Seriously need help...

[~.:Olive:.~]

I have taken almost 100 pictures of our 110 in hopes of posting a full tank shot!

The pictures seem too BLUE, and too much glare from the live rock at the top of the tank! What lights should I have on? Blues...no blues...use a flash with no tank lights!

I am going nuts....also the color just doesn't seem to be as strong on a whole tank shot verses a close up of an individual item!

I am really upset..I know it is me but Ijust can't figure it out...I have been fooling with the white balance/iso ect....but nothing seems to be helping....

Please any suggestions???

xxoo

[paradise]

Olive, most cameras have problems with actinics, if you have real actinics on, they are purple not blue. Can you give us some info to make suggestions easier.

1. What lens, stock 18-55 or do you have other choices.
2. What lighting, and how much of it there
3. Does the room have natural lighting pouring in?
4. Do you know how to use manual features, like aperature, shutter speed, White balance, ISO, and do you know how to set the camera to take a timed shot?
5. Do you have a tripod available or something else to set camera on?

Immediate suggestions:

Dark room, no light besides tank light. Nighttime is best. Camera on Tripod or something else steady, put the shutter on time release (it does a countdown and makes the shot). Auto WB is usually fine, and you can up your ISO safely to 400 or even 800 if its' just for web shots. Put your aperature at about 8-10 and try different shutter speeds. Remember it's all about being steady with it if you dont use an overhead flash setup.

[~.:Olive:.~]

I did use the tripod, I did use timed shot, used auto white balance, set ISO to both 1600 and 100 but did not see a different. We have a power compact and 50/50 lighting on there currently. room was dark with no other lighting but tank lights. Lens was Cannon 18-55mm.

I am guessing it is the actinics and I will have to work with the lighting issue. We are setting up MH in the near future!

I also need to learn about aperature!

Thank you for the insight and I will try again tomorrow night! That being if we have electricity after the hurricane goes through!!!

xxoo

[squidfish]

Hi Olive

Here are a few pointers about aperature.

Aperture is dictated by the F setting and the rule is the larger the number the smaller the aperture. So for example F4 would be a large aperature i.e lets lots of light back to the camera sensor or F22 is small aperture small opening so restrict light to camera sensor. So the idea is to balance the aperture with the shutter speed to ensure the right amount of light reaches the camera sensor for camera exposure.

The aperture setting also affects depth of field (DOF - the amount of the shot in focus from front to back). The wider the aperature the shallower the depth of field. For example if you want a blurred background with your subject (say a flower) in focus then you would opt for a wide apertue e.g F4. Whereas if you were taking a landscape shot where you want sharp focus right through the depth of picture you would chose a small aperture i.e F22. You can also use a wide aperture setting to you advantage if you visit a zoo where as long as your are close to the bars or mesh and the animal is a distance, then the mesh can be lost.

The DOF is also affected by the focal length of the lens. So generally a wider lens say 10 -20mm with have a greater depth of field at lower aperture value i.e more wide open.

For fish photography it is usually a good policy to maximise your depth of field so that there is suffient depth of field for the entire body of the fish to be in sharp focus.

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers

Rich

[~.:Olive:.~]

I need a TUTOR!

Thank you for the insight...it makes a lot of sense. I will keep trying, and I think your suggestion will help a lot. I just need to fiddle more with the camera....

Thank you so much.

xxoo

[Ibn]

Also, consider using the histogram or check for highlights. It'll tell you if you're blowing any parts of the picture (too bright).

Simple settings to test out on your XT. Mount camera on a tripod. Set it to aperture priority at ISO 100 at f/8. Put it on the tripod, level the picture, and take the shot (you can even use the timer to eliminate any sort of vibration further).