New pictures

zibba

New member
I haven't shared pictures for awhile. Hope you enjoy!

Fish

Convicts (from Aquarium Arts):


Desjardini sailfin (from Shark Reef) and Yellow "Coris" (from Reefculture):


Elegant Coris Wrasse (from LE Corals):


Whitetail Bristletooth tang (from Aquatic Warehouse in SD):


Blonde Naso tang (from Triton Marine Aquaculture in Ohio):


Male Rhomboid wrasse (from MACNA)


Yellow tang (from Aquatouch):
 
Thanks guys! :)

One more I forgot about. Naso isn't in focus but it's pretty hard to capture that on camera since it happens so infrequently.

DSC_0572
 
VERY nice pics there zibba. would you mind sharing the equipment you are using to shoot? I have a 6D with a 100mm L macro series lens but can't for the life of me get my shots to look like yours. Are you using any filters?
 
I used a Nikon D600 with the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 macro lens. Sounds like a very similar set up to yours only Nikon vs. Canon.

Normally I use a flash for fish pictures (like the one of the Rhomboid and of the Yellow Tang above), but the others were taken without a flash. For those pictures, I put the camera in Manual mode and adjusted the shutter to 1/250, f/8.0 and ISO of 2000. With those settings, I was able to get enough light into the shot to stop the fish. The trick is to get the eye in focus as it makes for a much better picture, so just try to keep that in mind.

If the fish was still blurry, I would have to increase the ISO on my camera to around 2500-3200, but with my D600, things start getting "noise," which has to be processed out in Adobe Lightroom, and you lose detail/sharpness.

My preference is to shoot with ISO around 400 though since it creates a much cleaner/sharper image. But there just isn't enough light to stop fish swimming without a flash.

For corals, I use a tripod and a 2-second delayed shutter (there's an internal setting on almost every camera for this). ISO is typically set to around 400. I play with the aperture range depending on how much of the coral I want to appear in focus but I'd say f/9-16 is my typical range. Then, I just take pictures with different shutter speeds until there's enough light to make it as accurate as I can.

I post-process all of my pictures using Adobe Lightroom CC for a more accurate white balance and some color/clarity tweaks (the camera's processor is pretty good at getting the colors right, but never perfect). Occasionally I'll use Adobe Photoshop CC if there is a lot of particulate in the water column that I want to remove -- it's just distracting -- because there's a tool on there that's more efficient to use.

Happy to answer more specific questions or clarify things.
 
Thanks a ton for the detailed setup. Gonna go start playing. Question though. When you are using a flash, are you bouncing it or is it remote? Curious as I would think flash would reflect too much off the glass. Oh and last thing, are you shooting with your lens right up on the glass or are you away/off the tank when shooting? Thanks again and keep the awesome pics coming!
 
You're welcome.

Yes, I bounce the flash at an angle using a DIY "softbox" for my on shoe flash. I've played around with off-shoe flash, but it's kinda tricky. Really, your goal when using the flash is to get a fast enough shutter speed to beat the flash's reflection back to your camera's lens -- typically 1/320+.

I'm not right up against the glass but I always try to move my body around so that I'm shooting directly through the glass at a 90-degree angle. You'll get a blurred image otherwise.

That said, if I'm being lazy and don't want to get out the tripod, I'll occasionally just press the lens against the glass to get it really steady and make sure it's perpendicular. Make sense?

Here are some SPS shots from tonight:

WWC *** Acro (a new PROP coral that was picked up at MACNA and is in grow-out):


Maricultured piece from Club Reef:


BC Spainbows (also a PROP piece, we auctioned a piece off for the first time last auction):
[url=https://flic.kr/p/qWvs5m]


Digi (from jporter)
[url=https://flic.kr/p/qh4pWC]


Jedi Mind Trick (from jporter)


Blues Clues acro (from skewlboy)
 
RR USA Led Zeppelin (from Reef Raft)


Cherry Blossom (from Club Reef)


Love this maricultured piece (from Club Reef)


Unknown granulosa (from Carlos)


RR USA The Phoung (from Reef Raft)


PC Rainbow (from WWC at MACNA 2014)


The only non-SPS shot of the night, a red w/ yellow tip goni from Shark Reef:
 
I'm jealous of your PC rainbow, all I've been able to do is almost kill mine. I don't have any space left to move it though.
 
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