Photos using an acrylic cube

[Steve Ruddy]

For various reasons some corals are hard to photo in a display tank so I purchased an acrylic cube from tap plastics and a scrap of black acrylic sheet. Here are a few shots using that set up.

 

[MRDHJ1]

Sweet pics

 

[jkreefer]

Very nice Steve, that first one is my favorite. The one that I got from you is doing well.

 

[jdolores]

Nice pics. Just scary holding an acrylic box and a slr over water I guess its more assuring to have two hands on the slr.

 

[Steve Ruddy]

Nice pics. Just scary holding an acrylic box and a slr over water I guess its more assuring to have two hands on the slr.

Thanks and FYI I set the box on the center acrylic support of the aquarium which happens to be right under the light source. Camera is is on a tripod in front of the aquarium. This works relly well for macro work as well. I'll post some macro shots using this set up soon.

 

[TikiDan]

so you remove the coral from the tank to photograph it?

 

[jdolores]

I was off. I was thinking of how you go to some LFS and they have the acrylic box to look down. I thought you were taking pics that way. But after looking at the pictures I understand the method used.

 

[elensius]

very cool pics, Steve... thanks for sharing!

 

[sulcata1619]

That third one is off the hook. I would love to see more when you have them.

 

[Reef Bass]

Very nice Steve. Did you adjust your white balance before shooting? How big is the cube? Did the corals' polyps retract for a while after being placed in the cube?

 

[Steve Ruddy]

Very nice Steve. Did you adjust your white balance before shooting? How big is the cube? Did the corals' polyps retract for a while after being placed in the cube?

I left my camera on auto white balance as it is usually accurate or very close. I shoot in RAW so I can change the white balance in Adobe Camera Raw if needed. I discovered that the black acrylic works best if angled forward so it doesn't reflect any light. That way it stays looking black. I had it right on the first photo. On the second you can see how the actinic was bouncing off of it and adjusting the white balance did not correct it. The third photo was similar to the second and I corrected the black point using levels in Photoshop. I will take more shots using the tilt background method to confirm my thoughts. The cube is 4"x4"x5" and they have larger and smaller sizes. So far the corals that show polyps during the day have come back out after transfer. Any bumping of the cube scares them in a bit though. One note be careful if setting the cube under a MH light bulb as you will only have a few minutes to get your shot before the water starts to heat up!