New to the Photography World

[brandonb8]

Hello,

I got a T2i for Christmas and have been experimenting with different camera settings. I am putting a link to the pictures in my reef club forum. Any feedback is appreciated. I am still trying to improve my picture taking skills.


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1939432

 

[IslandCrow]

Not too bad. What are you using for a lens? Your white balance looks pretty good, and overall exposure is pretty good, except the full tank shot which is a little over exposed. Those full tank shots can be difficult. It doesn't look like anything that couldn't be fixed in post processing, though. You also have a few that are a bit out of focus. The picture of the open brain looks like it may be a diffraction problem. If that's in fact what it is, it's usually caused by taking pictures at an angle through the glass. The others look more like motion blur. . .either from the object moving or your camera moving. A tripod can be very helpful, especially for stationary objects like corals. For moving objects, it's all about shutter speed. I generally don't go any slower than 1/200. Usually I'm at 1/250 because I'm using flash, but that's another matter I could talk about for another 5 paragrahs.

I'd also recommend turning off all of your pumps. It looks like there's a good amount of flotsam floating about which really detracts from some of the photographs. Turning off the pumps allows most of this to settle down.

Lastly, when it comes to fish, avoid flat profiles. Although it looks like you missed your focus point, the picture of the coral beauty, compositionally speaking, is a much more interesting picture than any of the others. Here's the problem, though. You'll need to use a larger f-number (f/11 - f/22 is generally what I'm working with). Because of this, you'll probably either need to use flash or operate at a high ISO. Most of these newer cameras still produce very acceptable images up to 1600 ISO, though. Shooting in RAW will also give you a little more leeway when it comes to editing. For aquarium pictures, I would probably always recommend shooting in RAW if you're not already.

 

[brandonb8]

WOW. First, thanks for taking the time to give me some feedback. I'm a little disappointed that no others have made any comments, but that is another story. The lens I was using was the stock 18-55 and 55-250. I really have no idea what I am doing but I have been trying to do some reading on the different f stop settings and increasing iso to compensate. All pictures were taken without flash. Should I look into getting like a 430ex or a 580ex. I assumed flash was not desirable on tank shots.

As far as turning off the pumps, the first set of pictures in the thread did not have the pumps off, however, the last sets did have everything off. I am still having a problem with microscopic particles in the water column. I waited two hours before taking any pictures with all flow and return pumps off. I even tried running a filter sock for a couple days prior to taking pictures. I didn't know if there was a depth of field "adjustment" I could make to minimize the amount of particles that show up in the pictures. I tried to reduce the sharpness of the background with tv and av with limited success.

I used a tripod on most of those shots, but the brain shots were done with macro filters and handheld snaps.

Once again thanks for any input or comments. There does not seem to be a ton of literature on aquarium photography that deals with these issues (at least that I have found).

 

[Brett9917]

Wow, the marine snow seems more like an aquarium problem than a photography problem. If I shut my pumps off for 5 min or so, I have almost to particulate in the water column... Then again, I run filter socks 24/7

Other than that, Island Crow is spot on.

 

[IslandCrow]

OK, good info. I know you're probably not excited about spending more money on a new lens, but a true macro lens will really help with the quality of your photos. I'd recommend the Canon 100mm macro, but Sigma also makes a very nice macro that's a little cheaper.

But, there's plenty you can do that won't cost you any money. Depth of field is very important when you're taking macro photos, and it's primarily a function of your lens focal length and your f-stop (a.k.a. f-number or aperture). The higher your f-stop (which is inversely proportional to your aperture), the greater your depth of field. Now, here's the catch. That higher f-stop and corresponding smaller aperture limits the amount of light that gets to your sensor. In other words, you need a higher ISO or a slower shutter speed to compensate. These three things (f-stop, ISO and shutter speed) are often referred to as the photographic triangle (or triad). Rather than spending a bunch of time explaining it, this article should help: http://photo.net/learn/basic-photo-tips/aperture-shutterspeed-iso/. The author of that article also has a very good book for beginning photographers called "Understanding Exposure".

So, once you have a basic understanding of exposure, you can set the correct f-stop for your desired depth of field by using a calculator such as this: http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html. Here's how you use the calculator:

1) Select your camera model from the top left block
2) Select your focal length. For example, if you have your 55-250 set to the 100mm mark, your focal length is 100mm.
3) Select your f-stop. You'll need to be either in manual mode (M) or aperture priority (AV) to manually set your f-stop.
4) Subject distance is simply the distance from the back of your lens (not the front) to your subject. It's actually slightly more complicated than that, but with today's lenses, that usually has to be close enough.

For an example, let's say for the T2i, you have a 100mm focal length and your subject is 12 inches away. According to the calculator, if you focus on an object exactly 12" away, everything from 11.9 - 12.1 inches will be in focus. So, you can see why I say depth of field is so important for macro. A couple tenths of an inch in focus isn't very much, and f/16 is a pretty small aperture.

OK, if you're still with me, one last piece of advice for post processing. Most photo editors will have a spot healing brush. This is a great tool for getting rid of the little bits of detritus that are present in almost every aquarium photo. If the spot healing brush doesn't work, the clone brush allows you to paint over the trouble area by first selecting a similar area elsewhere in the photo.

OK, hopefully this helps. From what I can see, you're well on your way to taking some very nice photos. That's one of the greatest benefits of the digital age of photography. It doesn't cost you anything to practice new techniques.