Cant figure this out for the life of me!

[Nano]

play with your white balance, and ISO sensitivity as well, to find a setting you like, its really trial and error, I think I shoot, around 800-1600 ISO and white balance is manually set prior to shooting. shoot the pictures in the largest format you can so you can scale them down slightly afterwards, so they are a bit more crisp

[cav~firez22]

I wouldnt bother with UV, but definatly get a good Polorized filter. and as for whit balance, if you shoot in raw, then dont worry about it, do all your adjustments in photoshop or lightroom

[Jeff000]

Originally Posted by Nano

play with your white balance, and ISO sensitivity as well, to find a setting you like, its really trial and error, I think I shoot, around 800-1600 ISO and white balance is manually set prior to shooting. shoot the pictures in the largest format you can so you can scale them down slightly afterwards, so they are a bit more crisp

White Balance is the hardest part of taking a reef tank picture. It is so far into the blue that the camera may not even be able to go far enough, which means fixing it the rest of the way in post processing.

Always take pictures in the largest format the camera can, storage is cheap.

No reason to set your ISO at 800-1600, all you are doing is adding noise to the image. A reef tank has boat loads of light, you should be able to get a fast enough shutter speed to get a clear image via a tripod.
ISO 400 at most if you have a lower quality lens.

Originally Posted by cav~firez22

I wouldnt bother with UV, but definatly get a good Polorized filter. and as for whit balance, if you shoot in raw, then dont worry about it, do all your adjustments in photoshop or lightroom

I agree, don't bother with a UV, unless you are taking pictures above 6500 feet you'll never see the difference. And some say to protect the lens, but keep in mind you are degrading the image with every piece of glass you put in front of it. And an impact that wouldn't mark your lens would shatter the UV filter and now you have lots of glass to scratch the lens, glass scratches glass easy.

A polarizing filter is great to have if you shoot outdoors with water or sky in the image. But for a fish tank... not so useful.



You almost always have to do post processing.

[Slick Fork]

Use a tripod and aperture priority mode to get the depth of field you want. Depending on lighting and your camera you can be between ISO 400-800 (1600 on mine) before you see any real "noise" in the image.

UV and polarizing filters aren't really useful in fishtanks, at least I haven't found them to be.

As for white balance, I shoot in RAW mode and then adjust on my computer when developing the shots.

Biggest tip though is just shoot and shoot and then shoot some more, it doesn't cost you anything but your time and practice is the only surefire way to get to know your camera!

[kobelka]

Thanks. I did also end up getting an 85 mm macro lense. That is nice. When shooting in raw is there a certain program you use when adjusting pics on your computer?

[Slick Fork]

I use adobe lightroom, it's great for organising as well as "developing". Photoshop elements is also good for more of a "getting into photography" kind of program and is significantly cheaper at ~$100 vs lightroom at ~$300.

For free, you should have a program available from Nikkon that will allow you to develop RAW files into your format of choice

[Jeff000]

Originally Posted by Slick Fork

Use a tripod and aperture priority mode to get the depth of field you want. Depending on lighting and your camera you can be between ISO 400-800 (1600 on mine) before you see any real "noise" in the image.

Biggest tip though is just shoot and shoot and then shoot some more, it doesn't cost you anything but your time and practice is the only surefire way to get to know your camera!

What camera do you use?
Noise on the D5100 is evident at iso400. This is also subject to how picky you are.
I shoot a D700, 85mm f1.4 is my go to lens, but it is not a macro. But just as a crop I can get some great shots. I have a 65mm macro, and it is only "ok" I think. But even with my 85mm I don't like shooting above 800 because I can start to see the noise, although most will say that it is noiseless past 1600.

Shoot and shoot some more is great advice.

Originally Posted by kobelka

Thanks. I did also end up getting an 85 mm macro lense. That is nice. When shooting in raw is there a certain program you use when adjusting pics on your computer?

That's a nice macro lens. You should be happy with it
Shooting Raw (NEF as you're shooting a Nikon) is not really for the beginner, what raw does it take away all the image processing from the camera and gives it to you. So unless you know what you are doing or have lots of time to figure it out it's not really something I would recommend, you can still adjust WB (which is the biggest headache when shooting a tank imo) from a high res jpg.