top of tank shooting tip

[blane perun]

Top of Tank Tip
There’s usually a few angles I would like to shoot from looking down into my aquarium. Unfortunately the water seems to reflect the bulbs and it’s difficult to work around. I have found a few products on the market that are used in the Professional video Industry that will actually filter strong bulbs and output a even flat light. The leading manufacturer in the industry is Chimera whom manufacturer’s light boxes, these fit over halogen light units and soften the bulb’s output. It is possible to purchase just the fabric which are referred to as “diffusion fabrics” in the industry. I’ll tell you now they are very expensive, but if you live in a fairly large city you would be able to rent the boxes, or just the fabric from an Industrial Lighting or Video Supply company.
blane

 

[10k]

If your not trying to shoot the whole tank from the top, maybe one section, or a specific coral, try using a cheap diving mask to elimimate the water surface. It really works too. HTH

 

[blane perun]

I have always wondered that myself. I saw some old documentaries on Discovery where they used that method. Do you find that enough light is able to penetrate the lens for the photos ?

 

[10k]

As long as the tank lights are running, there should be enough light transmitted to get the shot off. If you find it to be too dim, open up the aperature more, but hold really still If you have an external flash, you could also position it over the tank to aid in lighting. HTH

 

[rsd]

All diffuson boxes do is just that: diffuse the light. Infact if you are running any lamp with that "white coating" inside the lamp, that is diffusion. But reflection is still relatively unaffected. The reason is that your water is still reflective, it's just reflecting "dull light". Diffusion can cut your lights output by 60% (depending on the diff. you use.
Try using a clear box or glass tray and lowering it into the water. Tilt it so its not reflecting into the camera. It may require 2 people.
What diffu. does is remove any "hard edges" or shadows from the light. Ever notice you don't cast a clear shadow under flourescent lights?
PS: By trade our company handles lighting/ video/ lasers/ audio/ and consulting. I handle diff and color gels every day.
Good luck!

 

[broomer5]

blane perun
Light photons travel as a particle and a wave.
Normally the waves travel in a straight line, and are in all orientations around a central axis - meaning theres no uniform pattern to how these waves travel ( as looked at on an X & Y grid )
It's my understanding that whenever light reflects off of a surface, much of it becomes polarized light.
Poarlized light has most of the wavelengths travelling in the same axis. Most if not all the waves are travelling back to your eye ( or camera ) in different waveLENGTHS, but the waves are all coming at you in the same plane.
I know you can purchase polarized light filters for SRL cameras - I have one.
I don't know if they make these filters for digital cameras or not - I would imagine they do.
These filters have 2 individual lenses in them. Both lenses have very small ( can't see them with

[hr]
eye ) slits in them.
When you rotate the outer lens - it allows the slits to line up in the same axis. This allows all light to enter the camera - including "polaraized" reflected light.
When you turn the outer lens 90 degrees - you basically create a crosshatched filter - with the tiny slit openings opposing each other by 90 degrees. Sort of like a very small grid of openings.
The polarized lightwaves can not pass through this crosshatched filter now.
You will not see the reflected light as much.
You will see only the non-reflected light.
The camera will not see all of this polarized light either.
Some reflection may still be visible in your shots - but not near as much as not using this type of lense filter.
This does not mean you will not see the bulbs. If they are in the view finder of the camera. The reflected light will be reduced/eliminated - but the image of the bulbs will still be visible.
No way to get rid of the actual image of the bulbs - unless you don't include them in your shot.
Same effect that we get when we wear sun glasses that remove polaraized light.
Maybe you could try one of these filters - they're not all that expensive.

 

[iechy]

Try cutting the bottom out of a bowl and place the bowl at the water surface and shoot through it. It helps some, I've seen lobster fishermen on tv looking to the bottom of the sea that way but I'm not sure how much it'll help. It is cheap so it's worth a try. I think it might work since you can reduce the water movement at the surface at that spot as well as being able to focus light better at that point. HTH