Photos

[Flyin Fish]

I'm not sure what some of you do to get such good tank photos. I have tried but they just seem to come out distorted or the color is way off. I have a decent camera. (Nikon D-90 with a Nikkor 18-105 lense) just not coming out that stunning. Any tips?

 

[54seaweed]

just keep messing around with camera settings I haven't gotten it down yet but there getting better

 

[needmorecowbell]

Are you taking macro photos of corals, or pictures of your fish? You have a dslr camera, so a great lens for coral macrophotography is a canon 100mm lens, 60mm also works, just experiment.

 

[Gregcoyote]

Try using a tripod. Make sure the lights in the background are off or shades drawn to kill reflections. Check your white balance is set properly if adjustable on your camera. Many can be shown a white surface under your lights and will adjust itself to produce proper colors. Of course, no flash. Unless you are setting up professional strobes for shots like we use to do for fish magazines years ago. A 100mm or 60mm macro lens is perfect. Run your ISO up till you can shoot with a lens stopped down at least one stop and a shutter speed better than 100th second. I usually use a ISO of about 2000-3000 and try to shoot at about 1/250th second or better. The fish move fast and even the coral swaying can blur. Be patient and shoot loads of shots, it's all digital, so it doesn't cost anything to shoot 100 images and keep 2.

 

[Ingy]

Here's a couple things to keep in mind when taking tank pictures if you're not blessed with a macro lens. In order for the picture of your coral to ALL be in focus, the most critical thing is depth of field. You want the greatest depth of field as possible.
In the relative scale ( as a percentage of the distance to target) the critical factor is F stop or aperture setting. You want the highest number possible. Achieve this by increasing the ISO setting or using faster film as previously mentioned. Greater lighting will also allow a higher F stop. Doubling the F stop (I.e. going from a 2 to 4) will basically double the depth of field but let in only 1/4 the light, hence the need for the high ISO setting.
In the absolute scale, a smaller lens will allow a greater depth of field as well. Just be aware of the distance distorting effect a wide angle lens has on an image.