help- aquarium photos and settings

I am going to the National Aquarium next week. I have a D300, 17-70, 70-300 vr and a 105 macro, and an SB600. Can anybody give me some ideas on how to take photos at the aquarium and what settings to try?

Thanks in advance for the help.

bruce kushner said:

I am going to the National Aquarium next week. I have a D300, 17-70,
70-300 vr and a 105 macro, and an SB600. Can anybody give me some
ideas on how to take photos at the aquarium and what settings to try?

Click to expand...

I don't think they'll let you use the flash on the fish. When I photographed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium a few times, I didn't have any trouble with a monopod or tripod, though I am surprised I wasn't stopped.

As for settings, get ready to use minimum ISO800 and use lenses that are sharp wide open at f/2.8. I took most of my shots with an 85mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.4 and 28mm f/1.4 at f/2.2.

If you're serious about photography in a public place, choose and off-day and or non-peak hours.

Some species are very light sensitive so you shouldn't use flash (e.g. octopi). Unfortunately, because the tanks are all different and the fish all move in different ways, you will have to change your settings from tank to tank. I found the 105 micro to be almost useless in most aquarium situations. I had much better luck with my 18-200, even though it's a slow lens.

Get there right when they open, and go on a weekday if you can. Use auto ISO at first, and see what you are coming up with. Then adjust as needed. Also, bracket for white balance if colors look odd.
--
http://flickr.com/photos/rcaron/

Get yourself a rubber hood for your 17-70 as I think that will be your lens of choice. Then use the rubber hood to get the lens right up to the glass and 'seal' around the lens with the hood. That keeps light from getting to the glass in front of your lens from your side. That will dramatically cut down on reflections and glare. It will in most cases eliminate it.

With a little practice you can bend the rubber hood any way you want to get the shot. The below shot was taken this way, you would never know glass was there.....

bruce kushner said:

I am going to the National Aquarium next week. I have a D300, 17-70,
70-300 vr and a 105 macro, and an SB600. Can anybody give me some
ideas on how to take photos at the aquarium and what settings to try?

Click to expand...

The flash won't be appreciated by the fish or their keepers. Besides, you'll mainly end up with a whole lot of nasty reflections of flash on glass.

The light will be poor so you'll want your fastest glass. Push the ISO as high as you can stand. The main trick is catching the right angle to avoid unwanted reflections from the glass or the air/water interfaces. Try lots of different angles -- the ones that work best may not be what you'd expect.

When you find a tank/angle that shoots well in terms of light, reflections etc. stay there and work it as far as possible, waiting patiently for fish to swim into the best position etc.

You could try a polarizer but that's going to cost you a significant amount of light that will already be in painfully short supply. I doubt that it will work but you might try a few shots anyway.

WB will be weird in some/many cases. I wouldn't worry too much about that -- just shoot raw so you have scope to play with it later.

In addition to the other good advice....

-Unless you can go at some really off hour, be prepared for children. They have a tendency to get right up to the glass in front of you, and of course they have every right to. Just be prepared for crowded conditions that aren't conducive to hanging out in front of a tank for the best shot.

-As a side note to the above, you have lots of fingerprints, nose prints and scratches on the glass. I would bring a small spray bottle of glass cleaner and a big microfiber towel to clean sections of glass you want to use.

-the idea of a rubber hood is a really good one. My guess is that you could be well served by creating your own somehow. One that is pretty big to seal off a good size area and still allow for a bit of angle on the lens.

-Light will most likely be dim at best for photography. The fish mostly won't be sitting still for you either, which means faster shutter speeds and quite high iso. Fastest lens you've got may be the best to use.

-When I shoot my wife's salt water tank, I find AF to be not very good. I have better luck prefocusing on a spot and waiting for a fish to swim to it, or being very good (lucky, mostly) with manual focusing. Your mileage may vary.

-I also tend to have better luck with manual exposure than automatic, especially when using manual focus and waiting for a fish to hit my desired focus zone.

Definitely shoot in RAW, or RAW + jpg. As this sounds like your first attempt, plan a set of trial shots in advance and take them. If you have a chance to review on the spot, try that, but at least check out what seemed to work well after the fact. This includes widely varying ISO's, shutter speeds, use of flash, different lenses, white balance settings, use of VR, etc.

If you have a 18-200, use that or a zoom with range about 24-70. Do not use flash but set up your D300 to what I call P&S mode, that is basically AWB, auto ISO and shoot AF-C, aperture priority mode. Set the aperture such as F5.6 to F8, and watch the shutter speed to remain good speed such as 1/125 and above. The auto ISO will vary depends on lighting level of the tank setup. Get as close to the glass as possible to eliminate reflection from lighting sources behind you. Don't for get to take some continuous (high) shots - I forgot that. BTW, set your auto ISO to at least 3200, if not 6400.

Lighthog

All with a D300 and 70-200VR in the Waikiki Aquarium. Definitely be prepared to shoot ISo 800-3200 and f2.8 or whatever but also some tanks are quite bright and you can do much better. All these were shot at F2.8 or F4, with the darker ones being at ISO 1600 I believe.











Mark

One thing I forgot to mention--After you take the pictures and download them to your computer, you may notice that some of them show scratches or haze on the glass. If the background is supposed to be black, then you can go to Capture NX and select the black control point, and click it on an area that is hazy or grayish, and it will eliminate the effect of the tank glass completely. You can see some samples of this in my flickr page (I think on page 2 or 3).

--
http://flickr.com/photos/rcaron/

PHXAZCRAIG said:

-As a side note to the above, you have lots of fingerprints, nose
prints and scratches on the glass. I would bring a small spray
bottle of glass cleaner and a big microfiber towel to clean sections
of glass you want to use.

Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning that. A lot of the tanks are covered with nasty finger smudge at the end of the day. I've cleaned the surfaces with a microfiber cloth, but some smudges will need a solvent other than water. The aquarium staff noticed my cleaning a few times but didn't think much of it.

spend $100 on a 50mm 1.8 lens and get a rubber hood for it so you can get right onto the glass.

Samples here...

http://www.pbase.com/recalcitrantron/friends_of_luca_brasi

--

Just my nickels worth and remember, there is no dumb a$$ vaccine so just roll with it!

'The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else
when we're uncool.' Almost Famous



Ron
----------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/recalcitrantron
FCAS Member No. 68
pbase supporter
D Seventy

My solution is to get a underwater housing and dive inside the aquarium. I did this in Aquaria (KL, Malaysia). Great fun. You can't get closer to a 9ft sand tiger shark any other way.

Sorry if I am not much help...just thought I had to mention it! heheh

I agree with most of the previous posters, especially on fast glass (I had difficulties even at f/1.8! the tanks were rather small and dark though...).

One thing I noticed was a massive loss in sharpness once I shot at an angle greater than 15° towards the thick glass walls. I don't know whether that's a specific issue at our local aquarium, but all angled shots were practically useless.
It's best to get as close and frontal as possible.

I was at the Long Beach Aquarium earlier this year with the D300 for some hand held shots. Here are some pics with the settings I used.

18-200VR, 1/50s f5.0 iso 1600



18-200VR, 1/30s f5.0 iso 1600



1/30s, f4.5 iso3200



These guys were moving too fast for the shutter speed:
1/20s f/5 iso1800



Good luck!

-Wayne

Thanks much for the help. Really good suggestions and i appreciate it.