Taking pictures of my tank, with a phone camera

[Han Solo]

Hi everyone! New to forums and reefs so bear with me if this is a dumb question but:

I have a newly formed pico tank and outfitted it with a PAR 38 LED bulb so I got some really high blue light Kelvins going on. Looks great to the human eye and not TOO blue like I was expecting (I think it's < 15000K) so that's good. I wanted a few quick pictures to show friends while my tank is still in it's infancy and I don't have access to a DSLR camera at the moment, nor do I know how to use one!

I whipped out my iPhone for some quick snaps and found that the tank looks so overexposed in blue it looked pretty terrible. Including when I tried up-close shots. Tried messing around with some settings I could find using 3rd party app store camera apps but no luck.

Has anyone been successful with taking any pics with your blue lights? I'm assuming using a DLSR will fix this problem? :hmm3:
http://i.imgur.com/Z6fodqg.jpg

[inthedeep2]

wow.. is that a 5gal glass carboy widemouth... that is awesome.

[rale2001]

yeah thats pretty sweet right there... keep us updated iphones do have dslr apps to change the white balance and a mock iso aperture they also have a external lens attachment kit on amazon also... keep us updated how this works out for you

http://www.amazon.com/VicTsing-Magnetic-Detachable-Fish-Eye-Smartphones/dp/B00F5TC1QM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399918981&sr=8-1&keywords=iphone+lens

[Han Solo]

wow.. is that a 5gal glass carboy widemouth... that is awesome.

THanks for the encouragement guys! I appreciate it.

Your about two times off :) It's a 2.5 gallon 'cookie jar' that I bought for 15 dollars at Target. Has a glass top that fits snug as well!

Very new tank but with all my messing around trying to get it looking perfect it's gotten a bit cloudy and needs more cycling before I put anything else in. Premature purchase on those zoas on teh stick :) but my two blue-legged hermits are doing fine.

I found an app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pro-hdr/id347104281?mt=8 that does alright (use the sepia filter) but no where near what I was expecting with the purchase :(

Got a cool B&W photo that makes the rocks look like snow-covered mountains though!

http://i.imgur.com/IabOjKz.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pEOY5ie.jpg

[CoralBeauty13]

anything blue about the tank will be weird with the Iphone. I have yet been able to take a nice pic of my blue hippo. He looks 3D fluorescent.

[criticalencore]

Try taking the pic through a pair of polarized sunglasses. That helps some otherwise it will have to be doctored through an app probably. I don't have an iPhone so I can't suggest an app to use though sorry. Cool tank though

[coverdog]

That's a pretty slick tank idea. I might do that for a counter top tank in my kitchen.

[Han Solo]

Try taking the pic through a pair of polarized sunglasses. That helps some otherwise it will have to be doctored through an app probably. I don't have an iPhone so I can't suggest an app to use though sorry. Cool tank though

Great idea. If only I had polarized sunglasses. Maybe I can find some other material that might work.

Thanks for the compliments everyone on the tank... nothing else inside yet.