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Thread: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

  1. #1
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    What prompted me to start this thread was from the Photo Contest thread. I will quote myself and George here just to show what I am talking about:

    Quote Originally Posted by rickztahone View Post
    For all of those kicking themselves about not having a DSLR camera, I will tell you that right now is one of the best times to buy an entry level camera. You have hundreds of models out there currently that are so underpriced because of the competitiveness that is going on with all the major brand names.

    For instance, I shoot with a lot of Sony gear. I have an Nex6, a55, a77, and a99. When I purchased the a77 and a lens I bought it for $1700. At that time, this was a steal! That camera is not that old, it was released in 2011. Now, you can pick up that camera for roughly $400-$600! That is a significant mark down.

    So, if you are currently in the market for gear, just do your research and you can definitely pick something up for cheap that isn't such a "cheap" camera. Last years bells and whistles cameras are selling for less than half of the cost this year.

    Additionally, the top 3 brands are Canon, Nikon, and Sony, however, Pentax, Olympus Fuji and Panasonic also have great cameras. I have shot with almost all brands and I will tell you that they all have pros and cons. For an entry level person, every single camera on the market will have what they need and more. If you start getting to the hobbyist, or semi-pro, or even pro level, you start noticing some companies flaws and strenghths.

    If anyone has questions please feel free to contact me, or we can start a thread here on SD.
    Quote Originally Posted by treemanone2003 View Post
    This is great info you have made available to the rest of the members !! Something I wouldn't have thought of to express, but I couldn't agree more. I'm still on the learning side of the amateur level of the photography hobby, but I chose a higher end entry level piece as my first investment. And as stated, the more involved one becomes, the more you learn off all the +/- things that make each one different.

    I've always been a Nikon fan, and my choice when they were new was the d5100. After all the gadgets etc, I was right around the $1800 area as well. Now you can get that same model around $800-$900. I couldn't tell anyone about fstop or shutter speed but I know why the flash doesn't work in certain modes.

    All the entry level "point, click, and shoot" cameras still take awesome photos. No doubt about that. And most of them have quite a bit of the same functions and editing software available as the pricier units do so don't be discourage about giving it your best "shot". Thanks again for sharing.
    In this thread we will discuss mainly "gear", or rather, cameras/lenses/photography related topics and basics. In this manner, we can have an open dialog on anything from, "what camera to buy?", to "what lens can achieve this look?".

    So, let me start off with the quote from George above. Not to pick on you George but I know a lot of people that have a higher end camera and do not grasp the basic function of these cameras. Every single camera in the market today deals with these 3 basic things, without them, a camera does not work, and those 3 things are:
    -Shutters Speed
    -Aperture
    -ISO

    These are all relavent to an exposure, or a picture.

    So, in basic terms, and I really do mean basic terms here:
    -the Shutter speed decides how long (time-wise) the aperture stays open.
    -the Aperture is the physical opening of a lens diaphram
    -the iso simply measures the sensitivity of an image sensor

    These 3 all work in unison to make a proper exposure.

    Now, to apply this to a real world situation we must make up scenarios. The easiest shooting scenario is bright daylight. You can basically get away with using whatever settings you want.
    In a night time setting, you are more limited in the type of settings you CAN use in that particular scene.
    ISO is more important in darker situations but can be relied upon in daylight as well.

    With this information in mind, consider that all lenses have apertures. Again, all this means is that the lens OPENS and CLOSES to its designated values. Typically, when someone refers to a lens as "wide open", it means that the lens is being used at its most open designation, so the physical 'hole' is large. If, someone refers to a lens as "stopped down all the way", it means that the lens is being used at its most closed designation. Why does this matter? It matters because the aperture controls something called Depth Of Field (DOF). When a lens is "wide open" the DOF is much smaller than when the lens is "stopped down".

