Be Afraid, POTMers!

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Thanks. I just took about 300 pics with my camera... And I really need some help :( They don't look very good. :cry:

I'll have to put some effort into figuring it out this weekend. The books are good ideas guys, thanks!
 
Sterling Publishing | Book: Magic Lantern | 978-1-60059-618-6

This book will walk you through what every button on your camera can do... it will give you a few tips as well... I get one for every camera I have, something about the way they write camera manuals are written they are so hard to read and I have a degree in photography I should be able to read it!!! I never really look at the one that comes with the camera.

But Dennis is right learn the basics and you will be fine...
 
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Donna have you referenced one of these Sterling books before? Is that what you have used? Just curious because I have the same complicated camera that Biff does.
 
dcantucson said:
Donna have you referenced one of these Sterling books before? Is that what you have used? Just curious because I have the same complicated camera that Biff does.
Click to expand...

And I think we also have the same reasons why we haven't posted any pics yet! Can't figure out how to use the thing! Hahaha!
 
post a picture with the EXIF data.(camera settings emedded with the pictures) What is wrong with images? To grainy- iso to high and underexposed. Motion blur from subject - needs faster shutter speed.
Pick an ISO and then set it to Av the camera will pick the shutter speed. If it is to dark or blurred increase the ISO (sensor sensitivity.)
Only change one thing at a time to see what it does. Also take pictures of static images to take out more variables.
 
Custom white balance setting. You'll have to play with it to get close to what your tank is, but I know that with my T5 only tank is was impossible to get the right color. I had to tweak in post and it was still never perfect. But with my halide/t5 supplemented tank, the auto wb on my nikon actually does really well.
 
You need an 18% gray card or something white to do the white balance. Put something white behind the back glass and shoot it. then you can adjust your white balance from there. Try the flash or flouresent white balance on the camera it may get you in the ball park
 
Yeah on my Cannon point and shoot, the white balance setting that worked the best was "high output fluorescent". I'll have to see if my camera has a similar choice! That's a good idea about the paper too. Thanks! :D
 
Bifferwine said:
Yeah on my Cannon point and shoot, the white balance setting that worked the best was "high output fluorescent". I'll have to see if my camera has a similar choice! That's a good idea about the paper too. Thanks! :D
Click to expand...

Don't bother. Again, those presets are not always the best solution.
Just look up "white balance - custom" in the manual's index.
On my D700 you hold down the WB button while turning one of the dials, watching the little green screen on the top of the camera as the numbers go up or down. Just take a pic, then move the numbers a bunch in one direction and take another pic, etc until you get as close as you can to what your eyes see. But depending on your lighting, you may only be able to get so close. Further adjustments in post may be necessary to get the look you want. You can try the gray card thing but first you need a gray card, and then I'm not sure how well it would work without sticking the card IN the tank. Personally, I have never bothered. The first way i described is easy enough.
 
Okay, I figured out the white balance. It took a lot of tries (my camera lets you move a cursor around in a field of colors to change it), but I got it to where the pics actually look like the tank.

Now I'm shooting in "A" mode, because some tutorials I watched online said that's the best mode for aquarium pictures. I have my ISO set to 800... The fish seem to come out blurry. How do I fix this? Should I use a different ISO setting?
 
If the fish are blurry your shutterspeed is most likely too slow.
When you are on A mode, you chose a fixed aperture. What did you choose?
I ask because in order to get a faster shutter speed, you need more light. If you go back to one of my other posts you will read that you have two options left to get more light in the camera. Raise the ISO (which can introduce more noise) or lower the f-stop (larger Aperture) which will also give you less focus depth so you will need to be more spot on with your focusing. On A mode, you are leaving it up to the camera what shutter speed to choose. On S mode you are leaving it up to the camera what Aperture (f-stop) to use. What i do is shoot M (full manual). If I'm choosing to shoot fish, I will choose a shutter speed that is fast enough to stop the action, like 1/100 if they are not moving too fast. Then I adjust aperture and iso accordingly. On my D700 i usually have the iso set around 1000-1600 without much noise. I don't know what the noise threshold is like on your camera but i bet you could bump it up a bit from where you are.

It's all a dance... and shooting our tanks is more like the freakin Tango! :lol:
 
After talking to Tanked and Catherine, I switched it to S mode. I'll try it on that! If that fails... Well, I guess it's on to M!
 
Dominick I have the same camera and Biff has now convinenced me to never touch it. I think it's part of her plan.
 
Bifferwine said:
Okay, I figured out the white balance. It took a lot of tries (my camera lets you move a cursor around in a field of colors to change it), but I got it to where the pics actually look like the tank.

Now I'm shooting in "A" mode, because some tutorials I watched online said that's the best mode for aquarium pictures. I have my ISO set to 800... The fish seem to come out blurry. How do I fix this? Should I use a different ISO setting?
Click to expand...

Bump up the ISO so that you can make your shutter speed faster.until there is no motion blur. Noise shows up mostly in dark areas. so if there is to much noise expose a bit on the bright side. and then bring it back in post.
 
dcantucson said:
Dominick I have the same camera and Biff has now convinenced me to never touch it. I think it's part of her plan.
Click to expand...


Once you get past this part it becomes pretty fun. Its not like every click costs you anything. experimenting is pretty much free now days.

If you shoot RAW more can be done in post processing to fix the picture than if you shoot jpeg
 
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