MBZ's Photo Thread

[MBZ]

I've been into photography for about a year. I recently took the plunge and bought a macro lens, the best $500 I ever spent. I'm currently using a Canon XT with a Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro Lens. Here are some of my favorite pictures. Comments and suggestions welcomed.

Thanks,
Mark

[kar93]

Brilliant shots, Money well spent.

[Robb in Austin]

Nice shots. Especially #3 and 7.

My only critique would be to reduce the size of your watermark.

[crazedpuffer]

#3 is my favorite, the lime green is amazing.
Awesome job, can you post a full tank shot?

[rams]

#3 awesome

[MBZ]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. #3 from above is one of my favorites too. I don't have any recent full tank shots but I'll post some soon. Here's some more favorites.

Mark

[Robb in Austin]

Nice. You got dem skillz! (As all the kiddies say!)

If you find yourself down this way and want to give a lesson or two...First round will be on me!

[MBZ]

Originally posted by Robb in Austin
Nice. You got dem skillz! (As all the kiddies say!)

If you find yourself down this way and want to give a lesson or two...First round will be on me!

Thanks. I might be down in Austin before the year is up. I know a couple of reefers down your way.

Mark

[MBZ]

Some more pics.

Mark

[MBZ]

A few more.

[brians4671]

wow some really nice pictures, i need more practice.

[soccerbag]

Damn! I have the exact same camera and lens and my pics look NOTHING like these. I'm very jealous. Can you discuss your settings? How far away are you from these corals? Any assistance to help a newbie would be appreciated.

Incredible.

[raen]

Dude....................you make me sick! FAN-freakin-TASTIC pictures. WOWZA!

[raen]

Originally posted by soccerbag
Damn! I have the exact same camera and lens and my pics look NOTHING like these. I'm very jealous. Can you discuss your settings? How far away are you from these corals? Any assistance to help a newbie would be appreciated.

Incredible.

+1

[Kigs]

Beautiful, beautiful shots!

[reefer334]

Frickin Awesome!!!!!!


I need a macro lens!!!

Chris

[mpoletti]

Spectacular

[puka]

nice pics

[MBZ]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I am in no way an expert photographer, but here is some info that I wrote for my local fish club a few months ago. Hope it helps someone get started in the right direction.

Here’s a check list for taking photos.

1. First, read your camera manual.
2. When you’re ready to shoot, turn off all lights in room except tank lights. Close window blinds, turn off TV, etc.
3. Clean the camera lens and the tank’s glass.
4. Turn off the flash feature.
5. Shoot with lens perpendicular to tank glass surface.
6. Invest in a tripod and use a remote controller or the auto timer to minimize camera shake.
7. Turn off all circulation pumps to minimize “marine snow.�
8. When I shoot coral, there’s little movement from them which allows you to shoot with a low ISO speed (ex: 100). Low ISO equals crisp pictures. Taking a fish picture might require a faster ISO speed (400 - 800) to reduce blurring but your picture may look grainy.
9. I could never set my White Balance correctly on my Canon Rebel. So with my personal light set up, (3) 400w 15 K’s with VHO’s, all I do is shift the exposure compensation one or two clicks to the negative (left). I then judge the picture with the review option and adjust the exposure if necessary.
**I currently run 400w 12K Reeflux and use the Auto White Balance and leave the exposure compensation at 0 **
10. I usually use Manual Focus but if using the Auto Focus, I would set my focal metering mode to Evaluative Metering which will focus your subject with the center AF point.
11. Shoot in the largest image recording you can. I end up deleting most of my pictures anyway. I might take 50 pictures and only keep 10-15. I have never tried shooting in RAW, but it allows for more control when post-processing.
12. A lot of my close up macro pictures were taken of frags on a frag rack in the front of my tank. The lens is about a foot away from the coral.
13. I prefer using the AV / Aperture-Priority mode. A larger aperture opening (lower f/number) will blur the background and draws attention to your subject.

See the example below. The first picture is with the AV set at 6.3 and the second picture has the AV set at 14.





I use Photoshop Elements 4 and will post some tips with the program later.

Mark

[soccerbag]

Thank so much Mark. I have been doing a lot of reading as of late but some of the manual lingo may as well be in Greek. This does help though. It gives me a few things to try out. Thanks for taking the time to post the tips. It's much appreciated.

[MBZ]

Originally posted by soccerbag
Thank so much Mark. I have been doing a lot of reading as of late but some of the manual lingo may as well be in Greek. This does help though. It gives me a few things to try out. Thanks for taking the time to post the tips. It's much appreciated.

I'm glad I could help. I use an old program called Photoshop Elements 4, the latest is PE 7. I have PE 6, but I'm so used to the older version that I rarely use it. I'll have to make some notes on how I run a picture through PE 4. It's really simple and takes all of 5 minutes to photo shop a picture from start to finish.

Mark

[MBZ]

Here's some more pictures.

Mark

[LCN]

Looks good. I am also considering that lens.

[MBZ]

Some new coral pics.

Mark

[zef004]

great shoots thanks for thw input got try with some setting today.