Pvillarraga
New member
I want to take some nice pics of my tank what setting should I put it on? I know
This is a general question lol thanks for the help!!!!!
This is a general question lol thanks for the help!!!!!
Setting for nice reef pictures
- Thread starter Pvillarraga
- Start date
daddy2kids
Member
ggrillo, which "custom white balance" do you use/suggest...?
Joshporksandwic
Premium Member
What camera are you going to use?
Sent from somewhere
Sent from somewhere
He means to set your white balance based on your conditions. Drop a white plastic lid in the tank, and take a picture of it, then set your white balance to it.
daddy2kids
Member
How would I do that in post processing...?
daddy2kids
Member
I get it. No camera or software yet. I'm this close || to buying. I just want to know what I'm getting myself into: I want to take very close up shots of my zoas and LPS polyps. I like the way they look under LEDs and actinics.
SaltyWenStirred
Member
If you have a friend or relative in college, you can ask them to get the photoshop for you. They get a significant break in cost. The version is for students, but it's pretty close to pro.
daddy2kids
Member
Any other votes for LightRoom in comparison to Photoshop? Can I do with LightRoom all the RAW things and light balance things I've been reading about in this forum?
ScubaRaven
Premium Member
Lightroom is a pre-editor to photoshop, and they should be used in conjunction. For those of you giving recommended camera settings (specific), please stop. You're not helping this guy. His settings will depend on his environment, ambient light, and what it is he is shooting, not to mention the camera he is using.
ScubaRaven
Premium Member
Then there is GIMP, which is essentially a freeware version of Photoshop, and Darktable, a freeware version of Lightroom, though WONDERFUL programs, and again, they are 100% free, and legal! 
Many people are fine with just Lightroom, but it really depends on what you do. 80% of the time, my photo editing stops at Lightroom, but most of the rest of the time, there's no practical way I could accomplish what I want without Photoshop. Of course, you can always just go with Photoshop Elements. It's cheaper than either Photoshop CS or Lightroom, and is an excellent program that should satisfy all of your needs and more.
As far as settings, ScubaRaven is right. There's no one good setting that will allow you to take great pictures. Having the right equipment and much more importantly, a solid grasp on the concepts of photography are what allow you to take great pictures. Look for a book called "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It's one of the more comprehensive books on photography I've seen for beginners. Here are some very general guidelines for aquarium photography, though:
Photographing corals
1) Use a true macro lens
2) Use a large f-stop, as your depth of field is relatively shallow with macro photography
3) You're probably going to end up with a very slow shutter speed, so get a good tripod
Photographing fish
1) Get a true macro lens
2) Ideally, learn how to use off-camera flash. . .it's a bit advanced, but makes it much easier to get a good quality shot.
3) You'll still want a moderately small aperture (i.e. moderately large f-stop), but you need to balance that with a fairly fast shutter speed (generally around 1/200, possibly faster).
4) If you're not using flash, you're probably going to need a high ISO to get a sufficient shutter speed.
Full Tank Shots
1) A good quality prime lens (i.e. not a zoom lens) is often ideal, simply because you can get quality for a much more reasonable price than a high quality zoom.
2) Use a tripod
3) F-stop is going to depend on the size of your tank, so reference a depth of field calculator (you can find them online)
4) Shutter speed depends entirely on what you need to acceptably freeze the motion of anything moving in your tank (assuming that's what you want to do). Depending on how fast your fish swim, something between 1/60-1/125 is probably fine, since they're relatively small in the overall picture.
But these are just very general guidelines. As stated, there are many factors that need to be considered, and mostly it just takes a lot of practice and experimentation. But then again, that's the beauty of digital, you don't have to pay for film, so fire away.
