Since posting my original Quick Reef Tank Photography Guide, I’ve received quite a few questions about how people can improve their reef tank pictures. In many cases, I’ve found that what’s more important than taking better pictures is properly processing those photos.

This video was made with those people in mind.  (Click “Read More” to get to the video…)

This video is roughly 18 minutes long, and is in high-definition (720). The download, though, is quite small (about 22 Megs), so even with a 56k modem (if anyone uses such a thing anymore), it should be manageable.

DOWNLOAD NOW

This version is in WMV format, and is higher quality than the streamed version above.

UPDATES!

Two more videos are now available.

The first is the same basic processing as the first video, but much shorter and faster. To download the full resolution video, click here:

http://www.gorephoto.com/video/reefvid2.wmv The video is about 16M.

This video is about adjusting White Balance in Photoshop using a curves adjustment layer. It’s pretty short. To download the full resolution video, click here: http://www.gorephoto.com/video/reefvid3.wmv The video is about 7M.

Shot with "standard equipment" settings (Tripod Mounted : 1/30th sec. f8).

Since writing the original Quick Guide to Reef Tank Photography (which is a good place to start if you’ve never visited this site before), I’ve had a couple of additional opportunities to photograph reef tanks. I’ve been able to confirm a couple of my original suspicions and found problems with others, so I thought it might be worth posting them here.

Similarly... 1/20th sec. at f8. Moderate sharpness, not still not enough DOF.

In technique section 3 (Standard Equipment), I suggested that a tripod mounted camera couple be used with smaller apertures to photograph stationary objects. I have since found this to be true, but to less of an extent than I had originally thought. Even at 1/30th of a second (with no pumps turned on), I wasn’t able to get completely tack sharp photos of soft polyps, even those with relatively rigid parts. The photo at the top of this page was taken by this method at f8, and although it is passable, it could be much sharper.

1/45th sec. @ f4

I take this to indicate that in order to get nicely sharp photos (at least when shooting this close), a moderately fast shutter speed is still necessary. I’d try 1/60th of a second first, and take lots of photos to increase the likelihood of getting one with minimal movement. This will necessitate either an increase in ISO (and digital noise) or aperture (and loss of depth of field). I found that at around 1/45 sec. I could get reasonably sharp photos on occasion, and at ISO 400, I could get enough depth of field to get my subject’s main features if I wasn’t too close, as was the case with the blue legged hermit crab.

Shot with flash only at 1/180th sec. @ f16, ISO 200.

Using flash helped quite a bit in some regards, but wasn’t quite the magic bullet that I’d hope for either. I did get consistent (and easy) color balance and much better depth of field, certainly.  I shot at f16 with my flash on 1/4 power, and could easily have gone up to f22, but I know that my lenses are not nearly as sharp at such small apertures (and they show more dust on my sensor!).

That said, I thought that I would be able to shoot with my camera hand held. While I got decent results much of the time, especially when taking wider shots… at true macro distances, though, I did get some motion blur and a tripod would have produced noticeably sharper photos.

I find that a lot of the texture, contrast that can really make a photo stand out come with good post-processing. Shortly, I’ll post a video tutorial showing how I process photos in Photoshop to get the types of results seen here, so check back soon!

Please do not copy this article (or any others from this site) and post it on forums, websites, or blogs. I’m happy to allow you to copy portions of the text and even hot-link a few photos, but please post a link to this blog for the full text.

• Reef Tank Photography Tips : A Quick Guide
• Three Approaches to Aquarium Photography
• In Practice

Reef Tank Photography : The First Try

So, I packed up my macro lens (a Nikon 105mm micro) and a fast 50mm f1.4, and went to start shooting. But I did encounter some problems, and I think that now, several days later, I’m getting a handle on the root causes. If you’re planning on shooting in a reef tank, perhaps you’ll find these tips useful. And if you have some useful insights, please post a reply!

General Tips

These were the general thoughts that I had in mind going into the shoot. Most of them will seem pretty basic, but if you don’t have experience with these tanks, they may help.

1. Set the White Balance : This is especially important if you have to shoot .jpg! There is rarely anything in a reef tank that is color-neutral, so your camera will have a hard time setting a reliable white balance automatically. More importantly, reef tanks (and aquariums in general) frequently use lights that are unusually high in color temperature (such as 10, 14, and 20,000 K), and if your camera is set at standard daylight settings, your photos will come out very blue.

Exposure: 1/350th sec at f4.0 . The depth of field at this distance is so shallow that many of the "tentacles" are in focus at the base but out of focus at the tip. (Lens: Nikon 105mm Micro)

If you happen to know the color temperature of the bulbs (and only one color temperature is being used), you can manually set the color temperature in your camera by number, assuming your camera can be set to 10,000 and higher (mine does not go beyond 10,000).  Consult your manual if you don’t know how to do it already.

More reliably, most cameras allow you to use a Pre-set mode to set the color temperature. By this method, you’ll take an exposure off of something that should be neutral, and your camera will use that shot to set the white balance automatically. What I’ve done is this: tape up a piece of white diffusion cloth (or a piece of lightweight printer paper) onto the center of the aquarium glass (on the outside). Turn off the lights in the room so that the only light that is on the paper is coming from the aquarium lights (wait until night if necessary). The cloth/paper should be glowing with the aquarium light. Fill your camera’s frame with that piece of paper (it doesn’t need to be in focus) and take your exposure. Again, check your manual if necessary. One that is done, you should be all set for the rest of the shoot.

2. One Type of Light: …at a time. If the tank is lit by multiple types of lights (ie, Metal Halide AND fluorescent) turn off all of the lights but one type. This includes FLASH! Fluorescent lights do not penetrate deep water as well as MH, so you’ll end up slightly different colored light from the top of the tank to the bottom. Your eyes probably won’t pick it up, but your camera will. Experiment with different types, though. Some creatures will fluoresce under certain lights and give you more vivid photos.

