Settings for Full Tank Pics on a D90

[kmu]

Hi there,

Well ever since I got my Nikon D90 Ive been frustated because I cant take a decent full tank shot.

Its a 48" long starphire glass tank with an open top and an ATI T5 fixture hanging about 5 above the water level.

What settings should I use on my D90? should I take the pictures during the day or at night? with a light on on the room where the tank is?

 

[kilroy217]

I use a D90, and when I take my full tank shots, I generally use my 18-105mm at around 24-35mm, stand back about 8-10 feet, and shoot with widest aperture and fastest shutter speed that I can get away with and still get the necessary light. Generally, I'm using somewhere in the vicinity of ISO 800, although sometimes that varies. I typically shoot FTS at night, so there are no reflections from windows, room lights off, tank lights on, no flash.

Hope this helps.

Matt

 

[xtm]

Do you have a tripod? If not, use a chair or something to stabilize your camera.

Anyways,
I would set the D90 to Manual, base ISO 200, and set it at f/8 for best DOF. Use matrix metering and meter the scene.. you want the meter to be level (in the middle) or maybe slightly underexposed. If you're shooting hand-held, you want at least 1/500 or faster. Shooting in Manual allows you to meter manually and tweak your exposure to your liking.

Do you shoot NEF or JPG? What software do you use afterwards?

 

[IslandCrow]

Another tip for taking full tank shots. If you want the stand or any other part of the room to be part of the picture, I'd recommend taking two pictures. One should be exposed properly for the tank, while the other is exposed for the room. Then, you can use a photo editing program like Photoshop to blend the two exposures. It takes a little practice, but isn't very difficult to do, and there are a ton of tutorials on the web.

Otherwise, it sounds like you've gotten some good advice from the previous two posters. I'd definitely shoot in an uncompressed format (I guess that's NEF for Nikons), as correct color balance can be tricky with the lighting we use for our tanks.