    These next shots are an example of DOF controlled by the aperture:

    DeLeon Tequila Silver Top by rickztahone, on Flickr
    In this shot, the bottle cap was my main subject. I wanted to isolate it and make the DOF as small as possible. In this case I used aperture f/3.2. My lens could have opened up even further, in my case f/1.4, but when you are dealing with a subject in close quarters, the distance to the subject also comes in to play. This is an issue with many aquarium photographers, because most of the time they want to be pressed up against the glass to take photos. In reality, you are narrowing down your DOF which makes it more difficult to keep things in focus.

    Think of DOF as a slice of pie. The wider the aperture, example f/1.2 (very wide) f/1.4, f/2, the THINNER your slice of pie is. The narrower the aperture, example f/5.6, f/8, f/11, the THICKER the slice of pie is.


    DeLeon Tequila by rickztahone, on Flickr
    Moving on to this next shot. In this shot, I wanted to get more of the bottle in focus, not just the cap. In that case, I "stopped down", or simply narrowed the opening of my aperture (f/5). This allows a greater DOF. In this case, it allowed me to get the bottle in focus, as well as the cap, but the background still remains slightly out of focus. Had I stopped down even further, say f/11 for example, the background would have been more defined and sharp, or following our metaphor above, you would have gotten a larger slice of pie.

    I may be getting to technical here, so I will let these points simmer and make themselves to your long term memory, lol. I will be back to explain shutter speed and ISO and how they rely on one another.

    P.S. this is an open dialog thread and I will answer any type of photography questions. So, if it isn't related directly to what I said above because you know the basics, then please go ahead and ask a more advanced questions and I will try to answer to the best of my ability.

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    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Moving on. So, we have gone over aperture and how the opening of the aperture influnces DOF. Keep in mind that the aperture simply restricts or allows more light to the camera sensor. You can't get any more basic than that.

    Now, the Shutters speed controls how long the exposure will last. Why does this matter? Lets say, for example that I am trying to take a photo of a football game, specifically, the players. In order to get players in focus I need to increase my shutters speed. Shutters speeds range from 30 seconds (can extend more than this however) to roughly 1/8000 depending on the camera. Your goal, in this particular situation would be to choose a higher shutter speed, say, 1/1250 second, so that the subject you are trying to capture is sharp when you take the photo. Of course you have to rely on your Auto Focus being accurate as well, but that is something for another day. So, in this situation, the shutter speed is very important because you want to slow down your subject as much as possible by having a very brief exposure.

    Now, you can slow down your shutter speed for certain situations as well. One of the most common ones would be to do night time long exposures. These type of shots are typically accomplished by setting your camera on a tripod and lower your shutter speed as much as possible. Why? Because many times when you do night time photography you want only the elements that are not moving to stay in focus. If you have your exposure in a long setting, say 30 seconds, any people that fly by your camera will either be blurs in the photo or not present at all!


    Los Angeles Dodgers - Dee Gordon by rickztahone, on Flickr
    Here is an example of a high shutter speed (1/2000) to stop motion.


    Merry-Go-Round by rickztahone, on Flickr
    Here is an example of a slower shutter speed, in this case I believe I did a hand held 1/10 of a second. My goal was to get the gentleman on the right in focus, yet show motion in the carousel. This could be considered long exposure, but typically you want to do long exposure on a tripod.

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    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Moving on to ISO

    ISO is a necessary evil, lol.
    When you start adjusting aperture and Shutter speeds, you will soon realize that sometimes you just can not achieve the settings you want because you do not have enough light. A solution to this is to either get a "faster lens", this means that the lens physically has a larger opening, expample f/1.4, or, you can increase your ISO. You may be wondering, why not just increase ISO all the time so that you have the advantage of using any settings you want? The simple answer is that, the higher you go with ISO, the more "noise" you will see in a photo. Oddly enough, the baseball shot above can work double time here because it also was shot with really high ISO.That shot shows the relationship between the two as well. Had I not bumped up my ISO, I would not have been able to achieve the Shutter speed needed in order to get the shot I did. Here's the shot again:

    Los Angeles Dodgers - Dee Gordon by rickztahone, on Flickr
    That was shot at iso 6400. If you were to zoom in on this shot you will notice a lot of digital noise. In the photography world we tend to avoid noise as much as possible. There are situations where you want noise, but more times than not, you want to keep the ISO as low as possible and only increase as a last resort.

