Macros, and top downs

ctyler85 · Jan 27, 2015

I consider myself a fairly avid photography hobbyist, mostly landscapes, but my reef tank photography embarrasses me. Two things I am working on are macros and top downs. Curious what everyone is running for a macro lens. I have a 28mm macro and an 80mm macro and a 210mm With the 28mm I'm smooshed up against the glass but get decent shots, with the 80mm I feel like I'm standing across the room just to get on the focal range. I see a lot of people are using 80-100mm focal range. I feel like this puts me too far from the subject and find myself cropping all the way in to pixel peeping range just to get what I was going for. Is everyone else going in for a mega crop? Or just me. So far my favorite lens is honestly the kit lens at 50mm gets me pretty good shots, but I don't have as precise of focus control like I do with the macro. Top downs are my other headache. I do really enjoy a sexy top down shot. However when I attempt this I get an extreme haze that drives me bonkers, or I'm too far under the light and blocking the shot. I'm using just a standard floating look down box with the lens against the glass to avoid glare and reflection from the lights. I've had a couple really good top down shots that I've gotten very lucky on, and would like to figure out how I can repeat the process.
Sony a7. Always shoot in raw and correct in light room.
Also still trying to get my white balance manually dialed in. Half tempted to get a waterproof grey card .

maroun.c · Jan 27, 2015

Whats the width of your tank?
So your options are:
-crop macro shots coming from the 28 mm true macro lense even when shooting from just next to the glass:
Depending on how far your subject is this might be a good choice, yet you have to crop for things in the back. So what? are you printing your pictures or selling HR shots or having to submit HR shots for contests? if not you're fine cropping as I presume you have enough MP in your camera to crop a lot? if yes then a focal range extender (multiplies your Focal by 1.6 in the case of my Nikon, not sure for Sony). another issue you have is that yo're camera is a full frame? so it dosen't multiply your focal by 1.5 or 1.6 like a cropped sensor for Canon or Nikon so that is making your 28 mm even wider than what most photographers here anticipate.
-use the kit lens at around 50 mm :non macro and I presume it's a zoom not a lens so degraded image quality to start with.
I wouldn't as the macro lens or any lens is much better glass quality than any zoom. still I have excellent macros with a 17-50 2,8 mm Tamron for following reasons: fixed 2.8 so a professorial glass (not as good as the Nikon counterpart but Still impressive) not sure if Tamron makes the same lens for Sony but I'm sure yo'll get great result with the lens collection you got.
-Use the 80 mm macro where this puts you far from your subject:
Macro lenses are not made to focus close. they are made to give you a 1:1 ration which other lenses won't. theoretically you get better magnification and better quality (cause its better glass than a zoom to start with) and better results in quality and magnification than any shot taken with a non macro lens or zoom at the same distance even if you have to crop the macro lens shot to have the same composition of the non macro shot, you'll still have enough pixels and better results. also you're FOV will be better at the same aperture when you're focal distance is better, at the same aperture so that's a plus from shooting from farther. the disadvantage in aquarium photography is that you get flash reflections or reflections of things in the room on the front glass.

Other options would include using extension tubes with your 80mm which will allow you to focus very close but only for a short distance so basically on corals or fish a few inches from the front glass.
Believe your best option would be the 80 mm macro and cropping.
Do post some of your pictures.

ctyler85 · Jan 28, 2015

Thanks. The camera is an aspc crop sensor. I had a brain fart, I had a typo IRS an a77. So I'm realistically shooting at 42mm and 120mm with the 28 and 80. I do enjoy the aesthetics of a longer focal distance and the d.o.f it provides, but as you said I pick up a lot of glare and for some reason some haze. I just wasn't sure if cropping was a common thing with coral shots. The tank is a 265g so it's 24" deep and 30" tall. I'll post some pictures up here in a little bit

ctyler85 · Jan 28, 2015

Here's a couple of shots. I put them in the album so you could see the exif data and such.

DSC02982 by Titan-Uranus, on Flickr

DSC02839 by Titan-Uranus, on Flickr

DSC01113 by Titan-Uranus, on Flickr

DSC02905-2 by Titan-Uranus, on Flickr

I didn't want to spam the whole thread with photos. So here's the album https://www.flickr.com/photos/titanphotog/sets/72157648190750554/

maroun.c · Jan 30, 2015

you got some shots to be proud of. Seems like you nailed focus, lighting and colors.
Some shots can make use of a better composition but that's not the purpose of this thread.
Just try to shoot perpendicular to the glass and that will take out most of the distortion you're having. Also try to shoot at the glass to avoid that haze and no harm cropping.

ctyler85 · Feb 13, 2015

A legit Marco lens will be here Monday :-D

SCMatt · Feb 13, 2015

Images look pretty good to me. I consider myself the same as you and I often struggle to get shots of my reef. Freshwater tanks, landscapes, whatever....all fine, but the reef? Headaches. I find shooting under the blue LEDs to be more than a pain. What do you have your WB set at and what tank lights are you running? I think the WB is my biggest fight. I have a 100mm for macro. I need to get me a top down photo box or something similar I think.

ctyler85 · Feb 13, 2015

D120 LEDs with 100% white and 100% blue. I have programmed in a couple of white balances into the camera, but lately I've just been running auto wb and then adjusting in light room to about 13000k, I'm definitely still working on the white balance thing

ctyler85 · Feb 16, 2015

The new lens came in today. Its only a 50mm macro, I'm keeping my eyes out for a 100mm macro. I'll let you be the judge on if the images are any better or not. There are definitely some I am not happy with at all, but some that did come out a little bit better...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/titanphotog/sets/72157650446132127/