Some photos

[jroovers]

Beautiful corals and photographs. A number of those are excellent. Those images as a whole I feel are stronger than the ones you posted earlier on this thread. The white balance looks good. More uniform exposure. More uniform sharpness and clarity. Having exceptional subject matter helps too.

Well done.

Thanks for the comments - the subject matter is second to none, that is for sure, makes taking a bad picture difficult.

Great photos

very nice pics!

These are awesome pictures. Makes me want to pull the camera out and take some myself. You have really made me realize I needs lots more practice and photography skills. Great job!

Thank-you. In terms of practice, we can all use more of it! The nice thing about digital is that it makes it so easy to practice... I couldn't imagine trying to learn on a SLR camera with film. There is something to be said for instant feedback.

 

[Reef Bass]

I'd like to get even more polyp extension (not just with photos, but in general), but that is a pipe dream in most cases. The montis above I irritated with cleaning the glass, and didn't wait until they were fully extended, didn't have the time in that instance. In terms of post, I typically use LR3 and lately don't have the time to eliminate all snow etc. from the pics as lately have been too busy. I have CS5 but I don't think I've ever used it to edit an aquarium pic, LR3 is just as good.

I hear the polyp extension thing. I love shaggy corals letting it all hang out, as it were. I also hear the impatience with needing to wait for polyps to extend. I've had shots all set up looking good only to accidently bang the tank, or the stand, or the kids come down the stairs like a herd of stampeding elephants and polyps just pucker up and disappear. I will just turn the camera off and walk away for 5 or 10 min, admittedly grumbling as I do.

I have both PS and LR3 and having now used LR for a while I strongly prefer it to PS for general photographic needs. Like PS, LR has good healing and clone tools which I use to remove snow, and LR's is easier to use, IMHO. Yes, it takes a little extra time but the image feels so much cleaner without distracting crud. I get the very busy thing. I often feel like I'm stealing time away from the rest of my life when I take pictures, and feeling like it's ok to do that is necessary before I can get busy.

PS is great for when I'm manipulating the image more than I ever would with a "normal" photograph, like compositing or rearranging.

 

[jroovers]

I hear the polyp extension thing. I love shaggy corals letting it all hang out, as it were. I also hear the impatience with needing to wait for polyps to extend. I've had shots all set up looking good only to accidently bang the tank, or the stand, or the kids come down the stairs like a herd of stampeding elephants and polyps just pucker up and disappear. I will just turn the camera off and walk away for 5 or 10 min, admittedly grumbling as I do.

I have both PS and LR3 and having now used LR for a while I strongly prefer it to PS for general photographic needs. Like PS, LR has good healing and clone tools which I use to remove snow, and LR's is easier to use, IMHO. Yes, it takes a little extra time but the image feels so much cleaner without distracting crud. I get the very busy thing. I often feel like I'm stealing time away from the rest of my life when I take pictures, and feeling like it's ok to do that is necessary before I can get busy.

PS is great for when I'm manipulating the image more than I ever would with a "normal" photograph, like compositing or rearranging.

Lately my PE has been lacking, but that is due to scaping changes as one of my rock pillars disintegrated near the base. A lot of stuff has been stirred up and is making my SPS temporarily (hopefully) PO'd.

As for the LR do you mean you use the spot healing tool for snow removal? I use that occassionally, but not all that much for reef photos. I don't think I've used the clone tool, I'll have to check that out. The snow is an issue in my tank. Just yesterday I was looking at it and there was a fine amount of grit suspended in the water column. I have a lot of flow for my SPS, and it doesn't take much fish activity to get it up in the water. Maybe what I need to do is turn my power heads off earlier and let the tank sit longer in lower flow and let it settle. I hear you with the time and family, I've got an enormous backlog of photos to go through and edit in LR of my 3 1/2 month old. My wife isn't going to be too happy at this point if I edit reef photos before I deal with the pics of my son!

Anyhow, thanks for the discussion ReefBass, appreciated, and happy holidays to you and your family! Goes for everyone as well.

 

[jroovers]

Some photos from yesterday, thought I would share some of them here in addition to my tank thread in the SPS forum.

 

[jroovers]

Longer 2 - 3 second exposures with all pumps on to try and capture polyp movement:

 

[westreef]

Jordan, very nice corals and photos. The long exposure shots were very interesting, never seen anything like it. Love it.:beer:
BTW, congrat for your new addition. That is #1 priority!

 

[jroovers]

Thanks Bernie! Indeed, life will never be the same and he is priority #1! How are your shots coming - making progress?