    There are cameras that handle ISO better than others. For example, the camera that I used to shoot the baseball game is not particularly known for good ISO management. However, you can always get editing programs that help you get rid of some of the noise to a degree. Editing is a whole other story that we can cover later as well.

    So, in conclusion, ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor to light. The more you increase the ISO, the more visible the noise becomes. You want to stick to lower ISO as possible.

    Here are a few shots that depict higher ISO:

    Fred Portrait by rickztahone, on Flickr
    This was also shot at 6400 but the ISO management in this camera is a lot better than the a77. The a99, used here is a full frame sensor, and a full frame sensor will always have better ISO management than a cropped sensor camera.


    6400 unedited by rickztahone, on Flickr
    another 6400. This one was to show the recoverability of this camera at a higher ISO. This shot is the unedited version, the following one is with noise reduction in place.


    6400 NR and Sharpening by rickztahone, on Flickr
    It may be difficult to see the subtle differences but they are there.

    That is ISO in a nutshell. I'm sure I'm missing some things because I am not going back to edit. But, as questions come in I will try to explain things better. These are basic principals in photography and once you use your camera more often, they will become second nature to you.

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    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    That's all I have for tonight, but a good practice when starting with photography is to look at photos that you like, and view what we call EXIF data.

    You can CLICK on my Photostream here and if you see any photos you like, simply go to photo, and find the button that says "view Exif info". That information will tell you the shutter speed, aperture, ISO amongst a slew of other things. This excersize helps a lot to visually see settings being executed in a real life scenario.

    thanks for viewing. I will have more tomorrow

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    Registered Member treemanone2003's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Thanks again for setting up this thread and sharing your knowledge here. I was headed to bed when you started this last night and my first question would have been (how do I know what parameters I took a photo with) but you covered in the second paragraph of post four. Thumbs up !!! So now I will go look thru my photos to help understand what you've laid out here.

    Please correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that the (only ?) difference between DSLR and SLR, is the DSLR stores the photo electronically as opposed to the SLR storing the photo on actual film.

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    Registered Member Discus-n00b's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Great thread. Just a point of note to those that are shopping for a new camera, don't get caught in the megapixels. They advertise it huge on the packaging and literature to try and trap people.....this camera has 16 megapixels it MUST be better than this 12 megapixel camera! False. For most people's application of the photos here (posting on forums), mega pixels won't really matter that much. Start to worry how many you have if you start printing your photos for framing or are doing a lot of cropping. Most cameras these days come with PLENTY, just don't get caught up in them when shopping around, check the other features. While megapixels are nice and allow you to crop without losing quality and such, it shouldn't be the main measure of a camera like manufactures have made it today IMO.

    Even I still look up EXIF data on photos, sometimes even my own. It can at least give you a good starting point then you can tweak it depending on your specific situation.
    -Matt


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    Registered Member Argentum's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Thank you ... this will be a great help to improve the quality of pictures for the contest

    I have a Super zoom SONY cybershot HX200V and to be honest I am disappointed by its macro mode and it's auto photo rendering.

    I will see if I can take better pictures with the manual mode

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    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Quote Originally Posted by treemanone2003 View Post
    Thanks again for setting up this thread and sharing your knowledge here. I was headed to bed when you started this last night and my first question would have been (how do I know what parameters I took a photo with) but you covered in the second paragraph of post four. Thumbs up !!! So now I will go look thru my photos to help understand what you've laid out here.

