Photographing Your Reef

[yikai]

Yup exactly what I mean, even if the subject is completely still, a difference of just a centimeter or so will blur out already.

Here's what I mean, the photo looks good enough at a glance, but then the focus is on the eye, but the nose starts to blur out already, imo that's a bad portrait. Shot with 50mm @ 1/25, f1.6 to test my lens... once I step down to f2.8 or f3.2, then the nose will come into sharpness.

tonight...we feast. i will eat your heart! Neargh!

[comycus]

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the amount of time that the shutter remains open.

Faster shutter speed = less light enter camera = darker photos = motion freeze

Example: When taking photos of corals, we can afford to have a tad longer shutter speeds while maintaining photo sharpness, provided the coral doesn't move, with the use of a tripod. This will allow us to shoot at lower ISO setting, thus having better photo quality.

However, we do not have the luxury of shooting at lower shutter speeds when taking photos of fishes. This is because we need to freeze the motion of fishes, and thus will need to employ higher shutter speeds, thus resulting in the need to either take at a higher ISO setting, or with a bigger aperture. I find the norm for capturing swimming fishes is to shoot at least at 1/100 (.0001 second) or higher. Some examples to illustrate this.

ISO200, 1/20 F5.6 (my royal gamma swim too fast, unable to capture anything)

ISO800, 1/100 F5.6 (Managed to capture my leopard wrasse w/o much loss in exposure)

Some techniques we can learn to master to help us. As you can see, I'm limited by aperture size because of my kit lens, and ISO settings due to my old d60. Does tt mean we need to succumb to the BBB Syndrome? Not true...

Panning technique in 3 simple steps

1. Select a slightly lower shutter speed (<1/60)

2. Track your subject (fish) with your camera

3. As you release your shutter, continue to move the camera with the fish.

ISO 200, 1/20 F5.6

If that's not enough, change your release mode from single shot to continuous and pan at the same time. This gives you more margin of error as you take multiple shots, and hopefully 1 comes out right.

ISO 400, 1/20 F5.6

[RockyBoy]

Yup exactly what I mean, even if the subject is completely still, a difference of just a centimeter or so will blur out. The pic below is what I mean, the photo looks good enough at a glance, but then the focus is on the eye, but the nose starts to blur out already, imo that's a bad portrait.

Shot with 50mm @ 1/25, f1.6 to test my lens... once I step down to f2.8 or f3.2, then the nose will come into sharpness.

Lens speed equal or more than lens size. This case 50mm, the speed should be equal or more than 1/50sec.

[RockyBoy]

My fav perc shot

[comycus]

My fav perc shot

BEAUTIFUL! heh wish i could take those shots...

[albinosage]

Lens speed equal or more than lens size. This case 50mm, the speed should be equal or more than 1/50sec.

I agree with you, but the ratio of focal length to shutter speed is an arbitrary rule for shooting hand held

To elaborate, if you are shooting an apple, it doesn't matter if the shutter speed if 1 second or more if you have steady hands or if you are using a tripod. On the other hand, if you are Michael J Fox, 1/125s would still result in shaky shots

[w3ish3ng]

whoa.... all the pro here...

[comycus]

I agree with you, but the ratio of focal length to shutter speed is an arbitrary rule for shooting hand held

To elaborate, if you are shooting an apple, it doesn't matter if the shutter speed if 1 second or more if you have steady hands or if you are using a tripod. On the other hand, if you are Michael J Fox, 1/125s would still result in shaky shots

lol so bad... yeah the rule is arbitrary, especially when technology nowadays has all these IR, VR, stabilisation stuff. Guys, u take really beautiful shots of your tank, maybe wanna share your camera settings, thought process, preparation work, post processing?

whoa.... all the pro here...

bro you are damn pro!

[albinosage]

whoa.... all the pro here...

Yah man you are the humble one here. Silent pro leh, I've seen your pictures, some of the nicest fish shots around here.

[jackywongto]

wahhhh.... information overload for my pea sized brain ....

[comycus]

wahhhh.... information overload for my pea sized brain ....

uh oh... okie i will further simplify again in the next 'tutorial'? lol

sigh was looking all over the place last night for my super old cd player but couldn't find it. Really wanna try tt cool mod binosage recommended

[albinosage]

Thanks comy for posting great tips and information.. Now I feel inspired to go play with my camera too. It's like a white elephant, I bought my current one a year ago, shutter count still 6k only.

Jacky, you own a dslr too right? The best way to learn is to keep playing with it and trouble shoot when you don't get your desired shots

Maybe when I'm free I'll contribute some tips I learnt with a point and shoot, since that's probably what the majority of us use to shoot our tanks.

