New to Aquarium Photography: Canon 7D + 50mm Advice Please?

[LilElroyJetson]

Hello,

I’ve recently been gifted a Canon 7D as a hand me down (very nice family member), and I have a zoom lens that came with it which I understand isn’t applicable to our application and a Canon 50mm lens I purchased because I was told it would be a good affordable lens for coral photography. Unfortunately, I’ve seen people suggest the Canon 100mm macro lens is best and I will aim to pick one up once I get the basics down considering it’s $750+ right now. I’ve also ordered the Camera Tube Pro for future top down shots when the colonies grow out.

I’ve read the ‘Your Guide to Aquarium Photography’ sticky threads by @maroun.c which were immensely helpful (thank you!). I was hoping some of you more experienced in aquarium photography could give me some tips, as well as let me know if the 50mm lens will suffice and why or why not?

Here are some of my experimental photos done while trying to keep a steady hand (I have a tripod on the way). Any feedback or tips are much appreciated! Thanks!

 

[maroun.c]

Glad u found the articles helpful.
The 50mm is a great lense yet it can be a limiting for corals further at the back. Where u end up.with a lot of space around ur subject (u want to be able to fill the frame with ur subject to make the best use of all the pixels of ur camera.
It can work for fish shots but u have to wait for the fish to be a bit close to the glass where as a zoom lense will allow u to get closer and lock down the fish.
For objects close to the glass I mostly use the 50 mm 1.4 with extension tubes for my macros but of course a macro lense would be great.
I'm currently using a 24-120 nikon lense on a full frame body which I find very versatile. And on my crop.sensor body I mostly use a 17-50 mm 2.8.
Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the canon lense lineup to suggest a Canon lense.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Glad u found the articles helpful.
The 50mm is a great lense yet it can be a limiting for corals further at the back. Where u end up.with a lot of space around ur subject (u want to be able to fill the frame with ur subject to make the best use of all the pixels of ur camera.
It can work.for.fish shots but u have to wait for the fish to be a bit close to the glass where as a zoom lense will allow u to get closer and lock down the fish.
For.onjects close to the glass I mostly use the 50 mm 1.4 with extension tubes for my macros but of course a macro lense would be great.
I'm currently using a 24-120 nikon lense on a full frame body which I find very versatile. And on my crop.sensor body I mostly use a 17-50 mm 2.8.
Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the canon lense lineup to suggest a Canon lense.

This is helpful! Thank you! Also, regarding the photos I posted above, is it odd that they appear to be a little dark? I’ve been adjusting the ISO to find a sweet spot for this but they seem to be either too light or dark. Any other advice as to what I’m doing based on what you see above?

 

[GThompson]

I would shoot in manual mode and experiment with different speeds and apertures as well as ISO’s. It’s digital so just delete the ones you don’t like and never admit you had bad ones.

 

[WVNed]

Put the zoom lens on it. It will work. Dont set the ISO higher than 800 or your pics will be noisy. Try to work near the minimum focus distance of the lens. This changes as you zoom it.
Try to keep the aperture close as possible to 9. Try to shoot with a minimum shutter speed of 1 over whatever focal length you are using for hand held.

Canon 18-55mm lens
55mm

19mm

Sigma 105 macro

I shoot live view tethered to my computer with a USB cable using a tripod.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

I would shoot in manual mode and experiment with different speeds and apertures as well as ISO’s. It’s digital so just delete the ones you don’t like and never admit you had bad ones.

Haha yeah that’s been my methodology thus far. Thanks!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Put the zoom lens on it. It will work. Dont set the ISO higher than 800 or your pics will be noisy. Try to work near the minimum focus distance of the lens. This changes as you zoom it.
Try to keep the aperture close as possible to 9. Try to shoot with a minimum shutter speed of 1 over whatever focal length you are using for hand held.

Canon 18-55mm lens
55mm

19mm

Sigma 105 macro

I shoot live view tethered to my computer with a USB cable using a tripod.

Thanks, @WVNed! Those starting points are helpful! How do I determine optimum focal length? Is that something I just have to do by experimentation? I think the tripod just arrived so may be a moot point for hand held but I’m sure it’ll come in handy at some point regardless.

 

[WVNed]

There is no optimum focal length. That is determined by what you want in the frame and more subtly how you want the picture to turn out. In general longer focal lengths give you less of the world in the picture.
28mm The whole world

130mm a bit of the world

250mm a narrow slice of the world

500mm Only the subject is in view. The rest is gone.

 

[maroun.c]

This is helpful! Thank you! Also, regarding the photos I posted above, is it odd that they appear to be a little dark? I’ve been adjusting the ISO to find a sweet spot for this but they seem to be either too light or dark. Any other advice as to what I’m doing based on what you see above?

If shooting with auto or aperture or shutter modes changing ISO wont really change exposure as camera assesses the available light and exposes for what it thinks is right. If u think it's dark u need to increase exposure compensation to tell camera to "overexpose" a bit or vice versa. I prefer to shoot manual. Check out the series of photography articles I posted, they are stickies in the photography forums and they explain the meaning g of photography parameters and how to better make use of them for better shots.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Another useful tip is to adjust your White Balance so the shots don’t look so blue. On my Nikon I set it manually to 10K kelvin which really helps to compensate for the blue lights.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

If shooting with auto or aperture or shutter modes changing ISO wont really change exposure as camera assesses the available light and exposes for what it thinks is right. If u think it's dark u need to increase exposure compensation to tell camera to "overexpose" a bit or vice versa. I prefer to shoot manual. Check out the series of photography articles I posted, they are stickies in the photography forums and they explain the meaning g of photography parameters and how to better make use of them for better shots.

Yeah I’ve been shooting manual but I’ll go back over the articles for a refresher. Also, I read your extension tube article today and ordered the Kenko extension tubes, another very helpful Argo me! Thanks again!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Another useful tip is to adjust your White Balance so the shots don’t look so blue. On my Nikon I set it manually to 10K kelvin which really helps to compensate for the blue lights.

I’ll turn auto white balance off and try that out. Thanks!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

There is no optimum focal length. That is determined by what you want in the frame and more subtly how you want the picture to turn out. In general longer focal lengths give you less of the world in the picture.
28mm The whole world

130mm a bit of the world

250mm a narrow slice of the world

500mm Only the subject is in view. The rest is gone.

Ah ok that makes sense. Thanks, @WVNed!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Have to play with my DSLR more often

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Have to play with my DSLR more often

I’ve just recently started and it’s an addiction. I swear between marine biology, plumbing, photography, etc....reefing has taught me so much I never thought I’d know haha.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I’ve just recently started and it’s an addiction. I swear between marine biology, plumbing, photography, etc....reefing has taught me so much I never thought I’d know haha.

I was never a good photographer until I got into reefing! I now totally understand my DSLR in full manual mode and my photos of corals and non-aquarium shots alike are so much better!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

I was never a good photographer until I got into reefing! I now totally understand my DSLR in full manual mode and my photos of corals and non-aquarium shots alike are so much better!

That’s awesome! Can’t wait to feel like I know how to use my camera to its full capability!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Manual mode on what settings?