Photographing your tank inhabitants
Ahoi all,
Matt suggested I create a thread that outlines how I go about getting photos of the inmates of my little 3x2x2 fish prison. Here: http://www.thereefuge.com/threads/henrys-3x2x2-mixed-reef.961/#post-11573
So, I'm writing this. This is NOT the be-all and end-all. Like reefing, there are many different ways to do things. Thus, this is much more of a "HOW I" rather than a "HOW TO" guide.
Here is a much better one written by my reptile enthusiast friend Stewart. It has a very nice summary of depth of field and such and such. http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/herping/photography/
I like to think I get some quite clear, sharp images of my critters. The equipment I use is certainly not cheap, but certainly not out of the realms of a dedicated reefer who wants to further their passion by photographing their tank inhabitants. That said, you don't need amazingly expensive gear to get good photos.
I use NIkon gear (D300, tamron 90mm macro, NIkkon 35mm F1.8) and Nikon Speedlights. You can get similar stuff with Canon, Pentax etc etc etc. I could probably use a tripod. It'd be really really handy for the slow shutter speed shots (see below).
I'm not sure about Point and Shoot (Non DSLR) cameras, but if they have a "manual mode" and a macro mode, you're in business!
I'll split it into three different shot types you might want to take... Remember manual mode is your friend. You're reefers, you're control freaks- you'll learn to love it.
FRONT OF TANK
I haven't attempted getting a full frontal of the tank yet, so I'm not exactly sure how to approach it.
I think it's be quite easy. Start with a nice wide lens (18-55mm is common on most DSLR) and a tripod. Turn off all the room lights and any external sources (other than the tank lighting), line up the camera and blaze away. I would try and get the aperture around F/16. Increase the ISO so you can still get a decent fast shutter speed (1/125 maybe?) but not have the image too noisy (grainy). It's all about finding the right balance- The same could be said for reef keeping.
Once you've got the image on your computer, use a editing program to crop the edges off. If you've got a free editing program like picasa, you'll be able to change white balance, etc etc etc even more.
If you've got Lightroom and Photoshop you can do a bit more again.
Again, I haven't really done this, so I'll edit when I've had a crack at it.
Critter photos: Non-flash.
If you've got nice lighting in your tank and you like the way the shadows play on the zooanthids/morphs you might want to capture it. But the problem lies in using a flash to take the photo effectively removes the thing you wanted to photograph. Turn off the powerheads to limit the amount of movement in the tank while you're taking photos (unless you want that for an effect).
This photo of a duncan polyp, for example, wouldn't have been possible using flashes.
I like the way the light catches the tentacles on the left hand edge of the left polyp and the shadows the other tentacles create. To get this I used a tamron 90mm macro and pressed it against the front glass of the tank. I used manual focus and framed it up. Then I experimented. It took about 10minutes before I knew that what I was doing would get the result i wanted. The settings ended up being 1/15sec, F/22, ISO640. This fish tank photography is great, it can't escape!
1/15 is very slow and any movement will blur the image. I took a lot of photos and chose the sharpest. It helps to fire the shutter when you're breathing out (it really helps!) as well, but i think the trick is to take a lot of images. Hopefully you'll fluke one really sharp one.
I did the same with this Zoa. Settings 1/15s, F/14, ISO640.
and this rather abstract shot of the Morphs... Although this was done with the wider 35mm wide open (1/2000, F/1.8, ISO1600). It probably should have been 1/200, F/1.8, ISO200 or something. I'm not sure how it happened that way.
Critter Photos- Using the flash
If you want photos of your fish and corals that move about, you'll want to use a flash to capture the movement. Not only does the flash effectively freeze the image, it illuminates from the viewer, so you get light from the front (instead of from on top). It's the best way to record fish AND moving corals like hammers etc etc.
Problems with flashes: The main problem with taking a photo of a tank using a flash is that you you get a big white smear in the middle of the photo where the flash has reflected back off the glass.
