The Camera Thread

[Aquamojo]

Natural look with fluoro lights? pffft! Then again that's why you shoot RAW and fiddle with the white balance in CS3, Lightroom or Aperture


Fast lenses are great for photos of individual fish. Isolation and higher shutter speeds if you're shooting wide open (with no flash). And with the newer Canon dSLRs (not sure on other cameras), a fast lens will give more light for better AF performance. There's no substitute for speed. You can always stop the lens down if you want. Never have the option with a slow lens to make it faster!

I've only read this page, so I'm unsure why Mo talks about sacrificing DOF. DOF is a tool, nothing more. But I guess it depends on how the artist wants the end product to look. I like to isolate my fish as much as possible, but that's more because clay pots just aren't very photogenic! But with the aquascaping Mo's done on his aquariums (specially the zonatum tank!), I can see why he wants to shoot with the lens closed down to show off more than just the fish. Definitely gives a good perspective on the subject.

Hey Mo, where are you finding all that greenery? With all the snow this winter, I'm almost itching to add some green to a couple of my aquariums!

DOF as a tool....only if you can control it. Using a flash I'm able to shoot as high as F29 in some photos. DOF will be proportionate to the focal length of the subject. That is to say if I shoot from 8 feet away with my Macro 105mm lens the subject and, say...5-6" in front of and behind the subject will be in relative focus. Shooting with the same lensat half that distance will obviously shorten what's in focus proportionately. Utilizing a smaller aperture just allows for a crisper photo and less noise.

All of the plants I have in my tank are silk. I purchse them from Michael's Craft Center for about a fifth of what I would pay for them in an LFS.

 

[akskirmish]

Canon 400D
Untouched-Uneditted shots----

I consider these more a "natural" shot.....

 

[DarthV]

Exactly. Guess it depends on how deep into photography that people on this forum (and in this thread) are.

Nice quick article for those that are wondering what DOF is and why it matters:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/dof.shtml

In digital cameras, there is something else to take into account. Those small P&S cameras deal with equivalent focal lengths. Their lens focal lengths and sensors are much smaller than what you'd find on a 35mm film camera or SLR, so they won't have the ability to narrow down the DOF as well.

 

[ashdavid]

Natural look with fluoro lights? pffft! Then again that's why you shoot RAW and fiddle with the white balance in CS3, Lightroom or Aperture


Fast lenses are great for photos of individual fish. Isolation and higher shutter speeds if you're shooting wide open (with no flash). And with the newer Canon dSLRs (not sure on other cameras), a fast lens will give more light for better AF performance. There's no substitute for speed. You can always stop the lens down if you want. Never have the option with a slow lens to make it faster!

I've only read this page, so I'm unsure why Mo talks about sacrificing DOF. DOF is a tool, nothing more. But I guess it depends on how the artist wants the end product to look. I like to isolate my fish as much as possible, but that's more because clay pots just aren't very photogenic! But with the aquascaping Mo's done on his aquariums (specially the zonatum tank!), I can see why he wants to shoot with the lens closed down to show off more than just the fish. Definitely gives a good perspective on the subject.

Hey Mo, where are you finding all that greenery? With all the snow this winter, I'm almost itching to add some green to a couple of my aquariums!

A fast lens means jack in aquarium photography. I have a 50mm f1.2 and its DOF wide open is paper thin, which renders the pics almost unuseable. Maybe if I was shooting from 20 feet away it may have some use , but then the fish would be so small you would not know waht they were. Mo is right when he speaks about using flash to get get the most natural look, b/c how bright do you think the sun is? And stoping the lens down won't help much with AF performance. Get a decent camera and the AF performance will take care of its self.

 

[ashdavid]

Canon 400D
Untouched-Uneditted shots----

I consider these more a "natural" shot.....

These are under exposed. Sure its taken without a flash , but they are probably about 4 stops underexposed.

 

[akskirmish]

These are under exposed. Sure its taken without a flash , but they are probably about 4 stops underexposed.

LOL-
If thats all you have to say bad about them--
I'll live with it David......I have been working on that aspect of my shooting....It will come in due time Sir......

But you have seen me progress----It's a world of difference from where I first started...

Not to argue with you-
I'm curious on knowing-But how did you figure out they were 4 stops under?

 

[akskirmish]

So if I have this right then-
I should be shooting at around a F7 for these shots......

 

[is300zx]

So if I have this right then-
I should be shooting at around a F7 for these shots......

nope you should be using slower shutter speeds or even higher ISO settings or both since you shot these wide open.

 

[akskirmish]

So an even higher F stop.....

The XTI like I shoot with doesn't to the best with grain/noise at an ISO of 1600--800 is about the max I want to run...

Sorry for the ingnorance here---
Just trying to figure it out...

 

[is300zx]

So an even higher F stop.....

The XTI like I shoot with doesn't to the best with grain/noise at an ISO of 1600--800 is about the max I want to run...

Sorry for the ingnorance here---
Just trying to figure it out...

Well since you shot these wide open meaning the lowest fstop you can get, then the only way to compensate for underexposure is to use slower shutter speed or higher ISO or both in some cases. If your pics were shot let's say at F8 then you would lower it 4 stops down to something like F4 or something. Since you don't want to go higher than ISO 800 then your only option is to use slower shutter speed, but if you go too low it would cause motion blur and if not low enough it would still be underexposed. This is why most aquatic photographers prefer using remote flash so that they would have enough light to shoot at settings that wouldn't cause motion blur, have enough DOF, etc.