I agree that photography is not most important part of reefkeeping, but I bet nobody can decline the fact that it is the FUN part. Who doesn’t want to flaunt their reef tank photographs to the world? Here are a few tips that will help you take the most perfect picture possible of your home aquarium. Understand your camera, first. Beautiful photographs are not made by the camera, but by the photographer behind the camera. Understanding the limitations and strengths of a particular camera can allow a photographer to maximize the photographic potential in every picture.
Set the white balance:
There is rarely anything in a reeftank that is color-neutral, so your camera will have a hard time setting a reliable white balance automatically. More importantly, aquariums in general use lights that are unusually high in color temperature (10, 14, and 20,000 K), and your photos will come out to be very blue. Most cameras allow you to use a pre-set mode to set the color temperature where your camera will use a neutral shot to set the white balance automatically.
One type of light at a time:
If the tank is lit by multiple types f lights, like metal halide and fluorescent, turn off all of the lights but one type. This includes flash. Fluorescent lights do not penetrate deep water as well as MH, so you’ll end up slightly different colored light from the top of the tank to the bottom. Experiment with different types. Some creatures will fluoresce under certain lights and give you more vivid photos.
Right angles:
Shoot with your lens pointing perpendicular to the plane of the glass to reduce distortion from the glass and water.
Reduce water movement:
Turn off pumps and filters to keep corals from swaying in the current unless you’re going to be using strobes.
Reduce glare:
Turn off room lights, close curtains and blinds. Shoot with your lens as close to the glass as possible to minimize glare, reflections.
Shutter speed:
The shutter speed on camera indicates how fast the photo will be taken. Most cameras have shutter speeds that run from 1/5000 of a second to 30 seconds long. The longer the exposure, the more light will be allowed into the lens. Very quick shutter speeds are excellent for capturing stop-action motion. For reef photography, long shutter speeds will turn fish into blurs of color shooting across the photo and will turn corals into a blurry mass on a crisp, solid rock. The fastest shutter speed possible is recommended in order to get good stop action motion on the fish.
Here are the summarized tips:
- Use an aperture greater than 1 or 2 stops compared to the nominal at the focal length of lens;
- Use a shutter speed that will allow us to avoid camera shake and blurring, or use a tripod;
- Use a sensitivity such that you can use a shutter speed appropriate;
- Use the correct white balance;
- Check the correct setting in camera and evaluate the shot from the technical point of view so that it can repeatable.