To overcome this there are several things you can do. Pressing the lens right up to the glass will stop the nasty flare. Of course this might limit what you can photograph but you have to make do- otherwise you get an underwater housing. Another way to overcome this is to have two off-set flashes on a bracket off either side of the camera. This is costly and usually you require the inbuilt flash to fire to signal the other two flashes to fire. Nikon Creative Lighting Systems overcome this (you can turn off the in-built flash). A similar system is now on some canon cameras as well.
How I do it: I use two offset flashes. They pump out enough light (more than the halide) to "freeze" the image, providing i am using a narrow aperture (F18) I can use any shutter speed i like (probably 1/80sec). Most fish have a pattern and once you've figured out their general movement pattern you can photograph them pretty easily.
This bicolour blenny has favoured "perches". I set the camera up ready at one of them and when he appeared I framed the shot and blinded him with two flashes.
Much the same with the moving corals. Set it up on the coral and fire when the tentacles are just right.
Flash photography is much less ceremonial than non-flash and for a certain type of photo is very easy. Once you've got the settings right you can return to it and do the same thing every time.
If you've got a couple of offset flashes you can move them around and turn them off or down and do tricky things like this one of the clown in the anemone, lit from the right only.
Post-processing
You can go as far as you like with post-processing. Some prefer to leave it at that, others prefer to clean the photos up a little (like me) and you can go further and further, depending how into it you are.
I use Lightroom 3 to clean up any spots of floating marine gunk or dust spots on my sensor. Then I use it to crop the image so it's composed correctly (how I like it). I can then change the white balance (the automatic function is often thrown by aquarium lights), the contrast, the exposure the brightness etc etc etc etc. I can also selectively sharpen parts of the image. This is important as shooting through glass and water (even starphire glass!) will reduce the quality of the image. This way you can spruce up the subject of the image and it'll look sharp and lovely. For example, I sharpened up the whole polyp of the duncan, then redid each tentacle. I think it gives a nice effect.
Ok, I think I covered most stuff. I'm by no means an expert or a pro. I just have some gear and a technique that does an alright job. I'll try and answer questions if you have any. By all means post them up. The main bit of advice I can give is take a lot of photos. You can always delete. Also read a bit about your camera and experiment. Whatever the camera, you should be able to get a half decent pic of your tank and it's inhabitants.
Matt suggested I create a thread that outlines how I go about getting photos of the inmates of my little 3x2x2 fish prison. Here: http://www.thereefuge.com/threads/henrys-3x2x2-mixed-reef.961/#post-11573
So, I'm writing this. This is NOT the be-all and end-all. Like reefing, there are many different ways to do things. Thus, this is much more of a "HOW I" rather than a "HOW TO" guide.
Here is a much better one written by my reptile enthusiast friend Stewart. It has a very nice summary of depth of field and such and such. http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/herping/photography/
I like to think I get some quite clear, sharp images of my critters. The equipment I use is certainly not cheap, but certainly not out of the realms of a dedicated reefer who wants to further their passion by photographing their tank inhabitants. That said, you don't need amazingly expensive gear to get good photos.
I use NIkon gear (D300, tamron 90mm macro, NIkkon 35mm F1.8) and Nikon Speedlights. You can get similar stuff with Canon, Pentax etc etc etc. I could probably use a tripod. It'd be really really handy for the slow shutter speed shots (see below).
I'm not sure about Point and Shoot (Non DSLR) cameras, but if they have a "manual mode" and a macro mode, you're in business!
I'll split it into three different shot types you might want to take... Remember manual mode is your friend. You're reefers, you're control freaks- you'll learn to love it.
FRONT OF TANK
I haven't attempted getting a full frontal of the tank yet, so I'm not exactly sure how to approach it.
I think it's be quite easy. Start with a nice wide lens (18-55mm is common on most DSLR) and a tripod. Turn off all the room lights and any external sources (other than the tank lighting), line up the camera and blaze away. I would try and get the aperture around F/16. Increase the ISO so you can still get a decent fast shutter speed (1/125 maybe?) but not have the image too noisy (grainy). It's all about finding the right balance- The same could be said for reef keeping.
Once you've got the image on your computer, use a editing program to crop the edges off. If you've got a free editing program like picasa, you'll be able to change white balance, etc etc etc even more.
If you've got Lightroom and Photoshop you can do a bit more again.
