newby questions....

[geckoejon]

hello,

i picked up a nikon d80 with a 18-55mm last weekend. i am planning on getting a starter macro lens, but it might be weeks or a month before that happens. in the mean time, i am itching to take a few pics of my reef tank.

i tried to take some pics of my coral, but was not able to focus on anything under about 3 feet away. is that the norm for this lens, or am i doing something wrong? i tried different settings including manual, but no go. thoughts?

it seems like i can take full tank shots, but will need to learn about white balance, shutter speed, and ect...

are there any websites or pieces of info that break down taking reef tank pics in newby terms? maybe some info on adjusting white balance, shutter speed, and ect...?

thanks...

 

[Reef Bass]

All lenses have a minimum focus distance, or the closest the lens can be to the subject and still focus. While I shoot Canon, 3 feet as a ballpark sounds about right for your Nikon 18-55. By comparison, my macro lens will let me get up to 6" away from the subject and still focus, and I need to be something like at least 10' away from the subject with my 400mm.

Reef photography is a bit of a specialty, as cameras are not built to white balance automatically under the high color temperature lighting we use on our tanks, or to expose correctly under mostly blue LEDs.

 

[faithenfire]

the stickies above have great information.
yes that sounds normal for your lens.

enjoy the macro, one day I'll get me a 100mm

 

[Reef Bass]

i am itching to take a few pics of my reef tank...

Excellent! Do it!

Even if you feel you can't nail the final image yet, going through the process will help. Solving the particular issue(s) you have with your pic is a great way to learn. Often the images with which one struggles most are the ones which are the best learning opportunities. And there is a ton of information to be absorbed if one chooses.

I suggest starting with understanding the "holy trinity" of exposure - aperture, shutterspeed and ISO and how changing one will necessitate a change in one or both of the other two to compensate, assuming one is looking for similar exposure. Those relationships are at the heart of photography, and fundamental image goodness starts there.

For example, try shooting a pic in aperture priority mode (Av) at your widest opening (smallest f number) and then at your narrowest (highest f number). See how changing the size of the lens hole made the amount of available light change, so shutterspeed or ISO had to be adjusted.

Most importantly, see how the depth of field in the image changed. At your widest aperture, lots of light gets in (good for exposure), but the depth of field (the amount of the pic in focus around the focal plane) is very shallow. At your narrowest aperture, less light gets in (need slower shutterspeed to allow for longer exposure to compensate for less light), but a great deal more of the image is in focus around the focal plane.

Once you understand exposure, if you wish to take pictures of reef tanks and you want the colors in the picture to resemble what you see in the tank, you're probably going to need to adjust the white balance. There are several ways to do that. IMHO, shooting in RAW mode and adjusting the white balance during post processing is the easiest and most accurate. If doing that is not familiar to you, look into it and try it. I like RAW so much I shoot all my images in it, reef or otherwise. It gives one a much greater control over the image than simply accepting the in camera processing that produces a jpg file.

With a jpg produced by the camera, the data captured by the image sensor data is automatically processed in camera (white balanced and compressed) to yield the picture which is saved in jpg format.

With a RAW file, the image sensor data itself is saved in the file, and no automated white balancing or compressing of the image has occurred. A human then opens the file in image processing software (your camera came with some. I like Lightroom) and can make the adjustments he / she feels are appropriate to create the final jpg image.

And when you've mastered the technical aspects of photography, there's always the subjective aspect of composition. Great photos have interesting composition in addition to competent technical execution.

There are many online resources to help with all this, including the people here who are helpful and kind. Some may even chime in with their favorite photo sites (hint hint). The stickies here are valuable as faithenfire said. The amount of information can seem overwhelming at first but just focus on your immediate basic needs to start and expand as your comfort grows.

 

[geckoejon]

first pic!

first pic!

thanks for the feedback and info! i will respond and investigate some more into what you shared at a later time. i worked late last night and i haven't even had my first cup of coffee yet. lol but......

i have a d80 and picked up a nikkor 40mm and tripod yesterday. i started playing with it and got a halfway decent looking pic. the colors for the trachy look accurate.

still need to learn about white balance, shutter speed, and all of that good stuff. trying to take one step at a time here. i will do a lot of reading, asking questions, and probably take a class or 2.

thoughts on improving? tips on getting pics that don't look windexed out? this pic was taken in cloudy mode on my photons. looks like white light in person, but still get the blue in the pic.

i shot it in raw, then downloaded to viewnx2.

 

[Reef Bass]

i haven't even had my first cup of coffee yet.

Priorities man. Working on a cup of hot black french roast myself.

You're off to a good start! Nice trachy. I love when they put their feeders out.

Personally, I'd work on the white balance next. In Lightroom there is a slider control labeled "temp". Moving that around adjusts the white balance throughout the image. Set it where what you see on screen looks most like what you see in the tank. Don't get too hung up on the exact number. While my lights are 20,000K, I find a temp setting in Lightroom around 16,000 is a good starting point for me. Bam! White balance set. No more too blue. Quick and easy.

