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how to take pictures of your corals

greybolt03

greybolt03

Found this on another site thought it was some good info

how to take pictures of your corals (camera settings tutorial)
Whether you have a point and shoot camera, or a digital SLR w/ or without a macro lens.......here are some tips to figure out how to shoot pictures of your corals.

Keep in mind, I am mostly familiar with Canon camera's.......if you have a Nikon.....and know these settings should be the same......although they may be labelled or marked differently.

setting up the equipment:

-set the camera up on a tri-pod
-turn off ALL pumps providing any kind of water circulation
-make sure the lens is perpendicular to the glass....if its at an angle...this will distort the picture and make it look blurry
-set the lens zoom and focus to manual, and adjust by hand by looking through the eye piece.

camera settings:

-shoot at the highest/finest/largest setting possible (RAW if possible)
-Auto White Balance should be fine to shoot in (if you get advanced enough you can mess around with this setting)
-set ISO to 0 for now, but if shots are coming out too dark or blurry, you can adjust up to 200. any higher than 400 and pictures will start to look grainy.

-set the shooting mode into APERATURE PRIORITY (Av mode on Canon camera's located on a dial on the top of the camera, by setting the f/stop manually, the camera will automatically adjust the shutter spead based on the available light)
-set the f/stop of the camera to b/w f/9 and f/13. (the higher the f/stop, the smaller the aperature....and the greater the depth of field....however....as the depth of field gets larger, the sharpness will degrade........thus f/9-13 seems to be a good sweet spot for coral shooting)
-use the self timer function....so when you press the button the camera will count down before taking the picture
-MAKE SURE TO TURN THE FLASH OFF

Post-picture Processing:

-if you took the picture at a higher setting, you will need to shrink the picture to 800x600 pixels in order for proper web page viewing. this will also make the file size smaller.
-adjust brightness, contrast, expsure, white balance, tone, color saturation etc. (takes some trial and error before you know what you are doing)
-make sure to convert any RAW images to JPEGS, after making your adjustments.

Advanced Settings:

-exposure settings......normally this should be set to 0 Ev/Av. but you can play around with this if certain parts of your picture look too over exposed or under exposed.
- (for canon dSLR's) - set "long exposure noise reduction" to ON, set "mirror lock up" to ON


this is a wonderful website that explains everything in detail.
http://www.ximinasphotography.com/lessons/index.html


if you have anything to add, feel free to post. i will sticky this thread.
 
NJ Lunatic

NJ Lunatic

Not sure what camera you can set ISO to 0 on as usually 50 is the lowest you can go. Typically 100 is used on a bright sunny day and anything lower than that would be an insanely bright scene. Typically pictures will be between 100 to 400 ISO depending on tank lighting. If you have your ISO too low and not enough light you end up suffering on the shutter speed end unless you have a fast lens (good F stop, lower number the better). I typically use Aperture Priority as well, but I do so to crank my F stop to 2.8 or 1.2 as it lets me keep the ISO at 100 and have a high shutter speed.

For white balance, there is another thread in this part of the forum on that and it is probably the one advanced feature all of us should use since we all tend to run high color temperatures. AWB is just for the birds shooting an atypical situation.

On your advanced settings, you may want to try exposure bracketing if you are worried exposure wise.
 
TanksNStuff

TanksNStuff

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I saw this thread last night and noticed the same thing when I got my Canon Rebel T2i DSLR out to experiment. My ISO options were AUTO, 100, 200, etc. There was no 0 ISO option.

While I was messing around with the settings though, I did look into the WB bracketing that NJ Lunatic was talking about in the other thread he started. I still haven't gotten a chance to take my baseline custom WB shot yet, but I did see where I could change the brackets either up or down... so at least I learned a bit more about my camera options.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to get my baseline WB shot this weekend and see if I can get some quality pics.
 
ReeferRick

ReeferRick

NJ Lunatic said:
Not sure what camera you can set ISO to 0 on as usually 50 is the lowest you can go. Typically 100 is used on a bright sunny day and anything lower than that would be an insanely bright scene. Typically pictures will be between 100 to 400 ISO depending on tank lighting. If you have your ISO too low and not enough light you end up suffering on the shutter speed end unless you have a fast lens (good F stop, lower number the better). I typically use Aperture Priority as well, but I do so to crank my F stop to 2.8 or 1.2 as it lets me keep the ISO at 100 and have a high shutter speed.

For white balance, there is another thread in this part of the forum on that and it is probably the one advanced feature all of us should use since we all tend to run high color temperatures. AWB is just for the birds shooting an atypical situation.

On your advanced settings, you may want to try exposure bracketing if you are worried exposure wise.
Click to expand...

It must be a mistake. I think "native" ISO is your starting point. Cannon is ISO 100 and Nikon is ISO 200 ISO where you get the best quality and you slowly increase it until motion blur is eliminated and exposure is correct. Any settings above ISO 400 may start to introduce noise (grainy images) in many entry level DSLR cameras. I am not sure what the native ISO is on other camera makers but 0 doesn't sound right. Some good tips here that I am going to try it out. Coral photography has its own unique challenges.
 
NJ Lunatic

NJ Lunatic

ReeferRick said:
It must be a mistake. I think "native" ISO is your starting point. Cannon is ISO 100 and Nikon is ISO 200 ISO where you get the best quality and you slowly increase it until motion blur is eliminated and exposure is correct. Any settings above ISO 400 may start to introduce noise (grainy images) in many entry level DSLR cameras. I am not sure what the native ISO is on other camera makers but 0 doesn't sound right. Some good tips here that I am going to try it out. Coral photography has its own unique challenges.
Click to expand...

