Shooting Blind

[malakaikingston]

I am a professional photographer.

By saying that I mean I have been paid for photographs I have taken and have had photos printed in multiple magazines with credit received as a photographer. I have shot with a Cannon SLR as long as I can remember and have been shooting digital with Sony cameras and various Nikon D series models along with lenses that are worth more than I am. I personally shoot with a D80. With all this being said.

I can not take a decent picture of my tanks to save my life.

I can capture the most classic dew drop, the spheroid glistening with a thousand radiant points. I can capture the setting sun as the luminous rays fragment on the curl of a wave. I can capture a skater ripping out of a bowl frontside, throwing devil horns crisp with the blur of his wheels floating above the coping. I can capture a skater doing 55mph as he comes into a turn road reflected in his helmet and contrails of dust and urethane trailing.

All of my tank pics look like they were taken by a one armed midget with the shakes. I've tried different settings and I am still stumped. I know I need a tripod and I know I need to get a good macro but are there any other hints any other advice you can give me. I just tried to take a shot of my new nem in the dark and my results just set me off. This is horrible someone has to know how to help.

I would REALLY like to attend a "How to shoot your reef" speaking event I would even pay money, beer, frags, racks, brats, or whatever.

I'm going to go search now and look for some answers, if you have any advice or just want to make fun of me please, go ahead lemme have it, I deserve it cause I suck.

[Fish n' Frags]

The faq in the photography forum on RC has some great info! Should check it out

[malakaikingston]

The faq in the photography forum on RC has some great info! Should check it out

Thanks I will!

I do want advice but mostly I posted it to complain about how much it sucks to feel inept at something you are supposed to be good at.

[malakaikingston]

The faq in the photography forum on RC has some great info! Should check it out

Yer right freaking amazing information here.

[barometer]

Tank photography is notoriously difficult. You have to kind of change the way you think about taking pictures. White balance, DOF, focus. etc. all work a little differently through, but being outside of the water and our tank light sources are not what you're used to shooting normally. Apparently there is no need for me to go through basics with you as is usually the case, so you really just have to set up your camera and practice, practice, practice. I've found that each tank shoots differently as well, so things that work for me at home don't necessarily transfer when I'm at someone else place. Also if at all possible use a tripod.....it helps a ton. Take a look at past photo threads I've posted (user profile/find threads started by). Nick_Kun has lots of good stuff out there as well. Feel free to PM me any questions you might have, don't get frustrated and don't try to go as fast as you set up your tank .....just click more

[loose-electron]

Some good pointers on the RC site - On this topic I would say one additional thing. Turn it all off. Go manual focus, put it on a tripod, available light and no flash. With a digital camera you can do lots of test photos till you get the exposure right, so thats a non issue.

[Blaze]

your a pro photographer?!?! for real? we need to get together and shoot some time.

[Redeye]

White balance is the biggest help that I've found, atleast everything looks better
Take a piece of white paper, put it under your lights, focus on the paper, and set your WB to that

[jrjuiliano]

All of my tank pics look like they were taken by a one armed midget with the shakes.

I LOL'ed and all that.

[The_Gryphon]

If you take up Blaze on his offer to go shoot sometime, let me know so I can tag along if you don't mind. I'm a broke aspiring photographer and could use some knowledge on taking great pictures with what I currently have since I can't afford better.

[DaveMorris]

Two things that I have to add here:

1. Shoot in RAW. It allows you to correct for all kinds of issues that may come up. I adjust for color temp with Photoshop Elements and color is dead on.

2. We need to do a photography talk real soon. Lots of us shoot tanks with mixed results and maybe we can find someone's tank to shoot and compare notes, settings, styles, etc. I think it would be fun and very educational for all of us.

[Fink Ployd]

I LOL'ed and all that.

I did the same thing!! haha

[maus]

If I can find a speaker (or if someone is willing to donate their time *hint*hint*), I'd be more than willing to hold a meeting here at SWI, focus on photography, maybe a small frag swap and chow on some Korean BBQ.

If anyone is interested please let me know, I would love to learn some tricks too (and have a few of my own). I have also used Photoshop professionally for 7 or so years and can teach people how to properly crop, color correct, and fix white balance problems to get realistic photos (without going overboard and blowing up your chroma).

Hope to hear from people soon, this sounds like it would be an awesome event!

[nahtanoj]

that would be awesome. i would definately show, we can all bring our cameras, and i can bring a laptop with photoshop, i need lessons in that for sure, way too complex for my simple little blond brain, but i love it and want to learn it.

[barometer]

That would be cool, but there definitely shouldn't be any push towards pirating software. I surely don't think most folks are gonna drop the $700 minimum to buy Photoshop. (stepping off the soapbox now )