Re: Photography

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Sat, 16 Mar 2002, Colin Gorton wrote:

> I don't have access to a digital camera but can use a friend's system
> SLR (if I remember correctly it's a recent generation Nikon) and a
> scanner. What settings should I use. I have 150W MH lights on the tank
> (soon to be upgraded to 250W) will I need to use a flash? What is the
> ideal lens, F-stop etc. and what can I get by with if that's not
> available? C:-)lin

I've been playing around with aquarium photography pretty heavily in the 
last month (giving a talk in about 4 weeks, so I figured I'd better brush 
up and learn some new things too).

I have found that for heavily-lit tanks (four 32w T-8's plus two 55w power
compacts with good reflectors) using available light, and Fuji Provia 100S
(slide film), 1/4 second at f/5.6 is my sweet spot.  For my less-lit tank 
(two T-8 tubes over a pair of 20-gallon tanks), 1/4 second at f/4 is 
working well.  If trying to get a "whole-tank" shot, I'd bracket around 
that 1-2 stops in each direction.  TRIPOD!!  Watch for reflections of 
other tanks, turn off all other lights in room, hang up black cloth on 
anything still reflecting.

For flash photography, it depends heavily on the ability to remove the 
flash from the camera and place on a cable or remote sensor.  I'm starting 
to play with this & am finally beginning to get some good results with two 
flashes, one at either end of the tank, suspended about 2 feet above the 
tank.

Close-up flash photography with a macro lens is easy by comparison.  Flash 
still needs to be kept away from the camera on a cord or something.  I 
find a standard distance I like to use and then play around with different 
f-stops (writing everything down exposure by exposure) to find a sweet 
spot, and then basically use that on all my pictures after that.  I'll 
open it up an extra stop or two if I need to move the flash further back 
on a particular shot.

Hope this helps...

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com


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