You might consider embedding your pics in your post instead of using attachments. There's info in the stickies about how to. Basically, use an image hosting service such as Photobucket, and paste the "IMG" code snippet the site provides for your image into the body of your post. Be careful with your image size, as it will show up as the size you posted to Photobucket. Roughly 1000 pixels wide is large without being right scroll inducing.

If you could manage to post your images with the EXIF info intact, others could see the settings used and that could help them help you. If EXIF is greek to you, don't worry about it.

 

[faithenfire]

it looks good. white balance needs some work, but good overall.

it's hard to tell at this size but it looks like it could be sharper. careful on focusing and minimum focusing length of the lens

 

[geckoejon]

any advice on focusing? it seems like i can get part of an object, like this rbta in focus, and the rest will not be.

thoughts?

 

[Reef Bass]

Generally speaking, what you are experiencing with not everything in focus is normal. It sounds as though your depth of field is more shallow than you were expecting.

Depth of field (the amount of the subject in focus around the focal plane) is controlled by the size of the aperture of your lens. A smaller f number / larger lens opening will provide a thinner / more shallow depth of field than a higher f number / smaller lens opening.

Even with the smallest aperture / greatest depth of field your lens can provide, you will most likely not have everything in focus.

There is a way to get everything in focus (focus stacking), but it requires shooting multiple pics of the subject, moving the focal plane a little deeper front to back with each, and then compositing them together in software to yield an image with everything reasonably focused.

 

[Northside Reef]

Excellent! Do it!

Even if you feel you can't nail the final image yet, going through the process will help. Solving the particular issue(s) you have with your pic is a great way to learn. Often the images with which one struggles most are the ones which are the best learning opportunities. And there is a ton of information to be absorbed if one chooses.

I suggest starting with understanding the "holy trinity" of exposure - aperture, shutterspeed and ISO and how changing one will necessitate a change in one or both of the other two to compensate, assuming one is looking for similar exposure. Those relationships are at the heart of photography, and fundamental image goodness starts there.

For example, try shooting a pic in aperture priority mode (Av) at your widest opening (smallest f number) and then at your narrowest (highest f number). See how changing the size of the lens hole made the amount of available light change, so shutterspeed or ISO had to be adjusted.

Most importantly, see how the depth of field in the image changed. At your widest aperture, lots of light gets in (good for exposure), but the depth of field (the amount of the pic in focus around the focal plane) is very shallow. At your narrowest aperture, less light gets in (need slower shutterspeed to allow for longer exposure to compensate for less light), but a great deal more of the image is in focus around the focal plane.

Once you understand exposure, if you wish to take pictures of reef tanks and you want the colors in the picture to resemble what you see in the tank, you're probably going to need to adjust the white balance. There are several ways to do that. IMHO, shooting in RAW mode and adjusting the white balance during post processing is the easiest and most accurate. If doing that is not familiar to you, look into it and try it. I like RAW so much I shoot all my images in it, reef or otherwise. It gives one a much greater control over the image than simply accepting the in camera processing that produces a jpg file.

With a jpg produced by the camera, the data captured by the image sensor data is automatically processed in camera (white balanced and compressed) to yield the picture which is saved in jpg format.

With a RAW file, the image sensor data itself is saved in the file, and no automated white balancing or compressing of the image has occurred. A human then opens the file in image processing software (your camera came with some. I like Lightroom) and can make the adjustments he / she feels are appropriate to create the final jpg image.

And when you've mastered the technical aspects of photography, there's always the subjective aspect of composition. Great photos have interesting composition in addition to competent technical execution.

There are many online resources to help with all this, including the people here who are helpful and kind. Some may even chime in with their favorite photo sites (hint hint). The stickies here are valuable as faithenfire said. The amount of information can seem overwhelming at first but just focus on your immediate basic needs to start and expand as your comfort grows.

Awesome advice. I will be hanging around here for a lot of it. Thanks

 

[geckoejon]

Generally speaking, what you are experiencing with not everything in focus is normal. It sounds as though your depth of field is more shallow than you were expecting.

Depth of field (the amount of the subject in focus around the focal plane) is controlled by the size of the aperture of your lens. A smaller f number / larger lens opening will provide a thinner / more shallow depth of field than a higher f number / smaller lens opening.

Even with the smallest aperture / greatest depth of field your lens can provide, you will most likely not have everything in focus.

thanks for the advice. i will follow up on it. now that my new setup is reasonably stocked and running, i can start focusing on taking some decent pics.

i like your signature. delayed gratification is something that i have just learned within the last decade. better late than never. lol

 

[geckoejon]

was playing around with the camera this morning. have the iso at 100 and the shutter speed in 1/8. the led's were 50/50 white/blue.

the plate looks halfway decent, imo. the colors on the plate look accurate. the background colors are way off though. don't care much about the background as long as my coral / livestock is correct.

thought on getting a crisper image or other ways to improve?