xxxbadfishxxx
Active member
With my camera 
Shot my tank for first time in a while
- Thread starter xxxbadfishxxx
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xxxbadfishxxx
Active member
xxxbadfishxxx
Active member
Thanks, its a Nikon D50 with a 18-70mm dx lens. I was shooting on Shutter Priority at 250 or faster.
maroun.c
New member
Very nice pictures.
I would shoot at slower speeds though as a speed of 1/150 would be more than enough to solve handshake and fish movement at your maximum zoom.
This will allow smaller apertures which will result in more DOF unless if your looking for a very shallow DOF effect.
Shallow DOF on moving fish decreases your chances of having the most important parts of the fish.
For example picture 1 is a very nice focus on the eyes, just where it should be still I would have loved to see a more crisp mouth.
Picture 2 your focus went to the back of the frontal white strip with an OOF mouth and eyes.
Picture 3 your focus is on the dorsal fin with mouth and eyes OOF. Pic 2 &3 clearly show how thin DOF is and how hard it is to have the focus right where you want. on the other hand you achieve great effects if you manage to have the focus just where you want.
If your using tripod Even slower shutter speed would be sufficient to freeze your fish movement.
What ISO were you using that would allow such fast shutter speeds. I'm assuming your shots are flashless? the D50 really excels in low noise at higher ISO.
I would shoot at slower speeds though as a speed of 1/150 would be more than enough to solve handshake and fish movement at your maximum zoom.
This will allow smaller apertures which will result in more DOF unless if your looking for a very shallow DOF effect.
Shallow DOF on moving fish decreases your chances of having the most important parts of the fish.
For example picture 1 is a very nice focus on the eyes, just where it should be still I would have loved to see a more crisp mouth.
Picture 2 your focus went to the back of the frontal white strip with an OOF mouth and eyes.
Picture 3 your focus is on the dorsal fin with mouth and eyes OOF. Pic 2 &3 clearly show how thin DOF is and how hard it is to have the focus right where you want. on the other hand you achieve great effects if you manage to have the focus just where you want.
If your using tripod Even slower shutter speed would be sufficient to freeze your fish movement.
What ISO were you using that would allow such fast shutter speeds. I'm assuming your shots are flashless? the D50 really excels in low noise at higher ISO.
xxxbadfishxxx
Active member
Wow, thanks for all the tips. This is exactly the help i was looking for. I am pretty new to using the manual settings on my camera so all advice is highly appreciated. I was actually shooting at the speed 25 and it was around F4.5. The iso was at 400 i guess i could have bumped it up to 8 but they would be even more grainy.
I find it annoying that i couldnt get a whole clown in focus, what would you recommend me changing my settings too? If i made the shutter slower, wouldnt the fish blur even more? These were taken with no flash, and i also ran a despeckle and reduce noise in photoshop.
Please keep your comments coming.
thanks,
Jeff
maroun.c
New member
you got me confused earlier when you mentioned shooting at shutter pririty of 250 and faster as you will need a lot of lighting on that tank to be able to shoot at 250 flashless.
As I netioned before the D50 is one of te best in handling noise so don't be afraid to go higher with Iso up to 800 would still be acceptable. a tripod solves it for the corals as they don't move and helps in moving fish shots.
Ultimately you need more lighting so a flash will be needed. Corals loose some of their coloration in shots taken with flash but as I said you they don't move so a good tripod, longer exposures, aperture to achive the look you're after and you're fine.
For fish Flash not the built in one as it is hard to get rid of it's reflection. an SB600 with a diffuser on bounced a bit up, camera straight to glass or angled down to avoid reflections, shutter speed 1/100 or faster I think the D50 can ync till 1/250, aperture to give the look you want so smaller one for more DOF (widest-8) smaller apertures lead to loosing your background as the whole lighting is then coming from the flash. also longer shutter speed s allow the cmera to pick up more colour from the tank lighitng than from flash. flash then freezesz the action of the moving fish and colours of corals in the background are acceptable too...
Experiment and you'll find what you like best.
As I netioned before the D50 is one of te best in handling noise so don't be afraid to go higher with Iso up to 800 would still be acceptable. a tripod solves it for the corals as they don't move and helps in moving fish shots.
Ultimately you need more lighting so a flash will be needed. Corals loose some of their coloration in shots taken with flash but as I said you they don't move so a good tripod, longer exposures, aperture to achive the look you're after and you're fine.
For fish Flash not the built in one as it is hard to get rid of it's reflection. an SB600 with a diffuser on bounced a bit up, camera straight to glass or angled down to avoid reflections, shutter speed 1/100 or faster I think the D50 can ync till 1/250, aperture to give the look you want so smaller one for more DOF (widest-8) smaller apertures lead to loosing your background as the whole lighting is then coming from the flash. also longer shutter speed s allow the cmera to pick up more colour from the tank lighitng than from flash. flash then freezesz the action of the moving fish and colours of corals in the background are acceptable too...
Experiment and you'll find what you like best.
Lpabsolute
New member
Sweet Pics!!!!!
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