Reefer 350 journey! Picture heavy!

[Janci]

Lovely shots.
Is that an Anacropora on the top of the middle scape?

 

[Denisk]

Looking good, sir!

Thank you

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

FTS and a couple side shots. It’s really been changing in the last couple months. Couldn’t be happier!

Very nice!

 

[Denisk]

Lovely shots.
Is that an Anacropora on the top of the middle scape?

Yeah it is. Good eye!!! It’s WWC slimeball. I use to have a large colony of it but lost it during my move. It’s also the only coral that everytime I do something in the tank, I accidentally frag it

 

[Denisk]

Very nice!

Thank you!!

 

[Denisk]

For all of you guys who don’t really want to spend your money on lens caps and filters, this can really help you out! Although I’m always for supporting aquarium businesses, not always does your life financially allow you. So, I walked into the house the other day with my sunglasses and was amazed what my eyes saw. I immediately took them off and put my iPhone against them and noticed it immediately washed out the heavy blues and you could see all the colors of the corals with no editing.

I ended up looking up these exact sunglasses and noticed they had a brown lens in it. If anyone else has some brown lens sunglasses laying around, let me know how it goes.

I bet you can even find some from the dollar store (both before and after photos are completely unedited)

 

[SneakyTortuga]

Hello there! Your photo skills are on point!

I was wondering what settings you are you using for the photos? Any advice you could give? Do you use a Tripod?

 

[Denisk]

Hello there! Your photo skills are on point!

I was wondering what settings you are you using for the photos? Any advice you could give? Do you use a Tripod?

Thank you!!

Settings vary from photo to photo. It depends what I’m trying to shoot. I’ll tell you the first time I picked up a dslr to shoot my aquarium, I thought that was it. I thought I was never going to get good photos But I kept reading and reading and learning everything I can about a camera to begin with.

Some advice.
1) always turn your flow off including your return.
2) always close all your blinds so their isn’t light coming into the room where your tank is.
3) photos should be in manual mode and raw setting.
4) lens matter a lot!! (But the two photos you sent me in particular of the side shots, were actually shot on like 35 dollar 50mm lens from amazon)
5) learning iso, fstop, and shutter speed

-some simple advice is don’t go above 200iso or your photos will become grainy.
-lower fstop will give a more cinematic photo due to the depth of field where as the higher the fstop the less depth of field you will get.
-shutter speed I play around with depending on what I’m shooting in the aquarium, different areas of the tank have more light than others so I have to compensate that with the shutter speed.

6) tripods are super important so yes definitely use one and there are some good ones that are fairly affordable.
7) I never shoot under super blue lights. I feel like it washes everything out. Some people like it but it isn’t so much my style.
8) don’t try to be like someone else. Everyone has their own style when it comes to taking photos.
9) don’t hesitate to edit photos. I edit photos to sometimes brighten the photo and or change the exposure, contrast, white balance and or saturation.
10) Have fun!! And be careful not to spend too much time, my eyes start to hurt haha. (I only use the viewfinder, I don’t use my lcd screen to take photos)

Don’t over edit. To many people change the representation of the coral they actually have. I edit photos to try and show people what my eyes actually see. I’m not trying to make a coral look as if it’s glowing and you need to wear sunglasses in the house

I hope that helps but don’t hesitate to ask more questions

 

[SneakyTortuga]

Thank you!!

Settings vary from photo to photo. It depends what I’m trying to shoot. I’ll tell you the first time I picked up a dslr to shoot my aquarium, I thought that was it. I thought I was never going to get good photos But I kept reading and reading and learning everything I can about a camera to begin with.

Some advice.
1) always turn your flow off including your return.
2) always close all your blinds so their isn’t light coming into the room where your tank is.
3) photos should be in manual mode and raw setting.
4) lens matter a lot!! (But the two photos you sent me in particular of the side shots, were actually shot on like 35 dollar 50mm lens from amazon)
5) learning iso, fstop, and shutter speed

-some simple advice is don’t go above 200iso or your photos will become grainy.
-lower fstop will give a more cinematic photo due to the depth of field where as the higher the fstop the less depth of field you will get.
-shutter speed I play around with depending on what I’m shooting in the aquarium, different areas of the tank have more light than others so I have to compensate that with the shutter speed.

