Receiver on Flash
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5.Diffuser aka Paper Towels (cost $1) You can buy diffusers for your flash that help reduce the light or spread it out more evenly. Some even can alter the light temp. They vary in price. These are great but in a pinch a down and dirty method is paper towels... Stack them as needed to achieve various lighting effects and intensities.
Flash and diffuser are placed on top of the tank.Obviously they need to be on something clear like glass or plastic so the flash lights up the tank.
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Also of use though not needed is something to wedge under the flash if you want to change the angle. I'm not counting that in the article as a cost because you could use anything , even crumpled paper towels! I did not use anything to change the light angle in these pics.
At This point you are ready to take pics, just need to set the flash...
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You will use it in manual mode. "M" Set the iso speed, in most cases I use 100 or 200 iso. Set the flash power output (full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8). You have to play around with the output. I use it at 1/2 to start. You will notice there a scale on the flash.. It basically tells you if you were using the flash on the camera how far in feet you should be at a certain f-stop on the Lens. You can ignore it as we are using the flash in a manner not intended. You will want to set your camera ISO as well..
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and lastly. Though you can use autofocus, I do not on these shots. I set the camera to manual focus. I set the shutter speed to 1/180 ... my flash triggers sync at 1/200 sec. but work okay this setting. This setting is important as you need the camera to take the picture as the flash is firing. You may need to play around with it.
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I like to try various apertures on the lens for effect and to control the light levels of the flash. Old manual Lenses have a ring of numbers on them. Intimidating at first, just think of it like this for this article. The smaller the number the larger the lens opens , and more light goes in. The larger the number the smaller the hole (aperture) and the less light goes to the camera. In this lens the largest aperture is F 3.5 and the smallest is F22. If you take a pic at F22 and its not bright enough you can try changing to a smaller number like F8 to let more light in. Or you could switch the flash to full power.
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That is really all there is to it. It is not that hard at all, and after a few test runs you get a feel for it. I can't guarantee that if you follow this guide you will have no work ahead of you. Photography is largely trial and error and learning along the way. I know this set up works, and I know that you could do similar with any camera mfg and gear. You will need to research what works there or not. All this is, is a guide that is based on my system for down and dirty, low cost Aquarium Fish Photography. Someone else's system could be very different yet work the same or better.
At the very least you get the idea that you need to get the flash off the camera.
Hope this is useful to you at least as a starting point or conceptually. Obviously use this at your own risks. Its for informational purposes only.
al
Heres some examples of what you can do with this set up...
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