[Reefland]

Ok Mike and Gene, time for my photo lesson. Here are two pictures. First of all, there is no flash being used, and the light in the room is on (if that matters). And just for the record, here is the camera that I have, the Nikon Coolpix 5400:
Nikon USA: COOLPIX 5400

This one was taken in A mode. On the screen in the bottom left corner is showed 1/8 and then F5.8. Only editing was to resize to 800 x 600. The little flower showed in the top right portion of the screen indicating "macro" mode I beleive.

The link to it in my gallery for all that EXIF information:
http://www.reefland.com/gallery/show...er&imageuser=1

This one was taken in M mode. On the screen in the bottom left corner is showed 1/4 and then F5.8. Only editing was to resize to 800 x 600. The little flower showed in the top right portion of the screen indicating "macro" mode I beleive.

The link to it in my gallery for all that EXIF information:
http://www.reefland.com/gallery/show...er&imageuser=1

[Reefland]

Ok, and this is where it gets bad. This is the top picture cropped for a good coral closeup.

[Poseidon]

According to exif there is a difference in the shutter speed. I don't know why that would be, but it is there.

Did you use a tripod for either?

Try another picture using ISO 100, shutter speed of 1/30, and an aperture of 2.0 or whatever the smallest number is that you can get too.... You will need a tripod.

[Poseidon]

Scott, on your crop that is motion blur.... You need a faster shutter speed to eliminate that.

[Reefland]

Ok, so your saying go to manual mode and figure out how to adjust to those settings and then try to the picture. Let me see what I can do. And yes, all of those were on a tripod.

[Reefland]

Ok Mike,

When I am in M mode I can change the first setting to 1/30 and then the F to 2.8, but I don't see anything about ISO?

[Reefland]

Ok, here we go. I found out how to change the ISO (on the dial, I had to turn it to ISO, change it, and then turn it back to M).

This is unedited, except for resized to 800 x 600, shot on a tripod with the following settings:
1/30
F2.8 (lowest)
ISO 100

And the link to my gallery:
http://www.reefland.com/gallery/show...p?i=4501&c=500

And the attachment is this photo cropped...looks pretty "noisy".

[Poseidon]

That is more noise for sure. Okay, let's go this way. Back to ISO 50, then to f8, and from there the shutter speed will have to go to 1/4. This should give you more depth of field, and less noise. You may want to set the self timer too, so you pressing the shutter doesn't cause motion blur.

[Reefland]

Ok, here we go.

1/4
F7.3 (highest)
ISO 50

To my gallery:
http://www.reefland.com/gallery/show...p?i=4502&c=500

And the attachment is cropped. It looks like the attachment has some promise, but it is blurry. I did not mess with a timer (not sure how to do that yet).

[Reefland]

Ok, and here is another one with the same settings:
1/4
F7.3
ISO 50
On a tripod but with the timer set. The original image looked very very clean, but the cropped close up still not good. It is attached below.

New question:
I am using the zoom on the camera. There are like two zooms, one where the lens comes out and then an additional zoom that gets closer, but the lens does not move. For all of these pictures, I have zoomed it to where the lens extends all teh way out, but not further than that. Does that have an effect and should I try it without any zoom at all?

[Poseidon]

Those are pretty good Scott, and your crops are rather exteme. You are starting out with a 5mp image, and then only using a very small part of those Megapixels in your crop. Can you move the frag closer to the glass, or move the camera closer to the frag? Ideally you want as many pixels as you can get on your subject, rather then the background.

I think what you are seeing is the limitation of cropping, without more pixels on the subject you can't zoom in so close.

As to your question about zooming, you want to use the optical zoom only, the second zoom you see is the digital zoom, which is the same as what you are doing when you crop the image.

[Poseidon]

Scott, here is my FIRST tank picture that I uploaded.... It is a LONG way from what I do now. You will get better too!

[Reefland]

Mike,

What do you think about these two? The first is just resized, the second is the coral cropped.

I took this one in A mode (that is aperture priority, right?) and the settings were these:
1/15 (it might have changed to 1/30)
f2.8
ISO 50
And I did not use the zoom. The coloration of these is much more close to normal and I think these two turned out really good.

[Poseidon]

Those are much better Scott. You should be able to duplicate the EXACT results that you get in Aperture Priority in Manual. (Yes A is Aperture priority.) Try another, at the largest Aperture value you can, it should be even more sharp, and crop a little better too. Oh, leave it in A mode for now....

[Reefland]

Ahh shoot, I might be on to something here. All of these taken in A mode, with the lowest f I could get.

[Reefland]

Mike, Check this one out. This was done in Manual. 1/15, f7.3, ISO 50. I tried one with f7.8 but it was really dark. This one was a bit lighter, but some auto colors helped it out.

[Reefland]

Ok Mike, this one was in aperture priority with 1/6.9 (camera said 1/8 but the EXIF says this) and f7.3. This one looks good too!

[Poseidon]

There you go Scott! I think you should keep the camera @ the 7.3 end! The smaller aperture gives better sharpness then large ones, most lenses are sharpest in the middle of their f range. In your case, I think the high end gives the best results.

Have you considered a DSLR yet?

[Reefland]

I'm guessing that's another type of camera? I think I just got this one figured out.

[Poseidon]

Yes, that is another type of camera. Like the one that Charlie, Gene, and I use. Since you are a Nikon kinda guy...

Nikon D40 SLR Digital Camera Kit with 18-55mm Lens

Of course if you wanted to join the Canon Crew....

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi Digital Camera Kit (Silver) with 18-55mm Lens

Not to take your thread OT again....

One more "assignment", pick a different coral and shoot in A mode, both ends of the f stop range. Try one at the largest number you can get too, and one at the smallest, then compare. (Or maybe use the 2nd largest and 2nd smallest, if the overall image is better.)