Hi and thanks in advance. I look at all the awesome pictures on reef2reef and am wondering. How do people take such amazing pictures of their tank and corals?
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nice! thanks for the info at bottom I will dabble and try to see if I can figure this thing out.
No problem... Good luck with your shooting! Also, just as everyone else said... Take as many photos as you can and you are bound to get a couple good ones. For me to get 81 quality photos like these, I shot over 400+ pictures yesterday if that gives you an idea!
On a side note: Post editing will help you ensure that you capture what your camera alone can not. Every single picture I have, I use photoshop to retouch. Everyone always gives me **** until they -- 1. See the final picture and the specimen next to eachother, or 2. try to take photos under 460nm super blue LEDs themselves. It is then that they understand why I edit my photos. Most cameras (unless you buy one that is $5,000+) won't allow you to capture the white balance, aperture and details that you can see with the naked eye.
To close, always remember this: It is a combination of seeing a shot; taking the shot; and being able to manipulate the photo to correctly represent what you actually see with the naked eye. To me that is what seperates the good photographers from the mediocre ones.
Have fun shooting!
I agree with this-retouching pictures is needed to get a realistic pop for most pictures taken. Now those who jack the contrast up, or do other unrealistic touches-their photos take a different form of appreciation as a photo, more than a representation of something actual. I don't mind it, i just look at is as art instead of showcasing something in particular.
As for shooting-I still take lousy photos, but the main reasons are:
-lack of experience
-using no fancy cameras or lenses-my latest photos are taken with a basic point and shoot olympus that's waterproof
-not using a tripod nor a remote clicker, so most all the bluriness is my hands moving the camera, especially when pushing the button to take the shot
fixing those will all go a long ways towards taking better pictures.
Thank you... I am actually going to be putting all of my photos on a few stock photo websites. I have had about 25 people say they would like to use my photos for misc stuff, so I am going to let them.wow thats what i'm talking those and all your other pictures are awesome.
Coral - a good amount of people have inquired as to what my setup is and how I get photos like these... So for those of you asking the same questions, here it is...what program do you use to modify I just use the cheapo picassa "im feeling lucky" lol I wont have time for another week to try messing with iso and ap but I think thats what really makes the dif. Thanks for your help, and I also have a tripod but never felt it would make a diffewrence but I guess I gotta give it a try. I was more concerned with my camera not willing to take the pic but thats probably b/c I have it in auto. like i said im ignorant to photography and thanks for the pointers those are awesome pics by the way and corals
great tips thanksI'm not a professional by any means. This is what I've learned over the past few months of snapping lots of pictures in my tank. I'm still learning everyday.
There are some base fundamentals I'd like to get out of the way first.
If you really want to take phenomenal photos, you should at minimum use a DSLR camera with macro lens. This is not to say you can't take some decent pictures with a point and shoot. This post is geared towards a DSLR but it doesn't mean you couldn't translate certain things to a P&S.
You must use a tripod.
You must use the timer on your camera.
You must have patience and take lots of pictures.
You SHOULD shoot in RAW mode.
You SHOULD shoot in your daylights.
You MIGHT want to consider turning all your flow off.
Most of my photos are generally shot with all my daylights on. I'd say I have a 14k look. I prefer daytime shots because this really represents what a coral will look like most of the day and what users expect
At times I do take some actinic/sundown shots but I still struggle with clarity and cleaning up the white balance. These photos are cool to look at but shouldn't be setting any expectations on what a coral really looks like. Too many people are severely disappointed after receiving coral from vendors taking advantage of this.
With your camera all setup and ready to go you'll need to understand how to shoot in Aperture Priority mode. On my Canon this is represented as AV mode. Once you are in this mode you should change your camera to an Aperture of around 8. Your ISO setting should be 100 or the lowest you can get. Now let's turn the timer setting to on. I think we're ready to begin.
Make sure your camera is on your tripod. Zoom in on the specimen and press the button (take your hands off and don't touch anything..don't walk around..stay still). beep beep beep beep as we wait for the timer. Snap. Now review the picture to make sure it looks like it's in focus. Take another few for good measures. Now move to the next piece. I keep about 20 pictures out of 100+. You can experiment with other apertures around 8 but I wouldn't stray too far.
With all these new photos you'll need to get them on your computer and clean up the white balance on them. I'm not going to go into detail on how to do this because it's different with the million programs out there. Most cameras even come with something to do it with. You shouldn't need to do any other editing. DON'T CHANGE THE **** SATURATION. If you can't make it look like it does in real life with a white balance clean-up, move to the next picture.
If you don't shoot in RAW mode, the camera will compress and apply it's filters to the .jpg it creates. You can usually manually change how the camera applies these filters. There should be some sort of white balance setting on the camera. You take a picture of a white something in the same lighting as your tank and adjust the setting till you get it to look white.
Again, I'm not a pro..I'm not even a hardcore photo hobbyist..I just like taking pictures of my coral.