3. RAW: Shoot in RAW format so that color temperature problems can be fixed later with ease and accuracy. You should be shooting in RAW mode anyway, if you can.

4. Re-Set : If the lighting setup changes while you’re shooting, re-set the white balance. This means that if you change from MH to fluorescent or flash, you must change the white balance (or you’ll pay for it later by manually doing it in Photoshop).

5. Right Angles: Shoot with your lens pointing perpendicular to the plane of the glass to reduce distortion from the glass and water.

6. Reduce Water Movement: Turn off pumps and filters to keep corals from swaying in the current unless you’re going to be using strobes.

7. No On-Camera Flash: On-camera flash will rarely give you satisfactory results in any situation, but it’s especially problematic when you’re shooting through glass. In most cases, the flash will reflect off of the glass.

Since I used available light in this shot, I was able to get contrast between the brighter arms of the anemone and the rich shadows (that would have been filled by on-camera flash).

8. Reduce Glare: Turn off room lights, close curtains and blinds. Shoot with your lens as close to the glass as possible to minimize glare / reflections, or tape up a black cloth to use as a hood, with the top of the cloth attached to the top edge of the tank, and the rest hanging free so that the camera can be held underneath.

Chapters: | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next |

Osprey : Flathead Lake, Montana

In early August I spent several days at Flathead Lake, in Montana. About 30 yards from my cabin was an old tree with a beautiful Osprey nest on top… a common site around the lake. Shortly after I arrived, though, I noticed that it was a much noisier nest than most. I took a closer look and found that in addition two the two adults, there also appeared to be 3 juvenile ospreys in the nest. I hadn’t brought a long telephoto lens, unfortunately; the longest I had was a 200mm, but with my Nikon’s APS-C conversion factor, that’s equivalent to a 300, roughly. I thought it was worth a shot. Or two.

The tree in which the nest was built wasn’t too far from the lake shore, so I began by climbing the hill behind the nest to get a better perspective. This move, unfortunately, took me a bit further away from the nest, but the alternative was photographing the under-side of a nest, which isn’t especially thrilling. As it turned out, though, the parents weren’t very pleased with my presence. They seemed to notice that I was watching them, and one of them perched on a tree nearby and started screeching at me. I sat still and waited, and before too long, the other parent returned with a fresh fish for the young ones.

Osprey with fish, feeding young : Flathead Lake, MT.

The resulting photographs, as you can see, were pretty noisy as a result of the heavy cropping, but I certainly enjoyed taking them, and they’re still worth looking at, too. I think that it’s time that I start traveling with some big glass.

A nice green frog on a lily pad.

It’s Not Easy Being Green, or so they say. I was focusing on some water lilies in CT when I noticed a frog lounging near a lily pad; it wasn’t the first that I’d seen, but it was the only one that allowed me within arms reach. If you look closely, you’ll notice that there’s a big tadpole resting on the pad’s stem. It seemed like such a peaceful scene. Until mere moments after I snapped this photo, the frog turned and ate the tadpole (which I also photographed, but left out of this thread on account of the squeemishness of my readers). Ahh, the circle of life.

The following day, I found myself in Chinatown in New York City. As I approached a fish market, with a wide variety of fresh and dried fish spilling out onto the sidewalk, I noticed a large, grey plastic garbage can getting an unusual amount of attention from a boy who was just tall enough to see over its rim. As I approached the can, I noticed the tag inside: $3.79/lb. Ahh, the beauty of the circle of life (less the cannibalistic infanticide, this time).

Ahh, the cyle of life. Frogs at a fish market, Chinatown, New York City.

Great Egret: Florida Everglades

I’ve loved animals for as long as I can remember, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for good wildlife photography, but for some reason I’ve never really tried it myself. On occasion, though, I stumble upon animals while I’m hiking or searching for good landscape compositions. This is exactly what happened last spring while I was in Miami (and the everglades). I wasn’t there as a photographer, primarily, I was spending some time with my family, but I can’t help picking up my camera when I’m in a new and interesting place.

The first animals that I noticed were the lizards. The anoles (aka American chameleons, frequently and mistakenly called ‘skinks’) were everywhere, which I thought was wonderful since I had kept a few of them as (exotic!) pets as a child in Montana. But as I took a walk into town from my hotel and crossed a bridge over a canal, I was surprised to see several large iguanas… probably 5 feet long or more. But I hadn’t carried my camera on the walk, which is a sure fire way to insure that you run into something interesting. I discovered later that several reptile species such as iguanas (and including pythons and boas) that were imported as pets have escaped or been released into the wild in Florida and thrive there.  Later that day, I ran across a basilisk, and was able to raise my camera to my eye before it ran away.

About a week later, I spent a couple of hours in the everglades, where I saw several alligators, but also saw an attractive egret, which is at the top of the page. The shot was taken from the side of a moving swamp speeder: the type with the massive fan on the back that’s seen on the opening of the old cartoon Wally Gator.  The alligators, although pretty easy to find, were not so easy to photograph with the f5.6 zoom lens that I had decided to carry. The day was cloudy, and as it got later, it was almost impossible to get a sharp image unless the boat had slowed almost to a stop and the subject was stationary. This was the case with the egret, although it moved its head just enough to cause some blurring on the beak.

The only nice thing about the clouds were that they cast some interesting reflections on the still surface of the water. In fact, my favorite photo from the everglades trip primarily features reflected clouds and some lily pads. If I’d had a chance to take a couple more shots and get a little closer to the water, I think that I could have made it into something beautiful; as it is, it’s just an interesting idea.

Wild Basilisk, Miami Florida

Cloud Reflection: Everglades