# Macro Coral Shots (My reef aquarium)



## Lpsouth1978 (Feb 26, 2016)

I am new to photography, but got a new Nikon D5500 with Nikkor 105mm AF Micro f/2.8 lens. I have been wanting to be able to get good Macro's of the corals in my tank, and now I can. This will be a place for me to show all of my Coral and aquarium related macros. I have purchased a nice Focus rail and am hoping to get a lens stacking ring, to attach my 50mm f/1.4 prime lens to my 105mm, for those SUPER macro's.

Fell free to post your comments, thoughts, or suggestions. I am a total noob and appreciate any recommendations.

My first ever Macro shot




First attempt at Focus Stacking




Other Macro shots of corals
























My absolute FAVORITE shot to date


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## AlanKlein (Feb 26, 2016)

Interesting and nice shots.


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## Dave442 (Feb 26, 2016)

They look pretty good to me for a first post of these. For the focus stack it would be nice if the subject closest to the camera was in focus.

What kind of lighting did you use for these, is it different from your normal coral tank lighting?


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## Lpsouth1978 (Feb 26, 2016)

AlanKlein said:


> Interesting and nice shots.


 
 Thank you.



Dave442 said:


> They look pretty good to me for a first post of these. For the focus stack it would be nice if the subject closest to the camera was in focus.
> 
> What kind of lighting did you use for these, is it different from your normal coral tank lighting?


 
That first focus stack is definitely not perfect, and I will probably retake that on some day. Almost every one of these shots is focus stacked. Some with as many as 70 images. The lighting is just the aquarium lighting which consists of 14000K Metal halides and actinic blue T5HO.


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## LarryLomona (Feb 26, 2016)

Very nice!


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## Dave442 (Feb 26, 2016)

The stacking is good but the first two have some of that ghosting like I sometimes get, especially if there is movement. Did you have water movement turned on when taking these stacked shots?
It seems the MH give good lighting results for the photography, keep them around if you ever start using LED.


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## paigew (Feb 26, 2016)

Those are beautiful!


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## Lpsouth1978 (Feb 26, 2016)

Dave442 said:


> The stacking is good but the first two have some of that ghosting like I sometimes get, especially if there is movement. Did you have water movement turned on when taking these stacked shots?
> It seems the MH give good lighting results for the photography, keep them around if you ever start using LED.


 
There was no water movement, but my stacking skills were pretty poor on those first attempts, I have since improved my technique (mostly I just got a focus rail).

We actually have LED over most of the tank, but I have not been able to get good shots under the LED's. We are considering switching everything back to Metal Halides, so that should help with the photos.


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## LTxNate (Feb 27, 2016)

Very cool shots!


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