If so, I'd like to hear what settings you use. I'm still relatively new to my camera and haven't ventured much outside the "auto" setting yet. For some reason when I increase the shutter speed and the ISO, my pictures come out black unless I use the flash... but I don't want to use the flash, so I don't really know what to do. Any pointers?
Does anyone else shoot with a Nikon D40x?
- Thread starter frazzlerock5
- Start date
i shoot with a D40. i shoot mostly in S mode. here's what i do to get really nice shots:
- add extra lights on the tank. this is KEY. you needs lots of light unless you running a wireless flash and/or high speed lenses. T5HO fixtures come in very handy for this.
- shoot in S mode
- take off auto-ISO and set ISO to 200. a lower ISO will give you better quality pics. that is why you need lots of light.
- adjust your shutter speed to give you a focused and well exposed shot. for me this is usually between 1/40 to 1/100, depending on how close the fish is too the light. the closer to the light and the brighter the fish looks, the faster the shutter speed i use. the farther away, the slower the speed to capture more light. be careful shooting below 1/30. any slight movement will cause blur in your pic.
- post processing, this is just as important as taking pics themselves. most times youll need to adjust individual color channels to get the proper white balance. you can also adjust exposure, highlights, and shadows if needed.
good luck!
- add extra lights on the tank. this is KEY. you needs lots of light unless you running a wireless flash and/or high speed lenses. T5HO fixtures come in very handy for this.
- shoot in S mode
- take off auto-ISO and set ISO to 200. a lower ISO will give you better quality pics. that is why you need lots of light.
- adjust your shutter speed to give you a focused and well exposed shot. for me this is usually between 1/40 to 1/100, depending on how close the fish is too the light. the closer to the light and the brighter the fish looks, the faster the shutter speed i use. the farther away, the slower the speed to capture more light. be careful shooting below 1/30. any slight movement will cause blur in your pic.
- post processing, this is just as important as taking pics themselves. most times youll need to adjust individual color channels to get the proper white balance. you can also adjust exposure, highlights, and shadows if needed.
good luck!
You will simply not beable to copycat someone ele's setting-
You will have to find the medium for your setup...
How many watts of light are you running?
You will have to find the medium for your setup...
How many watts of light are you running?
yeah definitely not meant as a copy setting, just something to get him started. for reference, when i take pics im using 4x 48" T5HO bulbs over a 6x3x3 tankakskirmish;3813153;3813153 said:
Yep, I doneoprodigy;3813090; said:
I personnally don't fully understand all the settings myself frazzle...to be honest I pretty much leave it set on macro (the little flower looking thing on the dial
) and let it do its thing......definitely not an expert but if I were going to recommend just 1 thing to help take pics of fish...it would be a remote flash that you can put on the top of your tank so the lite is directly over your fish...my pics went from crap to at least average after I got one of those.
good luck!
Norbert;3813971; said:Yep, I do
I personnally don't fully understand all the settings myself frazzle...to be honest I pretty much leave it set on macro (the little flower looking thing on the dial
...definitely not an expert but if I were going to recommend just 1 thing to help take pics of fish...it would be a remote flash that you can put on the top of your tank so the lite is directly over your fish...my pics went from crap to at least average after I got one of those.
good luck!
jcardona1;3813161; said:
akskirmish;3813153; said:
jcardona1;3813105; said:i shoot with a D40. i shoot mostly in S mode. here's what i do to get really nice shots:
- add extra lights on the tank. this is KEY. you needs lots of light unless you running a wireless flash and/or high speed lenses. T5HO fixtures come in very handy for this.
- shoot in S mode
- take off auto-ISO and set ISO to 200. a lower ISO will give you better quality pics. that is why you need lots of light.
- adjust your shutter speed to give you a focused and well exposed shot. for me this is usually between 1/40 to 1/100, depending on how close the fish is too the light. the closer to the light and the brighter the fish looks, the faster the shutter speed i use. the farther away, the slower the speed to capture more light. be careful shooting below 1/30. any slight movement will cause blur in your pic.
- post processing, this is just as important as taking pics themselves. most times youll need to adjust individual color channels to get the proper white balance. you can also adjust exposure, highlights, and shadows if needed.
good luck!
neoprodigy;3813090; said:
Thanks for the responses guys. I'm not looking for a "recipe to copy", or anything like that. I'm just trying to learn a little bit about my camera and learn a little bit from other peoples' experiences. Right now, I'm running 2 x 36" Coralife 18,000k bulbs and 2 x 36" T5 bulbs. Eventually, I'll probably get a remote flash. After seeing some of the other photos that people on here take with overhead flashes look absolutely amazing. Thanks for the tips guys, I'll play around with those settings a little bit tonight.
you should know the D40 cant control the flash remotely unless you buy a seperate commander unit that will run you another $250 on top of the flash. that or you could run it with a cable, i think they come in 3ft lengths
jcardona1;3814184; said:
Not really, I bought a wireless trigger for $40 off eBay for my D60 (pretty much a 40x). Sometimes it doesn't fire but I get about a 99% fire rate. http://martybugs.net/reviews/cactus.cgi
I just got my first DSLR (D60) in December, and took some photos last night on manual with a wireless flash (SB600) over the tank. My secret? Put the setting on macro, hold down the shutter half way and read the shutter speed and aperture (with the ISO at 100 or 200) with the SB600 on the hot shoe. The flip to manual and use those settings with the SB600 above the tank wirelessly. With some slight adjustments you'll get some great photos. Shoot in RAW, learn Photoshop, and take tons of photos!
Photos I just took are here
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301878
yeah I knew about those triggers but I heard bad stuff about them. but I guess you can't go wrong for forty bucks. nice tips, those pics came out awesome! now I really wanna get my flash!