How am I doing so far?

[cdryden]

I think you got a great attitude and it shows in your progress. I really enjoyed you pictures. My only criticism would be to spend some time cleaning up the spots in your pics. It looks like its probably spots from the glass tank rather than spots on your lens.

 

[xenskhe]

I think the blue color is the most difficult part of shooting a reef tank and it's inhabitants. The lights are a VERY blue color and comes from MANY LED's. I changed the k rating in post, but wanted to keep things as close to actual colors as possible.

I still have a LONG way to go. I plan on shooting reef aquariums primarily, so this type of macro work will be a big part of it.

Could you place a white piece of card in the tank for later color correction in raw convertion?

 

[Watchful]

Reef tanks use actinic spectrum lights so it should look blue. If you want to, you can always add daylight to the tank as well to overpower the actinic and still have the benefits to the corals. Or even just daylight the tank for picture taking and then turn them off again.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I think you got a great attitude and it shows in your progress. I really enjoyed you pictures. My only criticism would be to spend some time cleaning up the spots in your pics. It looks like its probably spots from the glass tank rather than spots on your lens.

Yeah, I did not turn off the pumps for these pics, so there is some stuff floating around the tank. I worked on removing ALOT of the spots using PS, but it became too tedious, so I only got the big ones on some pics.

Could you place a white piece of card in the tank for later color correction in raw convertion?

I just learned how to use the eye dropper in PS, It seems to work VERY well. Almost too well. It actually takes all of the blue out, which is not what I want.

... Or even just daylight the tank for picture taking and then turn them off again.

This is exactly what I have been doing. I turn the whites WAY up in order to reduce the blue. Even if it is still a little too blue, I can then reduce it by adjusting it further in PS. This has allowed me to get the colors I am wanting.

 

[Watchful]

Then you don't have enough whites, drop the blues a lot more first and add more whites, even a 6500k flourecscent will help a lot.

 

[Watchful]

Adding green and warmth to the white balance will render truer color to an ocean reef in the wild.

 

[robbins.photo]

In regards to the OOF shots, I'd suggest you alter the number of focus points used by the camera. In this case reduce them to 9 or possibly even 1 - although 9 will probably give you the best results overall without the need for a lot of practice.

Aquariums are tough to shoot regardless, so any time you get a keeper that's an accomplishment.

376 by Todd Robbins, on Flickr

 

[Lpsouth1978]

Then you don't have enough whites, drop the blues a lot more first and add more whites, even a 6500k flourecscent will help a lot.

I don't think that any more whites are necessary. I am happy with the color rendered in the above shots andI still had room to adjust the WB further, but I felt that this was nearly identical to what my eye sees. If I were to add more lights it would simply be in an effort to use a smaller aperture while keeping the ISO and shutter speed down.

 

[Watchful]

I was just saying if you were wanting it to look like open ocean or a tank in a home. Both are great places to take pictures.

Link

 

[Lpsouth1978]

Thank you for the thoughts. I can try to turn the red and green LED's up and see what that does for me. My lights are totally custom and allow me to adjust colors separately.

It is also difficult for me to adjust accurately in PS because I use a laptop and it seems to show everything different than other devices. My phone, Ipad, and desktop at work all seem to be much more vibrant than the laptop. Things will look good when I am in PS, but when I look at them on another device they are too bright, or too blue. I really need to get PS on a desktop and do my post on that.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I think this is one of my best fish shots to date. I am quite happy about the results. I think the biggest thing I have learned about photographing fish thus far, is to take lots of pictures of each one, then go back and take some more. I have found that when shooting, things seem to be great and the focus is where you want it to be, but when you go back to look at the shot later, it is not so good. I have probably taken several hundred shots of the tank and fish, but only kept maybe 20.

Passer Angelfish - f/5.6, 1/400 sec., ISO-400, 50mm f/1.4 prime lens

 

[pete.biggs.9]

Love the Goni, I'm trying to get good shots of my pico reef, not that good so far but need some decent glass

Cheers,


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I think those shots are pretty well done. Love the Duncan hosting the clown! Your tank looks like an LPS haven, all of your acans and scolys look great! Great tank you have there.

Your shots are good to! I think it is possible to get great pictures using the kit lenses, though it may take a bit more work on the photographers part.