Some new coral shots, Dial up beware

[Brie]

Slow in the shop today so I decided to snap some photos of some newer corals in the display...

And because I know someone will ask.. lol.

Camera is a Canon T1i, lens is a Tamron 90mm macro, settings all manual, custom WB, further corrected with WB shift grid. Processed/resized with Photoshop CS4. Taken hand held, through the glass of the tank, under 20k 400w halides.

Purple Monster colony

Aussie Echinata

Granulosa(?) colony

Monti undata colony

 

[Brie]

Orange pavona

Monti setosa

Oregon tort. Stupid tang swam by and made its polyps retract right before I pushed the shutter. Grrr.

Ponape Birdsnest

ORA Borealis I think?

Some sort of tricolor

 

[dieden]

NICE... I know this isn't the photog forum, but what gear are you shooting with??

 

[returnofsid]

NICE... I know this isn't the photog forum, but what gear are you shooting with??

Dieden, reread her original post.

 

[dieden]

haha never mind. prime example of why I can't multitask... miss the important stuff.

 

[Brie]

Dieden, reread her original post.

I just can't win. j/k LOL :lol:

 

[dieden]

thats alright, returnofsid slapped me back in line lol

 

[dieden]

On the custom White Balance.. did you just toy with it untill you found settings you liked, or did you use a white reference? I did some shots recently for a friend and used a plastic white card set on the sandbed and just used the built in program and the camera came up a little bit further off than I would have liked.

 

[Brie]

On the custom White Balance.. did you just toy with it untill you found settings you liked, or did you use a white reference? I did some shots recently for a friend and used a plastic white card set on the sandbed and just used the built in program and the camera came up a little bit further off than I would have liked.

Well, kinda both. You do the custom white balance, which you can set with a grey card/white balance filter, or with a sheet of white paper, like me. What I do is take a piece of printer paper, and tape it to the front of the glass on the tank I plan on taking photos in. I then rest the lens on the peice of paper, flat against the glass, and take a shot(which involves turning off auto focus, and adjusting shutter/aperture until the light meter reads even). You then set your custom WB off of that. Just gotta make sure this shot is taken without any other "enhancements"(saturation/contrast at normal, WB on auto, etc). And since when you do this, the camera usually OVER compensates for the blue color that we like so much in our reef tanks(I'm assuming this is what you mean by "A bit further off"), I go to the WB shift settings and tweak the colors until it matches what I see with my own two eyes. Usually requires moving the blue spectrum over quite a bit.

 

[returnofsid]

Brie, instead of taping paper to the glass, which isn't actually in the tank, under the lights...

Try using a white styrofoam picnic plate, inside the tank, under the lights. You can also put a 3" piece of PVC, inside the tank. Anything white, that won't absorb water (which changes the color) and that you can actually place in the tank, under the lights. It'll usually eliminate the need for further tweaking of the white balance. Works great for me.

 

[Brie]

Brie, instead of taping paper to the glass, which isn't actually in the tank, under the lights...

Try using a white styrofoam picnic plate, inside the tank, under the lights. You can also put a 3" piece of PVC, inside the tank. Anything white, that won't absorb water (which changes the color) and that you can actually place in the tank, under the lights. It'll usually eliminate the need for further tweaking of the white balance. Works great for me.

By putting the lens actually against the paper/glass, it only captures the light emitted by the tank(which is key, any sort of "outside influence" of light throws it off, which is why I started putting the lens actually ON the paper, basically acting like those white balance setting lens caps/filters)... Works most the time. Any time I set custom white balance, even doing landscapes, I usually have to further tweak the color more to get it the way I like. But yeah, been meaning to buy an actual waterproof greycard that I found on calumet, would work great for actually putting IN the tank... But I also usually have problems if the tank is lighted by something like T5s, with multiple colored bulbs... If there's too much color striation on whatever object i'm using for WB setting, it doesn't work. If its a deep tank its usually fine, but say within a foot or so of the light fixture, really sucks.

 

[Brie]

http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/EX0580/ been really wanting one of these

 

[badger126]

Amazing shots!

 

[mcoomer]

My corals will look like that someday! My corals will look like that someday! My corals will look like that someday! My corals will look like that someday!


You get the picture.

Mike

 

[dieden]

Sweet WB filter... ouch on the price tho. I may stick to adjusting for 10 or 15 min and some adjustment in CS4

 

[Frankie]

Awesome corals and pictures Brie! Thank you for sharing
Is the purple monster available for frags?

 

[MrGone]

Nice pics Brie!

 

[tat2z_21]

As I bow down to the south and wave my arms in a prayerous manner I bow down to the saltwater photography goddess. Well done on all photo's that have ever had your signature added to them. Is that enough @$$ kissing for you to come up here and teach me how to use this stupid stupid camera of mine.

 

[Brie]

Awesome corals and pictures Brie! Thank you for sharing
Is the purple monster available for frags?

Thanks.

That one in particular no.. sorry.

 

[Brie]

As I bow down to the south and wave my arms in a prayerous manner I bow down to the saltwater photography goddess. Well done on all photo's that have ever had your signature added to them. Is that enough @$$ kissing for you to come up here and teach me how to use this stupid stupid camera of mine.

HAHA.. nice..

Well, if you came HERE I could help you with the camera, but seeing as I do not own a car, makes traveling kinda hard.