New to photography

ejdustin

ejdustin

New member
Hey everyone, let me just start by saying the only photograpghy I have ever done is point and shoot auto focus and I just push a button. That being said I realize there is a lot of skill which must be learned and gained through experience and also that the equipment is important. The pictures I see on here are beautiful and I wish I could take something even remotely similar. I would like to get the proper equipment and start learning ASAP. I now have a NIKON D50 and am wondering which lens to grab for those intense close up macro shots. Even full tank shots seem to be out of my skill level. I have LED lights on my take and cant seem to get the shots to represent the nice color. I have played around with editing the exposure and coloring and get a lot closer but im still missing the clarity and as I said anything close up is far beyond me. That being said I would love any pointers and also my largest question... which lens???

Thank you!
 
Thats a loaded paragraph there....first things first....number one priority, use a tripod :)

As for which lens, that is entirely dependent upon your budget :)
If the sky is the limit I can recommend you the best macro lens available, but if your budget is small it gets trickier.

Luke
 
Not knowing your budget...here are three Nikon lenses that work great for Macro shots.

Nikon 105mm without VR - about $500 ebay
Nikon 105mm with VR - about $800 or so refurbished
Nikon 70-180mm - about $1500

If your purpose is solely the aquarium, the VR is useless as you will be using a tripod. The only reason for the 70-180 option would be to use it as a walkaround lens as much as macro photography, or for macro of small subjects that move a lot...animals etc.

Hope that helps!

Luke
 
Thank you for the quick response! Budget isn't endless but I want to make sure I get something nice. I have two other lenses more for walking around so for this lens it will be specifically for the aquarium.

What about other options or settings? Manual focus then set the timer on tripod and let it shoot, turn flash off I assume, things of that nature? Also with the coloring while taking shots with my blues on is there a way to make the pictures more accurate or am I going to essentially need to touch it up everytime.
 
Alright...settings :)

I highly recommend you read this webpage, at least a few times, then take your camera and play with each setting taking several pictures so you can see what that setting does when you change it around.
http://www.digitalphotographybasics.com/

After you have a handle on the settings you can start trying to capture a pic of something in your tank.

Personal steps for me...
setup tripod
use autofocus
get item into picture and take test shots to determine just what f-stop I need, based upon how much of the target I want in focus.
I then set my ISO speed to whatever number I need to ensure my shutter speed is at least 60-80 (the lower the ISO the better).
Then I start taking pictures :) and changing settings till I get a pic I like.

one other tip is to turn off all pumps in the tank while taking the pics as it will stop flowing corals from moving so much and you will get a sharper image.

Another overall tip is to simply take lots of pictures, and one is likely to be good out of all of them :)

As for color...I find most SLR cameras are not able to interpret the white balance in saltwater aquariums very well, so I shoot my tank in RAW mode and then import those RAW files into either lightroom or adobe elements for post processing where I can set the white balance appropriately.

HTH
 
forgot to mention....I don't use a flash, but if you do find you need one, make sure you are shooting at an angle from the glass to avoid the glare.
 
Thank you for all the info. I will definitly start playing with some of the setting and see how they effect pictures when I get home. I'll take a little more time before I pick out the lens and make sure to get a decent deal but I can get a good feel for everything before that comes. Figuring out how to change everything is a good start though!

Thank you again!
 
For lenses I like to rent them from some of the places online and test them out for a bit before I purchase. This lets me see if I really want it or not. I have saved myself a lot of money doing that! For instance I really thought I wanted that 70-200 2.8L but it was just too heavy for what I wanted.
 
I didn't know you could really rent out a lens that could be a nice advantage. I was planning on going to a store and seeing how they felt there. Just curious is there a way to buy used safely or would that be an awful idea with a lens??
 
Thank you!

Okay so I'm using my friend's lens right now its a nikon DX AF-S 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G. I know this isn't one of the recommended ones or the best option I'm just trying to get some experience without spending money just yet. Long story short I can't even get it to focus on my tank. I have tried a number of different modes and then options. I assumed the flower for close up would be the best bet? Turned flash off, in RAW mode, cleaned tank, pumps are off, also and I made sure I'm perpendicular to the tank still no luck. I must be missing something... Which focus mode should I set it to there is closest object single object and dynamic object? Or is this lens simply not even worth practicing these shots on? Thank you again everyone I apologize at my complete lack of knowledge or ability but I have to start somewhere.
 
Well...as you said, its not exactly a lens made for macro photo's. The problem you are most likely running into is that the closest distance that lens can focus at is 3.6 feet.

This means that the subject you are attempting to focus onto needs to be at least that far away from the camera for the lens to be able to get it into focus.

Luke
 
I personally shoot a canon, so not sure what the camera settings/terminology for Nikon are, but in the Canon world you want to shoot on Av mode which is Aperture Priority mode.. this will let you set the F-stop... w/o getting too far into it.. the lower the number the more blurred the background will be (aka bokeh).
 
Yea probably the minimum distance when im farther away it will focus. At times it seemed like it was trying to focus on the glass with the setting at closest object. I tried to use the setting for the f-stop but wasn't exactly sure what I should be aiming for. I did a lot more reading and am going to try this approach some more. Thanks!
 
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