I don't see coral photography any different from any other macro photography i.e. flower close ups, which is how I approach it. Nikon should have a base of 200 ISO as well I would think as it is a typical ISO increment for all SLRs. I know point and shoots are weird as they start at like 160. I typically use my 70-200mm f2.8 zoomed in to 200mm for my coral shots with my SLR. I realize that not everyone is going to have access to that type of lens, so in to adding to what greybolt said, I would opt for f8 aperture as it would give a decent field of depth and still help keep you shutter reasonable without compromising your ISO. I would try not to creep below 1/25 on shutter as you could still get away without a tripod at that speed unless your detoxing or something....lol. I would also use autofocus as well, and either lock it or use a zoned focus, there is nothing worse than losing a shot because you cannot focus fast enough. For the Nikon fans, I still have an old 50mm f1.2 fully manual lens if you would like to try....lol.
 
ReeferRick

ReeferRick

NJ Lunatic said:
I don't see coral photography any different from any other macro photography i.e. flower close ups, which is how I approach it. Nikon should have a base of 200 ISO as well I would think as it is a typical ISO increment for all SLRs. I know point and shoots are weird as they start at like 160. I typically use my 70-200mm f2.8 zoomed in to 200mm for my coral shots with my SLR. I realize that not everyone is going to have access to that type of lens, so in to adding to what greybolt said, I would opt for f8 aperture as it would give a decent field of depth and still help keep you shutter reasonable without compromising your ISO. I would try not to creep below 1/25 on shutter as you could still get away without a tripod at that speed unless your detoxing or something....lol. I would also use autofocus as well, and either lock it or use a zoned focus, there is nothing worse than losing a shot because you cannot focus fast enough. For the Nikon fans, I still have an old 50mm f1.2 fully manual lens if you would like to try....lol.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree that the basics of macro photography do apply here. Traditionally you would need a clamp to secure the subject from blowing in the wind (or wait for a calm day). With corals shutting down the pumps may have a similar effect. In addition you have to deal with shooting through glass and water that may introduce additional reflections and or chromatic aberration. Shooting directly perpendicular to the glass and use a rubber lens hood can help in this case.

The Nikon D300s I have with the 105mm VR should work great but I need to get some practice in before I am satisfied with the results. Sticking with manual settings I plan to keep the ISO low and the aperture small f8 or f16 for greater depth of filed (DOF). The full frame cameras suffer a bit on the DOF end when used in macro photography which may be offset by the better low light capabilities. Point and shoot or cropped sensor cameras have a bit of an advantage when it comes to getting the whole subject in focus if this is what you are going for. ;)


The 70-200mm is not in my bag but I do have the 77mm close-up filter that fits that lens. It could be a useful option for you if you are interested in getting closer which seems to be the one minor weakness of this high quality lens.
 
NJ Lunatic

NJ Lunatic

ReeferRick said:
Yes I agree that the basics of macro photography do apply here. Traditionally you would need a clamp to secure the subject from blowing in the wind (or wait for a calm day). With corals shutting down the pumps may have a similar effect. In addition you have to deal with shooting through glass and water that may introduce additional reflections and or chromatic aberration. Shooting directly perpendicular to the glass and use a rubber lens hood can help in this case.

The Nikon D300s I have with the 105mm VR should work great but I need to get some practice in before I am satisfied with the results. Sticking with manual settings I plan to keep the ISO low and the aperture small f8 or f16 for greater depth of filed (DOF). The full frame cameras suffer a bit on the DOF end when used in macro photography which may be offset by the better low light capabilities. Point and shoot or cropped sensor cameras have a bit of an advantage when it comes to getting the whole subject in focus if this is what you are going for. ;)


The 70-200mm is not in my bag but I do have the 77mm close-up filter that fits that lens. It could be a useful option for you if you are interested in getting closer which seems to be the one minor weakness of this high quality lens.
Click to expand...

I don't think the full frames suffer, it is more of perception. I have had plenty of time with a D800 and 5D, but it all comes down to lens choice. I do use a close up filter but hardly ever on the 70-200, I use mostly on my 100-400 since the focal on that is just brutal.
 
Olivier

Olivier

ReeferRick said:
Yes I agree that the basics of macro photography do apply here. Traditionally you would need a clamp to secure the subject from blowing in the wind (or wait for a calm day). With corals shutting down the pumps may have a similar effect. In addition you have to deal with shooting through glass and water that may introduce additional reflections and or chromatic aberration. Shooting directly perpendicular to the glass and use a rubber lens hood can help in this case.

The Nikon D300s I have with the 105mm VR should work great but I need to get some practice in before I am satisfied with the results. Sticking with manual settings I plan to keep the ISO low and the aperture small f8 or f16 for greater depth of filed (DOF). The full frame cameras suffer a bit on the DOF end when used in macro photography which may be offset by the better low light capabilities. Point and shoot or cropped sensor cameras have a bit of an advantage when it comes to getting the whole subject in focus if this is what you are going for. ;)


The 70-200mm is not in my bag but I do have the 77mm close-up filter that fits that lens. It could be a useful option for you if you are interested in getting closer which seems to be the one minor weakness of this high quality lens.
Click to expand...

ReeferRick,
turn the water circulation pumps or any water movement off right before photo session. F8 and F9 with ISO 200 still at very low shutter speed. coral might be fine but fish is not enough.
 
Olivier

Olivier

NJ Lunatic said:
I don't think the full frames suffer, it is more of perception. I have had plenty of time with a D800 and 5D, but it all comes down to lens choice. I do use a close up filter but hardly ever on the 70-200, I use mostly on my 100-400 since the focal on that is just brutal.
Click to expand...
why full frame is suffer with macro photography? it should be better with full frame (if you have the right lens and right setup ). with D800 and D4 D3 pro and advance pro bodies, the camera has more dynamic range than those consumer bodies which is better in underwater photog.
 
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