    Please correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that the (only ?) difference between DSLR and SLR, is the DSLR stores the photo electronically as opposed to the SLR storing the photo on actual film.
    Good question George.
    Traditionally, a SLR, or Single Lens Reflex, have a mirror right behind the lens that lets you see through the viewfinder to allow to compose and record an exposure to the film by pressing the shutter button, allowing the mirror to quickly move out of the way and get a shot.

    a (D) SLR has exactly the same principle, but rather than recording to 35mm film, it records to a memory card or some sort of saving mechanism.

    Furthermore, you have other technology, such as SLT, which I personally use, and this allows for the mirror to remain fixed behind the lens. The mirror is translucent and does not need to move away for an exposure. One of the reasons this is beneficial is due to the fact that the electric viewfinder allows you to see a shot exactly how it will record the exposure. This means for example, that if you adjust white balance, exp compensation, shutter speeds, special picture effects, and settings of that nature, you can see the change happen right from the EVF. Traditionally, most cameras have used an OVF which let you see exactly what you would see with the naked eye. No adjustments were possible.

    I will not get in to a debate as to which is better because I feel all cameras have their pros and cons. It is up to the person to decide which style or technology best suits their needs.

    Lastly, there is also mirrorless technology, I also have one of these cameras and just like everything else, it has its pros and cons.

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    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Quote Originally Posted by Discus-n00b View Post
    Great thread. Just a point of note to those that are shopping for a new camera, don't get caught in the megapixels. They advertise it huge on the packaging and literature to try and trap people.....this camera has 16 megapixels it MUST be better than this 12 megapixel camera! False. For most people's application of the photos here (posting on forums), mega pixels won't really matter that much. Start to worry how many you have if you start printing your photos for framing or are doing a lot of cropping. Most cameras these days come with PLENTY, just don't get caught up in them when shopping around, check the other features. While megapixels are nice and allow you to crop without losing quality and such, it shouldn't be the main measure of a camera like manufactures have made it today IMO.

    Even I still look up EXIF data on photos, sometimes even my own. It can at least give you a good starting point then you can tweak it depending on your specific situation.
    Matt raises a very valuable point here. Many get caught up solely on megapixels amd buy accordingly. You would be doing yourself a great disservice if you rely on MPs alone. As Matt suggested, MPs come in to play more when someone is trying to print large. I have printed up to 72" in length on one side and in this setting the MPs DO matter. However, the average hobbyist only uploads photos online and rarely prints. A 8mp camera can handle this with no problems what-so-ever. Personally, I believe the sensor of choice for me is 16mp, even though I own 24mp cameras as well.

    we can definitely get in to discussions concerning sensor sizes and their importance if any here would like.

    Quote Originally Posted by Argentum View Post
    Thank you ... this will be a great help to improve the quality of pictures for the contest

    I have a Super zoom SONY cybershot HX200V and to be honest I am disappointed by its macro mode and it's auto photo rendering.

    I will see if I can take better pictures with the manual mode
    I will tell you something that I have learned over the years, and that is, if YOU control everything on a camera, the camera will work much better for you. When you set a camera to auto mode you are allowing the camera to make all the decisions. If you override those decisions, you can compose and capture shots as you deem fit. This allows a photographic freedom that puts you at the helm, rather than in the passanger seat.

    you can take great shots with the camera you currently own. You just need to learn the principles behind photography. I will try to make these things as simplistic as possible in this thread but can get more technical for those willing to.

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    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Ok, moving on.

    Now that we have summed up the basics, I will go over some of the actual steps you should take in order to take better discus/aquarium pictures.

