how to get good tank shots

reefboy · Mar 30, 2007

ok after taking pics whats the best way to get those clear shots.I run 20k lights so its seems to really blue out the pic or i just cant get a clear one any suggestions.

Nikon_Guy · Mar 30, 2007

If you are getting a blue hue to your shots, it is a white balance issue. Does your camera have manual settings for white balance?

If you would like to post a sample picture of one of your shots, I would be more than happy to offer advice on how to make it better and some of the settings you might try to accomplish it.

Regards,

NG

Zoanuts · Mar 30, 2007

Try adjusting the white balance on your camera! It may help. I have heard placing a piece of pvc into the tank and balancing to white is the trick. I havn't tried it yet but gonna today! You need a superwide angle for the giant of a tank you have. Maybe two camera's at the same time will do it!!

Zoanuts · Mar 30, 2007

ooo ng you took my non picture tanking dude glory away!!! BOOOOO

reefboy · Mar 30, 2007

I need better cam ive never messed with the balance not sure if it even has it lol its a kodak DX3700 once i sell a few more corals thats my next big investment.

reefboy · Mar 30, 2007

heres tank pic

minibowmatt · Mar 30, 2007

I use the PVC trick to set my white balance. It works pretty well.

Nikon_Guy · Mar 30, 2007

Unfortunately, you are very limited in what you can do with that camera. Because of its lack of manual settings what is happening is that the camera is trying to get a proper balance of everything it sees. Because the amount of light coming from inside the tank is so different from the light the camera is seeing from the wall portion of the picture it is trying its best to split the difference and hence the over exposure of the tank.

Just for grins I took you picture and did a quick post processing on it. Basically I isolated the tank portion from the rest of the picture and adjusted some of the levels. Itâ€™s not perfect but a bit better I think.

However, now we all know that you need to clean the coralline off the bottom of your front glass!