[jackywongto]

Jacky, you own a dslr too right? The best way to learn is to keep playing with it and trouble shoot when you don't get your desired shots

Yeah i have an EOS 40D but most of the time, using it as a P&S. Time not enough to play with the settings.

[Vlamingi_cont]

Yup exactly what I mean, even if the subject is completely still, a difference of just a centimeter or so will blur out. The pic below is what I mean, the photo looks good enough at a glance, but then the focus is on the eye, but the nose starts to blur out already, imo that's a bad portrait.

Shot with 50mm @ 1/25, f1.6 to test my lens... once I step down to f2.8 or f3.2, then the nose will come into sharpness.

That just changed my mind of the 1st lense i m considering to get when i get my 1st dslr... actually wanted to get the 50mm f/1.4D after this maybe i'll consider a zoom lense...

[w3ish3ng]

Yah man you are the humble one here. Silent pro leh, I've seen your pictures, some of the nicest fish shots around here.

you should go rc see their photos. damn nice... its really in full details, i can never get that type of result myself.

[w3ish3ng]

Yeah i have an EOS 40D but most of the time, using it as a P&S. Time not enough to play with the settings.

actually for reef, there isnt much setting to fix.

just find out the customised wb you should set in regards to your lights, set a most appropriate iso (for my case, 640 - 800), set spot metering, fix your aperture to around 5.6 to 8 and a shutter of at least 1/80 and you are good to go!

not that troublesome isnt it? most of the stuff it just a one time off thing to do.

[jackywongto]

actually for reef, there isnt much setting to fix.

just find out the customised wb you should set in regards to your lights, set a most appropriate iso (for my case, 640 - 800), set spot metering, fix your aperture to around 5.6 to 8 and a shutter of at least 1/80 and you are good to go!

not that troublesome isnt it? most of the stuff it just a one time off thing to do.

k k. will play with it once my tank is set up.... my empty tank is still waiting for my Tunze Reefpack

[albinosage]

That just changed my mind of the 1st lense i m considering to get when i get my 1st dslr... actually wanted to get the 50mm f/1.4D after this maybe i'll consider a zoom lense...

Oh... cannot compare like that, the picture above is the photographer, not the lens' fault. Even if I step down to f3.5 and shoot, it will still be much sharper than zoom lens at the same aperture, not to mention the beautiful bokeh. The wide aperture is good for low light situations and abstract photography. I shot the following at f1.4, fully open with a cheap 2nd hand d70:

I might be biased lah, but I really love prime lenses, I sold off my $2.5k zoom and I'm using the $400 50mm as my primary lens now. All the techies and posers I meet will turn their nose at my cheap lens, but I don't care hahaha.

[w3ish3ng]

Oh... cannot compare like that, the picture above is the photographer, not the lens' fault. Even if I step down to f3.5 and shoot, it will still be much sharper than zoom lens at the same aperture, not to mention the beautiful bokeh. The wide aperture is good for low light situations and abstract photography. I shot the following at f1.4, fully open with a cheap 2nd hand d70:

I might be biased lah, but I really love prime lenses, I sold off my $2.5k zoom and I'm using the $400 50mm as my primary lens now. All the techies and posers I meet will turn their nose at my cheap lens, but I don't care hahaha.

prime is good. bokeh at 1.2 is out of the world for my 85mm but then its quite unusable as its depth of field is so so so shallow that it will make you think that the photo is blurred.

[albinosage]

prime is good. bokeh at 1.2 is out of the world for my 85mm but then its quite unusable as its depth of field is so so so shallow that it will make you think that the photo is blurred.

You're a Nikon user right, I didn't know nikon had f1.2.. AI lens? Wah I never seen it in person, but you better not let me near it, will fog up your lens elements with my drool.

Or you could be talking abt the canon L lens, either way.. droool....

[w3ish3ng]

some shot i had taken earlier with the mentioned setting as above just that my iso is abit higher at 1000

[w3ish3ng]

You're a Nikon user right, I didn't know nikon had f1.2.. AI lens? Wah I never seen it in person, but you better not let me near it, will fog up your lens elements with my drool.

Or you could be talking abt the canon L lens, either way.. droool....

im using red rubber band..

but nikon 85mm 1.4 is a good lens too..

[albinosage]

some shot i had taken earlier with the mentioned setting as above just that my iso is abit higher at 1000

you were seriously being humble earlier. I worked with a well known photographer some time back who was using same cam as u, but that dude seriously doesn't know anything, shots were also nothing as nice as these

[comycus]

some shot i had taken earlier with the mentioned setting as above just that my iso is abit higher at 1000

omg! totally in awe! :bow:

[w3ish3ng]

there are alot of better photog out there

my photos are just so-so only.