    -The first and most important thing will have to be, WIPING DOWN THE TANK, lol. Many people forget to do this very basic step. You want that glass to be as spotless as possible.
    -Secondly, try to make the room as dark as possible. Glare is a huge deterrent when taking aquarium photos. Watch those reflections!
    -On to the gear. You can use a DSLR, SLT, Point and shoot, even a cell phone.
    -A tripod or monopod is not necessary, but it certainly helps achieve better shots.
    -A cable release remote, or timer function is also very helpful.
    -You must determine the lens, or focal length you would like to shoot at
    -You must decide what type of shot you are going for
    -Lastly, you must get the settings right

    Here is how I would approach a shot on a fish tank.
    -I would get my camera and attach a lens with a focal range anywhere from 50mm to 200mm.
    -If you are not on a tripod or monopod, I suggest using a fast lens (e.g. f/2.8 and above)
    -Mount the camera and lens to the tripod, in this case, I will say that I will use the 70-200 2.8 lens
    -Put your camera in M mode
    -I would start by adjusting my white balance. If you shoot RAW files, then WB isn't as important because you can set it later on the computer. But, if you shoot in jpeg mode, like many on auto do, I suggest setting your white balance appropriately.
    -At this point I will have to determine if the light fixture of the tank illuminates enough light that I could get away with faster shutter speeds. Off the top of my head I would guess that a shutter speed anywhere from 1/125 - 1/1000 would work well. I'm sure you can go lower than that but that is when you start introducing the possibility of blurry pictures. 90% of the blurry shots you see on this forum is due to too slow a shutter speed. Again, if you let the camera decide what your shutter speed will be, then you risk the camera giving you a setting that isn't suitable for your current shooting situation.
    -Once you got your shutter speed dialed in, you can adjust your aperture. If, for instance, you are looking for a shallow depth of field shot, say, you want to blur out the background, or some driftwood right behind the subject, you would want to have a wider aperture, say 2.8. Again, I will repeat here, if you go with a wider aperture, you risk missing your focus because your DOF is very thing at that point. The distance from you to the subject also plays in to the DOF. This is why I said I would choose the 70-200 lens, because at the longer focal length, my DOF increases a little bit. Of course this means I would have to be physically further back from the tank, but if you have the space, that is fine.
    -Lastly, if I have both of the above settings in place, and I take a preview shot, and it happens to be too dark, this means you must either, lower your shutter speed, open up your aperture (make it wider), or lastly, raise your ISO. You can keep increasing your ISO until you start getting proper exposure shots. On my camera, and I suspect on almost any camera on the market today, you have an exposure meter somewhere on your camera. It will generally look like this -2~~-1~~0~~1~~1. What this meter indicates is how close you are to a perfect exposure. It is a guide, but one that can be broken depending on your photographic goals. So, you want to get your exposure as close to 0 as possible. Again, you do this by compensating with your settings. The last resort setting being ISO.
    -Once you have all of your settings in place, you can disable something called Image stabilization if you are shooting on a tripod. My camera has IS built in to the body rather than on the lens, so I turn it off from the camera. Most times you can turn it off from the lens itself if you shoot with Canon or Nikon.
    -If you also have a cable release (remote), you can shoot from a good distance away so that your hands and fingers aren't accidentally moving the camera when you are capturing a photo.
    -Of course these last 2 steps are more in depth and more technical, but if you have the resources available, use them.

    If you do not have a tripod, or monopod, do not be discouraged. You can still take some excellent photos. One thing you want to do is, hold the camera close to your face, preferably, up against your nose. You want to tuck in your elbows to be as close to your body as possible. If you can get on one knee and still be at good eye level with your tank, Great! Watch your breathing, steady it down, and take a photo when you exhale.

    There will be many people who have bright enough tanks that all of these steps are moot, but I am going on the assumption that we are shooting a poorly lit tank here.

    If I am forgetting anything I will try to edit and include but from the re-read it seems that everything is there. Here is a shot that I took this past weekend. Notice that there was reflection that I could not get rid of because of the location. Additionally, the scratched glass sometimes fools your cameras auto focus, so try to avoid large scratches.
    Fish Tank_64 by rickztahone, on Flickr
    here is some EXIF data, and keep in mind that there was A LOT of light available during this shot:
    Aperture f/3.5
    Shutter speed 1/125 second
    ISO 800
    Shot at 200mm.