6) tripods are super important so yes definitely use one and there are some good ones that are fairly affordable.
7) I never shoot under super blue lights. I feel like it washes everything out. Some people like it but it isn’t so much my style.
8) don’t try to be like someone else. Everyone has their own style when it comes to taking photos.
9) don’t hesitate to edit photos. I edit photos to sometimes brighten the photo and or change the exposure, contrast, white balance and or saturation.
10) Have fun!! And be careful not to spend too much time, my eyes start to hurt haha. (I only use the viewfinder, I don’t use my lcd screen to take photos)

Don’t over edit. To many people change the representation of the coral they actually have. I edit photos to try and show people what my eyes actually see. I’m not trying to make a coral look as if it’s glowing and you need to wear sunglasses in the house

I hope that helps but don’t hesitate to ask more questions

Wow! What a write up! Thanks for taking the time!

What lenses do you the most? The 50mm? What current body are you using?

Any tripods you recommend?

My next investment will be in a quality macro lens and tripod

 

[Denisk]

Wow! What a write up! Thanks for taking the time!

What lenses do you the most? The 50mm? What current body are you using?

Any tripods you recommend?

My next investment will be in a quality macro lens and tripod

No problem!! Always happy to help

Lens: I probably use a 50mm and canon “100mm is” macro the most.

Body: canon 80d

Tripod: I use a Dolica Ax620b100 62 inch proline. It’s like 50 bucks and I think they have a newer model now. Check it out on amazon.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nice tank and photos. I just broke down (did I say Broke) and bought a Nikon 3300D with telephoto lens and will be playing with photo shots as soon as this weekend

 

[Denisk]

Nice tank and photos. I just broke down (did I say Broke) and bought a Nikon 3300D with telephoto lens and will be playing with photo shots as soon as this weekend

Thank you!! Congratulations on the camera. That lens will really let you zoom in haha

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you!! Congratulations on the camera. That lens will really let you zoom in haha

For the money spent , that is my hopes. Your pics look great !

 

[Denisk]

For the money spent , that is my hopes. Your pics look great !

I appreciate it!

 

[Denisk]

Even though I have a new 200 plus gallon build coming along on another thread. The Red Sea Reefer 350 is still coming along though. Played around with a custom white balance on the dslr.

For those who haven’t started following, go do so haha. It’s Lost in a reefs 200+ gallon build.

Enjoy!!!

 

[Janci]

Great pictures Denis.
All looks very happy.

 

[Denisk]

Great pictures Denis.
All looks very happy.

Thank you very much!!!

 

[Teddy00024]

Do any of you who have the reefer series feel like they have to adjust their overflow a lot? I feel as if one moment it’s silent and then randomly gurgling. If I adjust it seems good for a week and than once again the gurgle return on the second overflow/emergency pipe.

Anyone else have this happen?

I cannot speak on the stock adjustment valve since I’ve never used it on my 350. I went with a custom plumbing job and installed a slip x slip 3/4” Spears gate valve. The overflow is almost always dead silent. I occasionally get the gurgling noises but the occurrences are isolated to changes caused by me (hand in tank, too much flow, rock addition/removal). My Kessil light fans make more noise than the overflow!

 

[Denisk]

I cannot speak on the stock adjustment valve since I’ve never used it on my 350. I went with a custom plumbing job and installed a slip x slip 3/4” Spears gate valve. The overflow is almost always dead silent. I occasionally get the gurgling noises but the occurrences are isolated to changes caused by me (hand in tank, too much flow, rock addition/removal). My Kessil light fans make more noise than the overflow!

Yeah I’ve heard that people who change the stock plumbing lose the problem. Awesome plumbing job!

 

[Janci]

I cannot speak on the stock adjustment valve since I’ve never used it on my 350. I went with a custom plumbing job and installed a slip x slip 3/4” Spears gate valve. The overflow is almost always dead silent. I occasionally get the gurgling noises but the occurrences are isolated to changes caused by me (hand in tank, too much flow, rock addition/removal). My Kessil light fans make more noise than the overflow!

Great job!!
I love these clean plumbing jobs.