How to improve my FTS

[rolyat113]

Hey guys, I've done a lot of reading and have recently begun attempting to take some good full tank shots with my Nikon D40 w/stock lens. I'm turning off the pump to allow the water to settle and using the timer so the camera stays as steady as possible. The pictures are coming out overexposed and not as crisp as I was hoping... Any tips or obvious noob mistakes I'm making? I'm using landscape mode to try to get as much in focus as possible.

 

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[KurtS]

First I'd ask if you are shooting on full auto, a semi auto mode or in manual?

If you are shooting on full auto (which is what I'm guessing you are doing) and don't feel comfortable with the manual mode you can dial in some exposure compensation to counteract the camera overexposing.

I'm a Canon guy myself so can't direct you where exactly to find it on your Nikon but the option should be there.

 

edit: also remember, your tank has both very light and dark areas.

So if the darker areas are rendered correctly the light areas will likely be overexposed and if the light areas are rendered correctly your darker areas will likely be underexposed.

 

If we take your second image as an example. You can now see what is the shadow areas easily (your shrimp is visible for example) but your sand is overexposed. If you were to expose for the sand to be properly rendered that shadow area in the center would be a lot darker and your shrimp would most likely not be (as easily) visible.

The trick is to find a balance you are happy with and that will require some experimentation with your settings.

[rolyat113]

First I'd ask if you are shooting on full auto, a semi auto mode or in manual?

If you are shooting on full auto (which is what I'm guessing you are doing) and don't feel comfortable with the manual mode you can dial in some exposure compensation to counteract the camera overexposing.

I'm a Canon guy myself so can't direct you where exactly to find it on your Nikon but the option should be there.

 

edit: also remember, your tank has both very light and dark areas.

So if the darker areas are rendered correctly the light areas will likely be overexposed and if the light areas are rendered correctly your darker areas will likely be underexposed.

 

If we take your second image as an example. You can now see what is the shadow areas easily (your shrimp is visible for example) but your sand is overexposed. If you were to expose for the sand to be properly rendered that shadow area in the center would be a lot darker and your shrimp would most likely not be (as easily) visible.

The trick is to find a balance you are happy with and that will require some experimentation with your settings.

I've been shooting in an auto landscape mode in an attempt to get better focus all around. I forget which way the aperture needs to go for widened focal area. I do understand how to shoot in manual mode and control aperture and shutter speed, I just haven't messed with it just yet. I will work on finding that happy medium, and post my results.

[KurtS]

The lower the aperture number the shallower your depth of field.

To easily determine what aperture you need at what distance from subject and focal length you can use a DOF calculator, like this one online:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Once you know what aperture you need it's easy to figure out the ISO/shutter speed combo to get the correct exposure. Or just set the camera on aperture priority mode and it will do it for you

[rolyat113]

The lower the aperture number the shallower your depth of field.

To easily determine what aperture you need at what distance from subject and focal length you can use a DOF calculator, like this one online:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

Once you know what aperture you need it's easy to figure out the ISO/shutter speed combo to get the correct exposure. Or just set the camera on aperture priority mode and it will do it for you

Awesome! Thanks for the input. I think I'm going to try to use the aperture priority mode first and let the camera think about the rest, then I'll attempt doing it all. I'm trying to keep my iso as low as possible. It makes the pictures extra grainy.

[seabass]

The lower the ISO, the longer the shutter speed will be (more motion blur). Using a tripod will help with still subjects, but fish (and other moving subjects) will still need a quicker shutter speed for clear photos. The bow front glass will also distort the image some, but there isn't a lot you can do about that.

 

I would set the custom white balance, and not let the camera try to adjust it. Some people don't mind the blue pics, but I think they look much better when the white balance is set for your lighting. Place a white object (like a piece of printer paper) under your lights in order to set it. If you wish, you can leave some blue in the pics by temporarily adding white light when setting the white balance.

 

Try using an aperture of f/8 for coral pics. Aperture priority is good for coral pics, but you might try using shutter priority for fish shots. I don't know if your camera has exposure bracketing, but that might help with that. Otherwise you can better control exposure in full manual mode (by adjusting ISO, shutter speed, and aperture).

 

Take lots of pictures and note the settings. It can take some experimentation to get right. Normally you want to shoot without a flash, but you can get some amazing pics of fish and other moving animals with a properly placed external flash.