Camera Question

holliek

holliek

Member
Hi!
I've seen a lot of people's pictures of their reefs and I'm amazed with the quality of the pictures. I've attempted to take pictures of the one lonely piece of coral in my tank, and it turns out like a blurry black blob.
:(
Taking the risk of sounding dumb, here are my questions:
How the heck do your pictures turn out so fabulous? Do you do a lot of photo editing with photoshop or something?
What types of cameras do people here have - are they special setups, or "affordable" digital cameras?
I would love to take pictures ... :rolleyes:
 
ryebread

ryebread

Active Member
Usually my tank shots involve little or no editing whatsoever. It is best to start with a good photo as your canvas and then you can paint on that canvas later if you want. You can achieve good photos with either film or digital cameras. I use both. You are probably not going to get much if you are using a "point and shoot" film camera due to the lack of metering capabilities and focus. I have seen some unbelievable shots done with $150 digital cameras..............kinda makes me sick when I think about how much $ I have rapped up in cameras and lenses and flashes.............etc. Best advice I can give is to try out a tripod, experiment with flash settings, If you can go manual..........try it. One more thing........due to the way that many lenses are designed, you want to try to shoot your subject straight on to get the best sharpness.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
I'm 100% in agreement with RyeBread.
Given the right equipment - even folks with little photographic experience can take really nice shots.
Put that same good equipment in the hands of someone that has some training, artistic ability or an eye for composition, color, contrast and subject matter - and look out !
The possibilities are near endless - as we see time and time again.
On the other hand - give that same person a piece of crap camera - and they may be able to pull off a nice pic here and there, but the equipment may limit them to what they "want" to accomplish.
The thing no one rarely shares - are the shots that didn't turn out very well. Good photographers take A LOT of pictures, burn up a lot of film, time and memory. They have the skills to take the few that are nice - and make them even nicer.
Either in the darkroom, or on their software.
A professional golfer like Tiger Woods would kick my butt with any cheap gargage sale golf clubs you'd place in his hands.
I could not beat him even with the most expensive set of clubs if my life depended on it. Sort of the same with photography.
Skill - Training - Tricks of the Trade and Equipment vs. shear luck.
But even the pro's get luckey now and then.
Right time - Right place
 
holliek

holliek

Member
Tiger Woods could kick my butt with a stick and a golf ball! LOL
My digital camera is a point and shoot - it focuses automatically. I've tried turning the flash on (bad idea - big white blur), turning it to red eye (bad idea as well) and turning off the flash entirely and shooting directly at it. Maybe my zoom sucks on my camera :)
I'm going to try to take a few shots with my regular camera and see what happens.
On that note .. when you're taking pictures, do you put the camera right up next to the glass? Or stand back a bit? (I'll figure this stuff out eventually)
Here is my "cheapo" digital camera, FYI... http://www.vivitar.com/Products/DigC...cam.html#V3550 and I have a added memory card in it...
On that note, what programs do you recommend for photo editing? I have Windows XP.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
Sorry about the golf analogy holliek
I sort of got off topic - huh.
Looks like your camera has a fixed focus lens arrangement.
1 meter to infinity, I read on the spec's.
When using these types of cameras - they do okay in point and shoot - snapshots - but don't allow you to either manual focus on the subject, or let it auto-focus itself.
This may be why the pics come out blurry - especially when trying to take close up pictures.
 
fireeater

fireeater

Member
I'm in the same boat as you are holliek. I have a HP 1 mega pixal point and shoot. I got it about 2 years ago for the fire department website I maintain.
It is easily carried in my bunker gear so I can get pics of house fire, car wrecks and ect..
When we arrive at a housefire, I do not have the time to stand and focus for pics. I usually just snap them as I run across the front lawn towards the fire. Then I can just throw the camera down and retrieve it later when I come out of the fire or one of my fellow FFs will pick it up and start shooting with it. It was purchased for the abuse it takes and so far it is holding up great.
I have learned to edit all my pics in Paint Shop Pro 7 and sometimes in Photoshop 6.0 though I 'm still learning PS6.
I take my shots of my reef with no flash now and just lighten them up some in psp7. Plus I can sharpen them up with psp7.
I believe with cameras like we have, it is just about a must to have psp7 or the like so we can edit our pics.
You would be surprised at how you can doctor up a dark or cruddy looking pic to look good.
As soon as I get through spending all my money on the reef tank, I will look into another digital camera with manual focus and such and then just use the one I have strictly for the FD pics.
On how close to the glass you need to be is all depending on what type of pic you want. I have put mine up against the glass and gotten some decent shots. Though I found is I move back about a foot I get better shots. Any shots I try up close usually suck. I have been trying to get a pic of one of my big hermits molting and have failed everytime. It just wont auto focus that close and show detail. It sucks cause I have been watching him molt for like 3 days now and wanted to post a pic on here showing him.
Good luck in your endeavors and remember, it takes time and lots of practice to get the right pics with our cameras. But remember, no film to buy and you can view them right away.
 
ryebread

ryebread

Active Member
Yeah, unfortunately your camera is probably not going to get much better pics. Close focusing is bad on the camera plus as Broomer mentioned, no focus options. No manual options. No metering options. Sounds like an expensive paperweight.............just kidding.
 
holliek

holliek

Member
Good thing the camera was a gift! That way I can convice my husband that we need to buy one ourselves :)
I figured as much, but thought I would ask anyhow. I will try stepping back a bit and editing the pictures tonight and will let you know how they turn out. Might be another attach of the blobs, not sure though. :D
On a diff. topic, I saw a post about moon lighting a few days ago. For my "new investment", would you recommend that I get something like this? I imagine it's very cool to watch the tank at night w/o the fish realizing...
 
robchuck

robchuck

Active Member
I would also recommend Photoshop Elements; a much cheaper alternative to the full version of Photoshop. It can help you create some great looking photos or collages.
 
slothy

slothy

Active Member
looks like sparky as his day of entertainment planned out watching those fish swim around eh ?
 
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