marillion":3etkgb53 said:
Anyway, here's one problem I'm having...I was kinda pleased with the following shot of some of my ricordea, save for the fact that it's not lavender-colored, it's a baby blue. What setting am I looking at to correct that?
I love posts like this, because I think there are some relatively simple things that you can do (depending on your camera model) that will give you dramatic changes in you results.
First, I don't know anything about your camera model and I 'pologize for that--if it's one of the 'lower-end' point and shoot style digital cameras, it might not have some of these settings on it.
To get the colors to come out more accurately, you need to adjust the white balance on your camera. Because the lighting in our tanks is so different from that in our houses, cameras sometimes need to be 'forced' to see the light correctly. Try adjusting your white balance settings (most cameras have at least 2 or 3 different settings) and see if that helps. I can make a coral come out green, blue, or tan depending on the white balance.
Also, with some of the fish-only pics being posted, I'm alsolutely flabbergasted. How on earth can I get pics of my fish like that? They *all* come out blurry, and it's very frustrating. I'd love to take some good shots of my titan trigger, but it's driving me nuts. For the record, I don't use a flash, because the fish don't look the same...they look like they're under 'normal' lighting instead of my tank lighting.
Catching good photos of the fish is a lot tougher. There are two 'keys' that come to my mind:
1. Take
LOADS of pictures. And when I say loads, I mean boatloads. When I shoot my fish, I usually end up taking about 150 pictures for every 5 or 10 that come out good. That's less than 10%! That percentage will get higher as you get more experienced, but don't feel bad if you fill up that 256M card and only come away with half a dozen usable shots.
2. Unless you can get a good off-camera flash setup or even better, an off-camera underwater flash setup, ditch it and set your shutter speed higher. Your pictures will come out pretty dark, even with every watt of light in your tank on. Then send the usable shots into photoshop and play around increasing brightness and contrast until you get something you like. That's why my percentage is so low, I think. It's a fine, fine balancing act between having enough light, catching the fish at the right moment, and getting a shot that can be worked with in PS.
Other tips are to check and see if your camera has a burst mode. My new minolta lets me shoot up to 42 images at 7+ frames per second, or something like that. Makes it tons easier.
Also, practice practice practice! When I'm bored in the evenings or when it's between periods in the hockey game I'm watching, I'll pull out the camra and practice shooting the fish, practice panning to follow them, practice focusing on them and then getting clear shots, etc.
The third thing that frustrates me is that my camera has a good macro setting (4cm) and yet I can't seem to get really clear macro pics. I keep the image quality on the second-highest quality setting (with a 256mb flash card this is doable), and yet they still seem fuzzy, almost like two images next to each other, and are far from clear.
For the record, I don't use a tripod. How many of you do when taking your pics? They're cheap, so I could pick one up immediately if need be.
Before you even attempt to take another macro shot, go get a tripod. A little $25 job from wal-mart will work, but it's worth the investment to go to a camera store and get a nicer model, like a SunPak or something. My SunPak was sort of a mid-level model and was $39. If you're really serious, sink the $100 or so and get a Bogen. The big differences are stability and the head. A higher quality tripod will be heavier and make your camera much more stable. The Bogens especially have really good, fluid movements to the heads, so it's easier to pan with them.
Then, to shoot the macro, set your camera in macro mode and then
manually focus. My camera has a nifty little feature where I can magnify the image in the viewfinder while in manual focus so it's easier to see when the image gets nice and crisp. If you rely on the autofocus, especially in macro, it often gets thrown off by the glass of the tank wall. You can still get good shots this way, just expect your usable-shot percentage to go down.
Also, for really clear macro shots you almost need a bulb-release (especially if you have a lower quality tripod). Just the slight jarring of pushing the shutter release button is sometimes enough to blur the image. I don't have a bulb-release yet, so almost all my macros are shot with the timer. That way when the image is actually taken I'm not in physical contact with the camera. Remember, image quality means nothing if your camera is shaking while you take the picture. You'll just end up with a very high-definition blurry picture. :wink:
Take care and keep coming back with questions...we love to help!!
-John