    Let me know if you have any questions

    Edit: notice on the picture that the caudal fin is already kind of blurry. Had I stopped down, say to f/5.6 or so, it may have resulted in a sharper looking caudal fin. This would have meant either decreasing my shutter speed, or increasing my ISO in turn however.

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  11. #11
    Photo Guru SMB2's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    I will tell you something that I have learned over the years, and that is, if YOU control everything on a camera, the camera will work much better for you.
    I was a full manual shooter for years, but as cameras have become more sophisticated, leaving some of the decision making to the camera works quite well. I now shoot primarily Aperture Priority and most cameras have this option. That is, I select the Aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed. This allows for much less fiddling with dials and more agile shooting. Since Depth of Field is really the "image maker" (other than focus) setting the aperture is the main technical consideration for me. If the shot calls for isolating the subject with a blurred background, start with the larger aperture (smaller numbers). If all the subject needs as much in focus as possible then a smaller aperture is called for. Even your baseball action shot can be planned this way. In advance you know you want to freeze action with a fast shutter speed. In that case I would dial the aperture to smaller numbers until the camera registered a shutter speed I was happy with. (If you have the lens wide open, smallest number, and you still need a faster shutter speed then one can bump up the ISO.)
    I shoot mainly nature images so I like the agility of Aperture priority. In very controlled situations, I usually revert back to full manual. Also with the immediate feedback that digital cameras supply there is nothing wrong with taking test shots to fine tune exposure. But that may be another subject for your tutorial!

    Great job putting all that together. While I know this is a Discus forum, with every post comes the invariable question, "where are the pics"? Maybe this thread can help everybody post more images. BUT we will need a smart phone photography enthusiast!
    Last edited by SMB2; 05-01-2014 at 01:18 PM.
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    Registered Member Discus-n00b's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Excellent advice and guidance from Ricardo. Really breaks it down better than I ever have or could.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag0dkFFZVWg

    Not the greatest tutorial in the world, was basically flying by the seat of my pants on it but this is basically how I do things without going into as much detail as Ricardo has in this thread. Also this method may not be the right one with the beginner just starting out with no flash units or wireless remotes or any of those goodies. I will say that the bare bone basics boil down to a dark room, lots of light above the tank, and just knowing your fish. The fish are naturally curious being cichlids and most of our discus are EXCELLENT at begging for food....its a winning combo for photography because you shouldn't have to chase them around the tank to get some good shots. You see them every day, you know where they like to hang out in the tank, you know if Fish A swims by Fish B then Fish B will chase it away, just little routines you can pick up on to be ready to capture that perfect moment.

    And I know it may not be for the beginners, but I ALWAYS use flash above the tanks for photos. This requires an external flash unit that most people don't want to spend money on, and its not always needed as indicated above, you can get good photos without it. I just like the dramatic light it gives. My goal is to make you, the viewer think its just tank light illuminating the fish but I will guarantee that it never is with my fish photos.

    wild3 by SCMatt, on Flickr

    red3 by SCMatt, on Flickr

    Stendkertefe1 by SCMatt, on Flickr

    Test shots are a good point. Thank god for digital images now, fire away and delete what you don't want. I highly encourage to snap away, and don't be discouraged by only using a few pics out of hundreds. I'm sure Ricardo and Stan are the same as me, people on this forum have not or will not ever see 95-98% of my photos. They just don't make the final grade to post.
    -Matt


  13. #13
    Registered Member Kal-El's Avatar
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    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Thank you so much for this thread... This is what I've been waiting for...

