Reef Tank Photography Tips : A Quick Guide

Last week, I had the opportunity to take some photos of a beautiful reef tank down in Kirkland.  I’ve taken photos of freshwater fish before; at one point, I had a heavily planted tank with a nice collection of odd-ball fish. I’ve also taken a few snapshots in marine tanks, in addition to quite a bit of macro photography in general, so I didn’t anticipate too many problems.

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.

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.

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.

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