Top Down shots of sps

[Pumped]

Just got a canon T3 with a stock lens and some other macro lens which is not that great for my purpose; so I'm just using the stock one. Maybe you guys an help with some settings...

These pics are taking night time with lights more dim. What do you guys think I need to work on?

 

[MitchellB]

Maybe you could look into getting a viewing box to shoot through for your top down images. This will help with distortion from surface water movement. Keep shooting!!

 

[MitchellB]

Check out the sponsor Avast. I believe they make a nice viewing tube for about 40 bucks

 

[Reef Bass]

In my opinion, they are generally underexposed and a little blurry. My guess is the blur is possibly from surface motion but also because they were shot at 1/20", which is very hard to hand hold without blur. You could have bumped your ISO up or opened up your lens (small fstop number) to allow more light in and then shot at a faster shutterspeed, resulting in the same exposure but less blur. However, because seem generally underexposed, I would recommend both upping your ISO and opening your lens even more than you reduce your shutterspeed to net out with more exposure.

I would also recommend shooting in RAW as you'll be able to white balance the pics better and can also simply reimport them and adjust the exposure without having to reshoot the shot.

 

[Recty]

These pics are taking night time with lights more dim. What do you guys think I need to work on?

You need to work on taking pictures when your lights are on

Seriously though, dimming the lights or shooting at night when they are already off is asking for blurry pictures. The more light you've got, the better.

Shooting top down with bright lights makes you deal with reflections off the water, but you should be able to get a decent angle where you dont have to deal with it. Your pictures will turn out way better. Or like was suggested, shoot through a viewing box.

You can make yourself a really cheap one. Basically make a wood box with four sides, leaving the top and bottom open. Make it all from acrylic if you want, but the important part is making the bottom be either glass, or acrylic, and hook it to the previous 4 sided box you made. Then, press that down into the water so you arent dealing with surface ripple or reflection, and take your pictures through there.

If you can use your lens to push the box down gently, this will guarantee that your camera is shooting straight through the acrylic, giving you a clean picture.

Sorry, kind of hard to describe Or like stated, buy one for $40 off a website! It's easier.

 

[jsims08]

nice color just a little blurry

 

[Pumped]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I made a diy coral viewer.

I'll experiment with the settings per Reef Baas and brighter lighting. Will post some pics to compare.

 

[Pumped]

After adjusting to 1/60 and 1600 my picture quality looks a lot better already! Haven't had much time to practice, but I took this last night:

 

[Misled]

I would also recommend shooting in RAW as you'll be able to white balance the pics better and can also simply reimport them and adjust the exposure without having to reshoot the shot.

 

[Pumped]

now in raw, exposure adjusted, 400iso, f8.0 and 1/60
Under daylight.

 

[Reef Bass]

Much better. I'd still opt for a touch more exposure, but you're in the ballpark.

I might have moved the focal plane back a tad. The very front most branches seem sharpest and there's a whole lot going on behind those.

Nice coral, btw.

 

[Recty]

If you're hand holding these shots which I assume you are, then you need to be over 1/60th of a second shutter speed. You're getting some blur that looks to me to be just motion blur from when you move your hands slightly clicking the shutter button.

Also, it looks like the whole image is distorted. Make sure your camera lens is exactly perpendicular to whatever you're submersing in the water to shoot a picture through.