  14. #14
    Registered Member rickztahone's Avatar
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    Ricardo

    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Quote Originally Posted by SMB2 View Post
    I was a full manual shooter for years, but as cameras have become more sophisticated, leaving some of the decision making to the camera works quite well. I now shoot primarily Aperture Priority and most cameras have this option. That is, I select the Aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed. This allows for much less fiddling with dials and more agile shooting. Since Depth of Field is really the "image maker" (other than focus) setting the aperture is the main technical consideration for me. If the shot calls for isolating the subject with a blurred background, start with the larger aperture (smaller numbers). If all the subject needs as much in focus as possible then a smaller aperture is called for. Even your baseball action shot can be planned this way. In advance you know you want to freeze action with a fast shutter speed. In that case I would dial the aperture to smaller numbers until the camera registered a shutter speed I was happy with. (If you have the lens wide open, smallest number, and you still need a faster shutter speed then one can bump up the ISO.)
    I shoot mainly nature images so I like the agility of Aperture priority. In very controlled situations, I usually revert back to full manual. Also with the immediate feedback that digital cameras supply there is nothing wrong with taking test shots to fine tune exposure. But that may be another subject for your tutorial!

    Great job putting all that together. While I know this is a Discus forum, with every post comes the invariable question, "where are the pics"? Maybe this thread can help everybody post more images. BUT we will need a smart phone photography enthusiast!
    Great points here. I have shot in every mode, and while I appreciate aperture priority mode, I have always preferred Manual mode. This is not to say that it is better in any way, in fact, as you pointed out, a lot of times it takes guess work out of the equation. I do not often chimp (take a photo and replay the photo) because my camera allows me to see what my final exposure will be like (also known as WYSIWYG, what you see is what you get) in the view finder. Additionally, when I do studio work, I am always in M mode to be able to control my flashes and jumping from mode to mode is something I personally do not like doing.

    With all this being said and done, I believe everyone should know all 4 modes, which are (A)perture priority mode, (P)rogram mode (S)hutter Speed Mode and (M)anual mode. Your camera may say something different such as Tv or Av, but they are all the same thing. There are situations when you WILL need to know all of these modes to better execute your shot.

    Thanks again for bringing this up.
    Quote Originally Posted by Discus-n00b View Post
    Excellent advice and guidance from Ricardo. Really breaks it down better than I ever have or could.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag0dkFFZVWg

    Not the greatest tutorial in the world, was basically flying by the seat of my pants on it but this is basically how I do things without going into as much detail as Ricardo has in this thread. Also this method may not be the right one with the beginner just starting out with no flash units or wireless remotes or any of those goodies. I will say that the bare bone basics boil down to a dark room, lots of light above the tank, and just knowing your fish. The fish are naturally curious being cichlids and most of our discus are EXCELLENT at begging for food....its a winning combo for photography because you shouldn't have to chase them around the tank to get some good shots. You see them every day, you know where they like to hang out in the tank, you know if Fish A swims by Fish B then Fish B will chase it away, just little routines you can pick up on to be ready to capture that perfect moment.

    And I know it may not be for the beginners, but I ALWAYS use flash above the tanks for photos. This requires an external flash unit that most people don't want to spend money on, and its not always needed as indicated above, you can get good photos without it. I just like the dramatic light it gives. My goal is to make you, the viewer think its just tank light illuminating the fish but I will guarantee that it never is with my fish photos.

    wild3 by SCMatt, on Flickr

    red3 by SCMatt, on Flickr

    Stendkertefe1 by SCMatt, on Flickr

    Test shots are a good point. Thank god for digital images now, fire away and delete what you don't want. I highly encourage to snap away, and don't be discouraged by only using a few pics out of hundreds. I'm sure Ricardo and Stan are the same as me, people on this forum have not or will not ever see 95-98% of my photos. They just don't make the final grade to post.
    This is an excellent tutorial for anyone that is a little more advanced and has a speedlight. Even if you do not have a speedlight, there are some very helpful hints and tips in there that will generally improve your aquarium shots.

