newbie to aquarium photograph....help!

[macreefster]

i have a nikon D60 with an 18-55 and a 55-200 zoom. when i try taking pics of my tank they come out looking flat and washed out. i've tried auto focus mode with and without a flash and to me the pics turn out very poor, especially compared to those i've seen here at the site. any suggestions?


here are some examples of pics i've taken.....

without flash....

with flash.....

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks, tom

 

[Robb in Austin]

Doesn't look horrible.

Doing any post processing? Shooting in manual mode(or apeture/shutter priority) or full auto?

I think postprocessing can help alot.

Both those lenses can take good pics.

Read some of the stickys too, good info there.

Checkout nikon cafe also, for more picture taking help. (This assumes you are new to photography.)

Keep shooting!

 

[mickela]

much better than my point and shot camera.
very nice tank by the way

 

[jthao]

those are good pics..... what you complaining about??

 

[klepto]

try shooting in manual and adjusting your shutter speed/aperture manually- by reading your light meter/histogram/display you can dial in the right exposure.
I believe some of the washed out look that you are describing can be avoided by shortening the exposure time (shutter speed) or 'stopping down' using a larger # aperture than what was used to shoot them initially.

The first two look just a tad over exposed to me. If you have access to photoshop then some simple post processing (ideally working in RAW format) will allow you to boost the colors and correct your color balance.


Great looking tank! keep shooting- your shots so far look nice.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

All it needs is a little color.

 

[Absolute Reef]

little post-processing needed, thats all.
pictures are well focused, nice composition, good overall for 18-55 lens.

and, what about those pictures you have seen around here ? show us some samples.

You might want to turn off all your pumps before you take take-shot. Take it under "auto-WB" mode since D60 is not that accurate about WB,...you can do some WB correction later on.
You have to be very careful using flash, light may be too harsh. Were you using pop-up or sb-600,800?

Not so serious about shooting mode, as long as you know what you are doing. It's all under the same principle.

 

[IPT]

I'd play with the WB a tad. You may also want to use the "levels" or "curves" adjustment layers to pop the contrat a bit and lose the "washed out look" (which isn;t really bad at as it is.