As far as settings, ScubaRaven is right. There's no one good setting that will allow you to take great pictures. Having the right equipment and much more importantly, a solid grasp on the concepts of photography are what allow you to take great pictures. Look for a book called "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It's one of the more comprehensive books on photography I've seen for beginners. Here are some very general guidelines for aquarium photography, though:
Photographing corals
1) Use a true macro lens
2) Use a large f-stop, as your depth of field is relatively shallow with macro photography
3) You're probably going to end up with a very slow shutter speed, so get a good tripod
Photographing fish
1) Get a true macro lens
2) Ideally, learn how to use off-camera flash. . .it's a bit advanced, but makes it much easier to get a good quality shot.
3) You'll still want a moderately small aperture (i.e. moderately large f-stop), but you need to balance that with a fairly fast shutter speed (generally around 1/200, possibly faster).
4) If you're not using flash, you're probably going to need a high ISO to get a sufficient shutter speed.
Full Tank Shots
1) A good quality prime lens (i.e. not a zoom lens) is often ideal, simply because you can get quality for a much more reasonable price than a high quality zoom.
2) Use a tripod
3) F-stop is going to depend on the size of your tank, so reference a depth of field calculator (you can find them online)
4) Shutter speed depends entirely on what you need to acceptably freeze the motion of anything moving in your tank (assuming that's what you want to do). Depending on how fast your fish swim, something between 1/60-1/125 is probably fine, since they're relatively small in the overall picture.
But these are just very general guidelines. As stated, there are many factors that need to be considered, and mostly it just takes a lot of practice and experimentation. But then again, that's the beauty of digital, you don't have to pay for film, so fire away.
daddy2kids
Member
Thanks to everyone who suggested Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure"--GREAT suggestion. (I saw it in several threads and bought it last week.) Thanks also to ScubaRaven for the freeware suggestions. I don't understand what the different software programs do, or why I would need both of them, but I can dig into that myself.
I'm assuming you're talking primarily about Lightroom vs. Photoshop. I'll see if I can help explain it a little, but ultimately you may just want to go to the Adobe homepage and download the free trial versions of each to see for yourself.
Lightroom: This was primarily designed as a tool for organizing your photos with some basic editing functionality. The methodology it uses for organization is a bit different than the normal folder structure most of us are used to in Windows, so it takes a little getting used to, but it's a very good architecture. Over the years, Lightroom has become a rather powerful photo editor in its own right. Probably the biggest difference in that aspect between Lightroom and Photoshop is that Lightroom is what's called a "non-destructive" editor. In other words, it doesn't make any changes to the actual file. It uses what's referred to as a "side-car" file that's basically a list of the adjustments you've made which are layered on top of the original file when you view it. You can then always export the file along with its adjustments as a jpeg, tiff, etc., so the original file is intact, but you can use the exported file in a web page, to send off to the printers, etc.
Photoshop: There are two versions. If you just here "Photoshop", it's generally referring to the "full version" of Photoshop, which is part of the Photoshop Creative Suite (CS). Then, there's the scaled down version which is Photoshop Elements. They both work the same way, but Elements lacks some of the functionality that Photoshop has (though it's still very powerful). Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are what's often called "pixel editors". In other words, you can change the actual pixels in the image, physically changing the contents of the image file. Like Lightroom, you can do all of your basic editing (brightness, contrast, color balance, etc.), but you can also do things like remove an unwanted object from the photo, blend multiple photos, stich photos into a Panorama, etc. It also has a lot of application in graphic editing. . .if you want to create a picture of your wife as a mermaid emerging from a waterfall, you're going to need Photoshop.
As I believe someone mentioned, the two programs were designed to be used in conjunction, but can also be used very effectively separately. I used Elements and then Photoshop alone for years, and just recently started using Lightroom. It took a little getting used to, but I eventually found the workflow in Lightroom to be much easier for basic photo editing. For example, I have profiles for candid photos, sports, landscapes, B&W, etc. that I can apply literally at the click of a button, and my photo editing is 90% done in many instances. Then, it's very easy to give the photo a title, description, key words, add it to a collection, etc. so it's very easy to find it amongst my 10s of thousands of photos in the future. On the other hand, if I want to do some serious selective editing, remove an offending tree branch or blend exposures from two different photos, it's time to go into Photoshop.
