Aquarium Success

Skywatch · January 11, 2007

Well i think some of these came out ok to be shot through glass.
http://skywatch.smugmug.com/photos/122439517-L.jpg
http://skywatch.smugmug.com/photos/122437272-L.jpg
http://skywatch.smugmug.com/photos/122441757-L.jpg
http://skywatch.smugmug.com/photos/122438802-L.jpg
http://skywatch.smugmug.com/photos/122444836-L.jpg

Ric Grupe · January 11, 2007

Not bad at all!

You would probably get more replies if you embedded the images in the post itself rather than providing links. (those extra clicks are so tedious)

Awais Yaqub · January 11, 2007

i agree with Ric
nice photos

dbaker1221 · January 11, 2007

i also agree....i'd even go so far to say " those are darn good"

:ivar

ajroahkni · January 11, 2007

Skywatch wrote:

Well i think some of these came out ok to be shot through glass.

I liked them so much, I thought I'd help out

Can you provide some info on camera or lighting setup? Having had a reef tank before, I sure do appreciate the colors and clarity that you've achieved.

Harryb · January 12, 2007

Good cpatures under less than ideal conditions.

DoctorIt · January 12, 2007

wow - the turtle floating in space is really nice!

Skywatch · January 12, 2007

Thanks
Thanks for the comments everyone and thanks John for posting the pics....I inserted the link instead of the pics...whoops. These were taken at the zoo's aquarium. I used a Tamron d90mm macro and a sb800 flash. The trick is the macro allows you to get close enough to the glass to prevent most of the reflecting glare getting within the shot and the 800 with the diffuser pointed straight up gave plenty of light within the tank to take the shot. Still tough though, out of about 200 shots i got about 12 keepers that werent, blurry, oof, contained reflections, or contained scratches within the aquarium glass.

CookieS · January 12, 2007

I am curious as too your settings, i tried some in my friends house aquarium, and even with the macro, those fish are fast to focus on and getting close enough and not too close was a trick.

Skywatch · January 12, 2007

Lets see.....

CookieS wrote:

I am curious as too your settings, i tried some in my friends house aquarium, and even with the macro, those fish are fast to focus on and getting close enough and not too close was a trick.

Heres a link to the gallery on smugmug with all the shooting info.
http://skywatch.smugmug.com/gallery/2339827

AF didnt really work too well with the glass/reflections so i shot alot of the slower fish with manual focus...the faster ones i just had to take my chance with the AF working...all the good ones were taken of the slow moving fish

. SS was usually set to 1/60 sync with the flash and aperature ranged from f8 to f3.5/2.8 depending on what i was going for. If i had more time i might have kicked it in manual mode to play with some additional options.