New DSLR: Critique/Advice Welcomed

[JK47]

Below is the first round of fish pics I've taken with my Nikon D90 with an 18-105mm lens. I have a lot to learn and welcome comments good or bad from SLR veterans on what to do better. (I do not have a remote flash as of yet) I'm trying to focus on the eye of the fish. The first pic I would be quite proud of if the lips/nuchal region were in focus better.







P. dovii pair with loads of fry. The first pic is flash off, when I turn flash off I get very blurry pics of anything moving. What can I do to correct this? I would really like some decent FTS of my tanks.

 

[Freshwaterpredators]

Looking Good Justin keep them coming. This is fun learning something all over again and being noobs

 

[Gruff Master]

I am far from a photographer and have no advice to contribute. But I'd say for a test run you're doing pretty well, Justin. The cichlids are looking great! I love the Dovii tank. Good luck and have fun with the new camera. You and Jason are forcing me to lose this old camera and catch up with the modern world.

 

[Modest_Man]

Put as much light as you can on the tank and shoot at as small an aperture as you can. Less light = wider aperture = smaller depth of field.

At F2.8 or F3.5 (not sure what your lens goes to) you only have a couple of inches of in focus depth of field. If you can stop down the aperture to F8 or F16 you have about a foot or more of in focus depth of field, which gives you more shooting leeway.

The first thing you should buy is a speedlight and a 6-8' cable, then your fish photos will improve 10x.

If I can get some free time I can come up and you can mess with my SB-600.

 

[Jc1119]

Pretty nice shots for a first crack at it. Im only a few months in with my new cam and I haven't taken anything with flash yet that I like, at all. Ive spent a lot of time in manual mode and have taken some pretty cool non-flash photos but I know the potential with flash is pretty deep. Aquamojo said the same thing about flash. Said half the battle was getting the flash ,off, the camera. Im a total newb with this stuff too....gonna hang around here and steal some ideas lol


fish and tank look awesome too btw. Dovii setup is just sick!

 

[JK47]

Looking Good Justin keep them coming. This is fun learning something all over again and being noobs

I'm looking forward to having a buddy learn at the same time too!!!

I am far from a photographer and have no advice to contribute. But I'd say for a test run you're doing pretty well, Justin. The cichlids are looking great! I love the Dovii tank. Good luck and have fun with the new camera. You and Jason are forcing me to lose this old camera and catch up with the modern world.

Thanks for the comments Al. The dovii tank is a WRECK right now. The male went on a rampage and beat himself up pretty bad. All the plants etc.. are shuffled all around and looking like crap scape wise. I'll get things cleaned up this week and get some decent pics.

Pretty nice shots for a first crack at it. Im only a few months in with my new cam and I haven't taken anything with flash yet that I like, at all. Ive spent a lot of time in manual mode and have taken some pretty cool non-flash photos but I know the potential with flash is pretty deep. Aquamojo said the same thing about flash. Said half the battle was getting the flash ,off, the camera. Im a total newb with this stuff too....gonna hang around here and steal some ideas lol


fish and tank look awesome too btw. Dovii setup is just sick!

Thanks John, glad I'm not the only rookie on the block pic wise. Thanks for the comments on my dovii tank, I'll get it cleaned up this week and it will be a show tank again.

Put as much light as you can on the tank and shoot at as small an aperture as you can. Less light = wider aperture = smaller depth of field.

At F2.8 or F3.5 (not sure what your lens goes to) you only have a couple of inches of in focus depth of field. If you can stop down the aperture to F8 or F16 you have about a foot or more of in focus depth of field, which gives you more shooting leeway.

The first thing you should buy is a speedlight and a 6-8' cable, then your fish photos will improve 10x.

If I can get some free time I can come up and you can mess with my SB-600.

Thanks so much Jamie, I was hoping you would jump in here. It's F3.5, I just checked. I will order a speedlight this week. thanks for the advice on turning down the apeture, I will try that next. I just snapped these of the dovii tank on manual focus/no flash. Not quite there but getting closer. I would be really excited if you were to come over and teach me a few things, I feel like a kid with his first girl and no clue what to do.. I can pay you in dovii fry!!!





I am going to try and only shoot the midevil tank for a while until I nail the focus, I am trying too much with tanks and fish and different lighting etc.. to really learn what I'm doing.

 

[Modest_Man]

I've got the SB-600, but I think it's discontinued. Not sure what is on the market for speedlights honestly. No idea what the D90 can do for flash synching either. My camera is older and I have to use either a cable hook up or a third party radio transmitter to shoot with my speedlight over the tank. Newer, more expensive cameras can synch wirelessly. I know you can pick up a flash synch cable for under $30, which will allow you to shoot on automatic modes while the flash is above the tank.

Any dovii fry I took home would end up as food.

 

[JK47]

I've got the SB-600, but I think it's discontinued. Not sure what is on the market for speedlights honestly. No idea what the D90 can do for flash synching either. My camera is older and I have to use either a cable hook up or a third party radio transmitter to shoot with my speedlight over the tank. Newer, more expensive cameras can synch wirelessly. I know you can pick up a flash synch cable for under $30, which will allow you to shoot on automatic modes while the flash is above the tank.

Any dovii fry I took home would end up as food.

There are a few places locally that I will stop by tomorrow (one in Janzen Beach) and see if I can get one there. I wanted the D90 since while older was a higher end model than some others so hopefully it has some decent speedlight options. I am still digging through options so not sure to be honest.

No worries on the dovii I was just joking around, they are feeders here too since none of the local shops will take them often. World of Wet Pets in Beaverton still has young ones from 4 spawns ago, this pair is as bad as livebearers...

 

[DempseyDude]

amazing shots

 

[JK47]

amazing shots

Thank you, they can only get better from here I guess.