Actinic Coral Photos

[szidls]

Hey thought I would start an actinic photo thread. I know there are many of you with better pics than I. Lets see some glowing corals.
Scott

 

[Krish]

Nice shots Scott! I don't know about "better" pics, but here's a "blue" one of mine. Not quite actinics, but 6 blue moonlights. I'll get some shots tomorrow of how they make my ricordia and zoo's glow neon green

 

[szidls]

Nice one krish.......I really like the shadows with moon and actinics.
Scott

 

[Krish]

I tried to get a photo of the zoo's but they were already closed from the lights being off and the ricordia, my camera can't focus on all that well with the limited lighting so here's all I can get. You can still see the ricordia though

 

[Krish]

Nice one krish.......I really like the shadows with moon and actinics.
Scott

Thanks Scott! It's my fake actinics The tank has white moonlights as well, but they aren't as cool(LOL)

 

[szidls]

Ahh I see it center bottom.
Scott

 

[Llarian]

I don't have many under actinic-only light, but here's a couple I do have:

(White balance adjusted to remove much of the blue cast but keep the fluorescence)

-D

 

[Krish]

Beautiful shots Dylan

 

[szidls]

Great pics Dylan. And great camera work too.
Scott

 

[ronj]

here are a few tank shots.i really don't have many corals in it yet..i have about 6 or 7 leather frags, but they aren't very big

 

[Blazer88]

I haven't taken any actinic shots since I first got my camera with the kit lens. Here were a few that I liked:

 

[ronj]

wow, i really like that brain coral... i have been keeping an eye out for a nice one..what conditions do you keep yours in????

 

[Krish]

Nice shots guys. Here's a bump incase someone has a few they'd like to share as well

 

[shallowreef]

I only have like two corals and only the zoas look good under the actinics so i am gonna hold off.

 

[spongebob lover]

very nice shots everyone , i wish i could post some but hehe i don't have actinics and a camera .

 

[dnjan]

I don't have many under actinic-only light, but here's a couple I do have:

(White balance adjusted to remove much of the blue cast but keep the fluorescence)

-D

Care to comment a bit on the white balance adjustment procedure? I know it will vary some from camera to camera, but a general summary of what you did would be helpful.

 

[Llarian]

Care to comment a bit on the white balance adjustment procedure? I know it will vary some from camera to camera, but a general summary of what you did would be helpful.

Sure, but it won't help much unless you're shooting in RAW format. =)

When I import the photos, I increase the white balance point and shift the tint until a color obviously being washed out (I use the corraline for that usually) looks pretty much normal. That leaves you pretty close, or at least enough for me that it still looks like a photo under actinic, but isn't entirely blue. This works with Photoshop CS2 and Lightroom's RAW converter quite well, and should be similar for any other.

If you aren't shooting RAW, then I would suggest loading up you favorite photo editor (I'll assume Photoshop or Photoshop elements), finding the color channel adjustment ("Levels" in these tools), selecting the blue channel, and reducing the blue level.

You can also play with blue channel saturation to see if that helps, but I suspect you really want to lower the intensity of the blue, not desaturate it.

Hope that helps a little at least. I don't use non-RAW processes much anymore, so I'm a little out of touch with them.

-Dylan

 

[james734]

Here's some of mine. I adjusted the white balance some. Not to bad for a Nikon Coolpic 5200.

Would love to get a SLR with Macro Lens though..

 

[ronj]

nice zoo's James!!!

 

[spongebob lover]

james, those zoos look awesome dood!!