your corals.

You could go so far as to place a dark dark dark black piece of something (even just cardboard or construction paper) outside the tank in the back to block off everything.

With no current in the tank and probably having it not be under reef lighting, you should be able to shine a "normal" light on it and get whatever colors you are looking for.

Hope that helps.

 

[Recty]

Here are 2 that I shot tonight using extension tubes and 85mm. Let me know what you guys think. The star polyps were shot from the flat right side of the tank. It's a tight space and hard to get between the tank and wall.

This isnt a "bad" photo, but if you're wanting advice to win some forum contest, then I'll give it.

Having out of focus polyps between your focus point and the camera is distracting to the viewer. Those ones in the front, reaching out towards us and fuzzy, detract from the picture. You need to arrange your subject and your shot so that you dont have that type of distraction going on.

Also, your ISO is too high. The out of focus areas of the shot are pixely and even the in focus part is suffering.

Turn all your pumps off for 5 minutes, left everything settle down, then take a photo (lens EXACTLY perpendicular to the glass) with as low of an ISO as you can without noticing ANY noise at all. Turning off the pumps allows you to use a really slow shutter speed but still get nice crisp shots with a low ISO.

That should help you produce some sharper, cleaner results. I'd also do as suggested and shoot in RAW, then white balance later in Photoshop.

 

[91mini]

Thanks for the advice. I did most of that but since I was shooting with extension tubes the DOF suffered. I always forget about ISO. I will check to see what I was shooting at for this one. It is noisery than I would like. I need to set up a coral studio. Seems funny to even say.

I thought the Starfish one came out decent and used it to enter. Tonight was the deadline so we'll see how it does.

I'll take any advice anyone is willing to give.

 

[Recty]

If I did the starfish shot as my entry, I would have used photoshop and gotten rid of all the streaked bubbles you can see that detract from the subject.

Best idea is to turn your pumps all off for 5 minutes beforehand, but you cant go back and do that now, heh.