6 17 10 : DSLR

[devder1]

I almost always shoot aperture priority. Shutter speed is irrelevant most times, as long as you're hitting above 1/60, you should be able to freeze the fish and not get motion blur.

Honestly though, my aperture is usually wide open to allow more light in because I never bother with a flash. I haven't used my flash in years. Perhaps I should break it out. I think I do ok with ambient lighting though:

I'd highly recommend getting fixed lens with a wide aperture, like a 50mm f/1.8 or something. The 50mm canon lens is around $90 new, not sure what the nikon variety would be.

I also only shoot in raw and convert and do all editing in Adobe Lightroom. Let me know if you'd like a copy. I can send one over to ya. It's a great program.

thats interesting ed, thanks for the help, im definately going to try higher apertures with no flash, also what is the difference between a f3.5-5.6 and a f1.8?

 

[devder1]

thats interesting ed, thanks for the help, im definately going to try higher apertures with no flash, also what is the difference between a f3.5-5.6 and a f1.8?

ok worked with the camera a bit today and figured out that and f1.8 would be helpful, but i think i would rather have a speedlight. i am debating between a sb-400 sb-600?

 

[SpeshulEd]

The smaller the f number, the wider your lens will open and let more light in.

You might also want to crank up the iso. I usually do around iso1600 in low light. Back in the day, you would get a lot of noise at higher iso's but the cameras nowadays are so great, that you can crank it really high and still not get noise.

 

[devder1]

The smaller the f number, the wider your lens will open and let more light in.

You might also want to crank up the iso. I usually do around iso1600 in low light. Back in the day, you would get a lot of noise at higher iso's but the cameras nowadays are so great, that you can crank it really high and still not get noise.

yea i am actually running the setting over 1600 right now its called "hi-1" lol but idk, i am thinking of going after a used sb-400, it seems really lightweight and easy

 

[devder1]

i am really learning how to adjust and read my photos through the manual mode

 

[peewee]

nice cichlids!

 

[jcardona1]

a fixed aperture lens like the 50mm f/1.8 is nice for low light situations, but aquarium photography isnt one of them, IMO. your better off using your 18-55mm kit lens and getting an wireless flash setup.

why? a big aperture like 1.8 is nice because you get lots of light, but you also have a very shallow depth of field. meaning only the portion of the fish thats closest to the lens is in focus. with a big aperture, as soon as you get past the eyes and gills, the body starts to go out of focus.

this is not ideal in my opinion. when using an overhead flash youre using tiny apertures, like f/11-f/16+ and shutter speeds of 1/160-1/250th. this makes sure the entire fish is in focus.

for example this one here was shot at f/16 @ 1/160th with my overhead flash. but until you get a flash on top of the tank, your limited to wide apertures

 

[devder1]

ooh and just took this, i really need a 55-200, the roadrunner was like 60 feet away and now its bad quality cause i had to crop it so much cause i couldnt zoom in on him

 

[jcardona1]

thats interesting ed, thanks for the help, im definately going to try higher apertures with no flash, also what is the difference between a f3.5-5.6 and a f1.8?

most standard kit lenses are variable aperture, like the basic 18-55mm. this means that your WIDEST aperture will vary from f/3.5-5.6. at 18mm, the biggest aperture you can get is f/3.5. when you zoom out to 55mm, the biggest aperture you can get is f/5.6.

this is why kit lenses suck in low light situations. zoomed out to 55mm, a f/5.6 is way too slow for anything but bright light. a fixed aperture lens, like a 70-200mm f/2.8 is capable of maintaining a constant BIG aperture of f/2.8, at all zoom levels. this is why pros always use a fixed aperture lens. but the cons are they are big, heavy, and very expensive.

my walk around lens is a 17-55mm f/2.8. even though the zoom levels are basically the same as your 18-55, its much much bigger and heavier because of the fixed f/2.8 aperture. its also stupid expensive. i paid $1k for this lens used, while an 18-55mm can be had for less than $100.

here's the 17-55mm f/2.8 vs the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

 

[jcardona1]

here's the 17-55mm on my D90