    The one tip in particular that stood out was the tip about the angle of the camera and lens in relation to the front of the fish tank. Typically I can shoot straight on because I have the space behind me and a longer lens as well. The glass or acrylic is generally clearer when shooting straight on due to diffraction. You have probably noticed this when you take a shot of discus in a corner, like the shot a few replies ago by me. It enhances their shape in a more positive way. However, there is no right or wrong way to photography a discus, and depending on your lens selection, you might HAVE to shoot at a particular angle. Just know that you can shoot at any lens focal length with no problems. Most phones have less than an 8mm focal length and it the distortion is corrected via software in the phone. Iphones in particular are really good at taking pictures. However, the downfall of most photos taking on a phone is that they were meant to be seen in a very small context. Once you start blowing them up to larger sizes or editing those shots, you start realizing the limitations to those photo files.

    Anyways, as usual, I go off in to another tangent. Lets stick with the flash idea presented above by Matt. The use of a diffuser is a spot on recommendation. Especially a light sphere like he uses. Ironically enough, I just sold my Gary Fong collapsible diffuser because I never used it, lol. In general photography I found that I hardly ever carried it around and I sold it very cheaply online. Had I kept it, I would have had a great diffuser above the tank. Luckily for me, I have many OTHER diffusers, lol. I also have many speedlights and monoblocks, but I will not get in to that aspect of photography just yet.

    My recommendation if you do not have a speedlight, or flashgun as it is often referred to as well, then I recommend buying a very cheap one. I own a YN 460 II all manual flash, and I believe I bought that for $35 used shipped from ebay. Nice fancy speedlights are nice, trust me, I have 5, but, when you aren't doing portraiture, or outdoor photography, or events, the features they provide aren't that necessary. TTL and HSS aren't important at all as Matt has so dutifully illustrated. He basically puts the flash on top of the tank, and shoots away.

    In this manner, you simply buy a cheap flash like I linked to. You also buy yourself some cheap Triggers and you are ready to go in to manual flash photography!

    One thing you must keep in mind, and this is absolutely important!, when you deal with flash photography, the settings I talked about above, change. It isn't the same principal when you are talking about flash photography. The shutter speed controls your ambient light. Matt alluded to this principal in his video. Basically, the faster your shutters speed, the more of the ambient light you lose. The slower your shutter speed, the more ambient light you let in. So, this explains how Matt is able to get dark backgrounds in his shots. With flash photography, only the aperture controls the exposure on the subject. You can drag the shutter left and right, but generally, the exposure will stay the same on the subject that is being flashed. You can raise your ISO in flash photography to ease up on the flash, and you can get more juice out of the batteries. At this point I may be throwing out too much photography jargon to follow, but if you have specific questions on this topic, I will be more than happy to help.

    Once again, thanks Matt for the great video.
    Quote Originally Posted by Kal-El View Post
    Thank you so much for this thread... This is what I've been waiting for...
    I am glad you like it. Subscribe to the thread and look out for updates. I tend to have a lot of down time at my job and that is when I do most of the writing here.

    Lastly, I want to stress that this thread is an open one. What I mean by that is that I do not mind going off the rails. I know there are many members who have threads that have a certain structure, and they do not want to deviate from that. This is not that type of thread. I would love for people to put up their test shots here, so we can analyze them, and improve on them. If you have any other photography related subjects, I can help there too. I am a moderator at another photography forum and I usually get swamped with pm's over there as well, so, I don't mind all the questions. Try to keep the questions here though, so that others can benefit from the answer as well.

    Keep coming back

    Click here to view my 75g Acrylic Tank w/ Bean Animal Overflow with 40g Sump Thread

    Also, click here for my 25 group of discus grow out thread


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  15. #15
    Registered Member treemanone2003's Avatar
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    George

    Default Re: Camera gear / tips and tricks / tutorials

    Ricardo, I'm out of the house now on my phone following along. I have two favorites I'd like to share. One I know I can find rather quickly as it's right on my computer thing but the other I will have to dig for because I have no clue about where it is. Since they aren't Discus or fish related, would you mind if I shared here or rather a pm ? I don't want to give it away but they both involve speed in general. I'm also sure I can find he parameters in which they were shot as well.
    Thank you - George

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