Again, I haven't really done this, so I'll edit when I've had a crack at it.
Critter photos: Non-flash.
If you've got nice lighting in your tank and you like the way the shadows play on the zooanthids/morphs you might want to capture it. But the problem lies in using a flash to take the photo effectively removes the thing you wanted to photograph. Turn off the powerheads to limit the amount of movement in the tank while you're taking photos (unless you want that for an effect).
This photo of a duncan polyp, for example, wouldn't have been possible using flashes.
I like the way the light catches the tentacles on the left hand edge of the left polyp and the shadows the other tentacles create. To get this I used a tamron 90mm macro and pressed it against the front glass of the tank. I used manual focus and framed it up. Then I experimented. It took about 10minutes before I knew that what I was doing would get the result i wanted. The settings ended up being 1/15sec, F/22, ISO640. This fish tank photography is great, it can't escape!
1/15 is very slow and any movement will blur the image. I took a lot of photos and chose the sharpest. It helps to fire the shutter when you're breathing out (it really helps!) as well, but i think the trick is to take a lot of images. Hopefully you'll fluke one really sharp one.
I did the same with this Zoa. Settings 1/15s, F/14, ISO640.
and this rather abstract shot of the Morphs... Although this was done with the wider 35mm wide open (1/2000, F/1.8, ISO1600). It probably should have been 1/200, F/1.8, ISO200 or something. I'm not sure how it happened that way.
Critter Photos- Using the flash
If you want photos of your fish and corals that move about, you'll want to use a flash to capture the movement. Not only does the flash effectively freeze the image, it illuminates from the viewer, so you get light from the front (instead of from on top). It's the best way to record fish AND moving corals like hammers etc etc.
Problems with flashes: The main problem with taking a photo of a tank using a flash is that you you get a big white smear in the middle of the photo where the flash has reflected back off the glass.
To overcome this there are several things you can do. Pressing the lens right up to the glass will stop the nasty flare. Of course this might limit what you can photograph but you have to make do- otherwise you get an underwater housing. Another way to overcome this is to have two off-set flashes on a bracket off either side of the camera. This is costly and usually you require the inbuilt flash to fire to signal the other two flashes to fire. Nikon Creative Lighting Systems overcome this (you can turn off the in-built flash). A similar system is now on some canon cameras as well.
How I do it: I use two offset flashes. They pump out enough light (more than the halide) to "freeze" the image, providing i am using a narrow aperture (F18) I can use any shutter speed i like (probably 1/80sec). Most fish have a pattern and once you've figured out their general movement pattern you can photograph them pretty easily.
This bicolour blenny has favoured "perches". I set the camera up ready at one of them and when he appeared I framed the shot and blinded him with two flashes.
Much the same with the moving corals. Set it up on the coral and fire when the tentacles are just right.
Flash photography is much less ceremonial than non-flash and for a certain type of photo is very easy. Once you've got the settings right you can return to it and do the same thing every time.
If you've got a couple of offset flashes you can move them around and turn them off or down and do tricky things like this one of the clown in the anemone, lit from the right only.
Post-processing
You can go as far as you like with post-processing. Some prefer to leave it at that, others prefer to clean the photos up a little (like me) and you can go further and further, depending how into it you are.
I use Lightroom 3 to clean up any spots of floating marine gunk or dust spots on my sensor. Then I use it to crop the image so it's composed correctly (how I like it). I can then change the white balance (the automatic function is often thrown by aquarium lights), the contrast, the exposure the brightness etc etc etc etc. I can also selectively sharpen parts of the image. This is important as shooting through glass and water (even starphire glass!) will reduce the quality of the image. This way you can spruce up the subject of the image and it'll look sharp and lovely. For example, I sharpened up the whole polyp of the duncan, then redid each tentacle. I think it gives a nice effect.
Ok, I think I covered most stuff. I'm by no means an expert or a pro. I just have some gear and a technique that does an alright job. I'll try and answer questions if you have any. By all means post them up. The main bit of advice I can give is take a lot of photos. You can always delete. Also read a bit about your camera and experiment. Whatever the camera, you should be able to get a half decent pic of your tank and it's inhabitants.
