First try and flashlight/night tank photography

[Blazer88]

I am really running out of things to shoot in my tank so I've now resorted to trying completly different approaches with light. I used a small single white LED flashlight to illuminate the corals in each of these pics. I found that a regular flashlight was WAY too yellow and overpowering, a suttle white LED worked great. I also did full manual on the camera (really for the first time) as the sensor really had a hard time determining exposure in aperture priority mode. Questions and comments are always appreciated!

Green open-brain coral (probably my favorite pic of the morning)

Frogspawn:

Hungry Orange Crush Acan colony:

I loved the green polyps on this SPS:

The color didn't come out well on this one, oh well:

Green/Pink Hammer Coral:

Eage Eye Zoanthids:

Orange Zoa's:

 

[Krish]

WOW! Amazing photos man!!!

 

[Blazer88]

Doh, I almost forgot Mr. Sunshine himself:

 

[dpaynter]

So how long an exposure do you need from a single LED?

 

[Blazer88]

Between 6 and 30 seconds at ISO 100. I could have used a higher ISO and brought the exposure time down significantly but I wanted to see how these would turn out first.

 

[Jan]

Awesome photos! My favorite is of "mr sunshine." Is that a sun coral, or ??

 

[spongebob lover]

you know i'm running out of words in here dood ....you take more than pretty pictures ...they're a piece of art .

now what's the name on the green polyp sps .

Doh, I almost forgot Mr. Sunshine himself:

aaahhh finally i see a pic of them ...very cute dood very cute .

 

[spongebob lover]

Is that a sun coral, or ??

yes dood that a sun coral .

 

[Katchupoy]

so you turned off all pumps
on tripod
but what about the flash light... did you put it on something or your just holding it

 

[matts125]

Rick, that is amazing like always. Has that camera become a third limb yet? :lol:

Matt

 

[Blazer88]

Cesar, a tripod and pumps off is essential. I was just holding up the the flash light trying not to move it much so the shadows would be crisp. Setting a manual white balance was also a huge help since auto didn't really know what to do. That way the pictures came out all the same and it was much easier to process. And Matt, it's pretty close to a thrid limb by now. I've almost trained my macro lens to hold a spoon and I can juggle better now

 

[dragoneggs]

Very nicely done!

 

[ilektrik22]

Those are some really really nice shots, that brain makes me want one.
I don't think I'll ever be able to do anything that nice with my camera.