Anybody that wants advice with tank photography, or just need some help getting the picture to look the way you’d like, but are having trouble, just post it here and I’ll see if myself or others can help out. Please include what camera, and or lens, or any other info that you have… I’ll take some example shots and post them shortly.
Camera Canon Powershot S5IS stock lens
I am using the manual settings I have been playing with the light balances I believe it is one of them shows up as f2.7 (brighter)and goes up to f8.0(darker) the other is 15"(brighter) to 1/3200(darker) I have tried with macro and super macro I am using ISO 80, AWB is on auto, my colors off, bkt-off, flash off, 3264x2448 resolution, red eye off, MF point zoom on, saftey mf on, af mode continuous, af assist beam on, Is mode continuous, converter none.
My Derasa clam the colors are very close to the actual colors
My Ora Maxima is showing blue in the picture when it is actually purple in the lighting I have.
I am uploading 21 pictures from my experimental practices now that I am learning the manual settings. You can see them on my photobucket http://s1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc488/JustSumGuy29/
You’re on the right track, lot of nice pics on the bucket link. the tanks looking good, and its getting pretty full like you said :BEER
you can experiment with diff white balance settings, just take the same pic, from the same spot on each setting, and see what works best for color…i do a lot of post edit small color tweaks usually… when you mention the higher aperture setting f8.0 as being darker, thats correct, but don’t look at that setting as lighter/darker, thats a side affect of that setting that can be corrected with a longer exposure time, look at aperture as “more or less in focus” or depth of field… I just did a quick google of your camera, i see it has an aquarium setting…ha…never saw that before… have you tried it? And your camera has lots of control of settings, keep trying different things,
and i played around with one of your shots i thought was cool.
this one…
I cropped it a bit, gave it some more contrast, definition, and a touch more orange tones, and red.
[quote=“JustSumGuy, post:2, topic:3946”]
…saftey mf on, af mode continuous, af assist beam on, Is mode continuous, converter none…[/quote]
I’m not a camera guy, so correct me if I’m wrong I might be missing something, but if you’re in MF mode does the AF continuous/assist beam have any function?
[quote=“IanH, post:4, topic:3946”]
I’m not a camera guy, so correct me if I’m wrong I might be missing something, but if you’re in MF mode does the AF continuous/assist beam have any function?[/quote]
No. If you are on Manual Focus, the AutoFocus settings are bypassed and do nothing.
I will play with it more tonight. The picture of the Ricordia’s you modified is about true color. I will try to do a timer instead of holding I believe higher aperture setting it does take longer before it actually takes the picture and I end up getting blurry pictures since the camera moves a bit in my hands. Thanks for the info. Good presentation you did at the meeting, glad to finally be learning how to use this camera right :
: . Even in aquarium mode it is not acurate in colors but sometimes on fish it comes out perfect if you look at the yellow tail damsel picture I took. Also in aquarium mode I can use macro but not super macro.
Just because!
Tim, try out that monti pic using a higher aperture, and you’ll get a lot more of your subject in focus. was that an actinic shot? if so, you might need to tripod it at higher apertures because the shutter will need to stay open longer… or try using a higher iso if you still want to try it hand held…do you remember what settings you used?
Anything that moves or flows with the water I would suggest using a higher aperture (=Lower Fstop #) That will allow you to get a faster shutter speed and a sharper image of your subject.
With a consumer camera it is extremely difficult to really play with the Depth of Field since they are limited by the aperture size unless you are willing to step back and use the zoom function to assist in creating the Bokeh.
[quote=“saltcreep, post:8, topic:3946”]
Tim, try out that monti pic using a higher aperture, and you’ll get a lot more of your subject in focus. was that an actinic shot? if so, you might need to tripod it at higher apertures because the shutter will need to stay open longer… or try using a higher iso if you still want to try it hand held…do you remember what settings you used?[/quote]
Looking at the EXIF data it looks like it was shot at an Aperature of F/5 w/ a shutter speed of 1/100 and an ISO of 400.
I’d suspect you could probably get a higher aperature and thus more of the monthi in focus if you increased your ISO to 80 or even 1600.
The problem with ISO is it significantly increases noise (depth of field pixelation) … there are alot of dark areas in the back ground of tanks that are horrible for noise in photos with high ISO.
One way to capture motion for tank shots is usually lower ISO, and try to find a balance between Fstop and shutter speed.
Here’s a cool non reef photo I took at longwood the other day.
looks like an orange SPS inside a clam shell… lOl
[quote=“TimH07, post:11, topic:3946”]
One way to capture motion for tank shots is usually lower ISO, and try to find a balance between Fstop and shutter speed.[/quote]
Can you elaborate on that tim, because on my camera a lower iso requires a slower shutter speed, which makes it difficult to capture motion?
Don’t you have manual settings? My camera I can set my ISO to 200 and my shutter speed to 4000 and Fstop to 4.8 (not that its going to catch ANY light that way)
Generally the higher ISO and lower SS are what help capture motion but thats more out doors sports pictures I find, snapping fish in lower lighting with alot of shadowy areas makes for terrible pictures with high ISO so I lower it and try for faster SS. Its all about the quality of picture you want I guess.
Of course you could shoot in RAW and then use your photo processor to contrast out the shadows like I did in that flower picture.I use ViewNX2
Tim what you are talking about is not really a camera issue, it is but only in the digital sense as it’s digital noise and can be corrected in most photo post processing software.
Biggest thing I hate about my camera and enough I really want to get a better one is that there is no manual focus at all. Seems like it would be the simplest thing to include as an option in the camera, but no.
Thanks again John for the photo talk at the last meeting. Forced me to relook at some of the settings in my camera. I think the biggest thing I really needed to do is let in a lot less light.
Here are a couple recent shots I took.
Jon, those are a couple of cool shots! i really like the 2nd one! :BEER what model camera are you using? i’ll google the manual and look at what settings you have for focus.
Thanks John. The manual annoys the heck out of me and serves as a constant reminder that I shouldn’t have made a rash decision on the camera because it was on sale and looked into it a little more. The nicer models of camera are in the instruction manual as well, over and over in the manual it says “These features are only in the nicer models of the camera, not the cheap one you bought.” Ok maybe not word for word. Regardless I don’t believe there is an auto focus, but please let me know what you think as there is a lot of features I do not understand and if you found a manual focus feature in my camera… I’d have to give you a free coral or something.
It is an Olympus Stylus Tough-3000. I bought it to get decent pictures of clients tanks, not to get spectacular photos. I needed something I could carry with me on a day to day basis with out worrying around dropping it on the ground or in a tank.
I can get decent close up with it if I put it in the tank in super macro mode and hold it about ~2" from the coral.
pages 34 and 60 look the most helpful for focusing… theres no true manual focus, but if the camera is set on the non face recognition mode… you “should” at least be able to focus on something, then keep the button depressed half way, (this should hold that focus) then move the camera to compose your shot…that first focus should hold as long as the button stays down… hope that makes sense when you look at the two pages… your right about the manual, its not great, and i like how they keep rubbing it in your face about the “better” models lol… what pics are the most trouble? are you getting the shots of customer tanks you want to get? … let me know, i’ll “try” to help you figure out the best settings to try and change.
I had read that. 
Was hoping you’d find something I missed. It’s not worth the amount time to take a shot to try to find something similar distance get it then move the camera over while holding it down all because the people that made it left that option out to sell a more expensive model. Talk about annoying. You can give computers and machines automatic options, but when it’s possible that someone out there is actually smarter then allow them to use manual options! (Venting)