 

[westreef]

Recently I learned a few things from you. Seems to have some improvement. Thanks.
My son-in-law took my dslr for a snow ski trip, wanted to take some nice pics for his 2 yr old daughter (my first grandkid). I will take more pics and let you do a critics once the camera is back. Some of my corals are turning pastel and pale, but have good growth, maybe my new DD Lagoon Blue T5 is too strong. I want to try to replace it with DD AquaBlue plus and see if it helps.

 

[jroovers]

Bernie, looking foward to seeing some pics.

In my experience, paling SPS corals are usually due to too few nutrients in the water - if so, dosing AA's or feeding a coral food such as oysterfeast can help. Are you running a ULNS?

 

[westreef]

I don't believe I have a ULNS. My Nitrate is 2ppm and Phosphate is about 0.03. Alk is around 9.5dKH and Ca is 430ppm.
I just have a skimmer, GFO and GAC reactors, no Zeo or bio pellet, very simple setup. Only my 2 new frags, Surf N Turf and Miyagi Tort have pale colors. I will try use more AA supplement and or oysterfeast. Thanks.

 

[jroovers]

I don't believe I have a ULNS. My Nitrate is 2ppm and Phosphate is about 0.03. Alk is around 9.5dKH and Ca is 430ppm.
I just have a skimmer, GFO and GAC reactors, no Zeo or bio pellet, very simple setup. Only my 2 new frags, Surf N Turf and Miyagi Tort have pale colors. I will try use more AA supplement and or oysterfeast. Thanks.

It could be something else then Bernie... don't add stuff to your tank on my accord. Maybe just wait a bit and see if they come around? Your nutrient levels seem fine.

 

[jroovers]

Some better shots of my anthias from yesterday without my RBs on.

 

[nemosworld]

Loved your pics, very nice coral selection.

 

[Browndemolitia]

Awesome picture!

 

[jbm421]

Longer 2 - 3 second exposures with all pumps on to try and capture polyp movement:

What chalice is that at the top?

 

[jroovers]

That is a chalice that was either wild or maricultured from Indonesia I believe. I got it at a LFS. In termed of named chalices, it is most similar to the "hippie majic" chalice based on what one of my co-reefers has seen.

http://www.jasonfoxsignaturecorals.com/product_p/ch-29.htm

 

[Tradewinds]

Some better shots of my anthias from yesterday without my RBs on.

I really enjoy your photos.

How do you achieve the effect of the black background and still have the colors of the fish and coral pop like that?

 

[mareshow]

Nice shots! Your color and DOF is awesome! Some appear a tad dark but i think it adds to the "vivid" effect.

This picture in particular i think would really benefit from a front facing flash as well. (would help eliminate the shadow). Place a secondary flash at a 45 degree (ish) angle to the front glass (one of those little $80 secondary flashes you can buy online, cheap and effective ) and it will get rid of the shadow and won't wash out any color

 

[mareshow]

I really enjoy your photos.

How do you achieve the effect of the black background and still have the colors of the fish and coral pop like that?

overhead flash near the front of the tank

 

[jroovers]

I really enjoy your photos.

How do you achieve the effect of the black background and still have the colors of the fish and coral pop like that?

Thanks, glad you enjoy them. In the shots with the darker background, it helps that the back of my tank is painted black. It also helps I find to expose for the fish - sort of similar to shooting white birds - you really want to expose for your subject, not the surrounding. I find when in evaluative metering underexposing by 1 stop and sometimes a bit more gives that effect. You could also spot meter and meter for your subject that way, but I'm too familiar with the evaluative metering nowadays and don't use spot metering, I just try and compensate based on experience.

Nice shots! Your color and DOF is awesome! Some appear a tad dark but i think it adds to the "vivid" effect.

This picture in particular i think would really benefit from a front facing flash as well. (would help eliminate the shadow). Place a secondary flash at a 45 degree (ish) angle to the front glass (one of those little $80 secondary flashes you can buy online, cheap and effective ) and it will get rid of the shadow and won't wash out any color

Thanks! I have a 320 EX II flash that I got at Christmas with my Aeroplan points. I can drive it wirelessly as a slave with my 7D, just haven't tried it with tank photos yet. I use it mostly for family photos. I will give it a try soon enough. For these shots however, I like the look of the contrasting dark shadow with the colour of the polyps. I'll try a front flash at sometime, but not sure I'm looking for a more even exposure. In my opinion, flash from the front may look a bit unnatural - light coming straight down is more conducive to what you see on a natural reef. I'm going to give it a go though and let you know how I make out.

overhead flash near the front of the tank

That might make more sense then straight on conceptually to me, but I've never tried with the flash, so I wouldn't know for certain. Either way, it is worth playing around with.