How am I doing so far?

[Lpsouth1978]

Hello all, I am brand new to photography and just received my first camera today. A Nikon D5500. I played around with the camera a little today and took a few shots that I think look pretty good. I have been reading all about the basics of composition, aperture, shutter speed, etc.

My main goal it to be able to take great macro shots of my reef tank, though I hope to learn as much about portrait and landscape photography as I can. Getting good shots of the aquarium is proving to be a bit of a challenge, as the lighting is very blue and makes setting the white balance very difficult. I am actually pretty happy with the photos that I posted below. I will also post a few later that I was not as happy with and see what advice you all have to improve them.

Anyway, here are a few shots for your honest opinions.

1. Nikkor 50mm lens, f/1.4, 1/200 sec, ISO 100, Aperture priority mode


2. Nikkor 50mm lens, f/1.4, 1/30 sec, ISO 100, Aperture priority mode


Now for the Macro shots of a few of my corals.

3. Nikkor 105mm Macro lens, f/4.5, 1/60 sec, ISO 100, Aperture priority mode


4. Nikkor 105mm Macro lens, f/4.2, 1/160 sec, ISO 100, Aperture priority mode


5. Nikkor 105mm Macro lens, f/4, 1/250 sec, ISO 100, Aperture priority mode.


Please be honest and let me know what could be done to make them even better.

 

[Stradawhovious]

The first two shots look pretty much like random snapshots. I completely understand them though... every single time I get a new piece of gear I run around like a drunken monkey and start snapping everything that won't run away or slap me. Heck, when I got my D7000, the first 1,500 snaps were of my shoes, some soda cans and the ceiling fan. I thought they were awesome, and in their own way they really were. As much as it sounds like I'm discounting these shots, they are really important for someone in your position because they help you understand the mehanics of photography, but they offer little in the way of artistic merit.

My recommendation there is to keep taking those photos over and over again until you have a firm understanding of what your camera is doing and why. Also, try not to shoot everything with your aperture wide open. As cool as it is to blow out your background, your images get much sharper as that iris gets smaller (generally sharpest between f/5.6 and f/8), and there are other ways to control depth of field.

Moving to the macro shots. As cool as the subject matter is, they suffer from a razor thin depth of field which makes it difficult for me to know what I'm looking at. With macro this is a really hard issue to contend with. You can shoot with a much smaller aperture to try and increase your DOF, and/or read up on the concept of focus stacking. Both of these will allow you to get more of your subject in focus. Macro, to do well, is a tough nut to crack. There are folks here that do it really well, so hopefully they will chime in.

Overall it looks like you are off to a great start, and the best thing you can do to improve is read, post, ask listen, learn and most importantly get out and press the shutter a whole bunch. Thousands of times. Photography (for me anyways) is a "learn by doing" kind of endeavor.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

The first two shots look pretty much like random snapshots. I completely understand them though... every single time I get a new piece of gear I run around like a drunken monkey and start snapping everything that won't run away or slap me. Heck, when I got my D7000, the first 1,500 snaps were of my shoes, some soda cans and the ceiling fan. I thought they were awesome, and in their own way they really were. As much as it sounds like I'm discounting these shots, they are really important for someone in your position because they help you understand the mehanics of photography, but they offer little in the way of artistic merit.

My recommendation there is to keep taking those photos over and over again until you have a firm understanding of what your camera is doing and why. Also, try not to shoot everything with your aperture wide open. As cool as it is to blow out your background, your images get much sharper as that iris gets smaller (generally sharpest between f/5.6 and f/8), and there are other ways to control depth of field.

Moving to the macro shots. As cool as the subject matter is, they suffer from a razor thin depth of field which makes it difficult for me to know what I'm looking at. With macro this is a really hard issue to contend with. You can shoot with a much smaller aperture to try and increase your DOF, and/or read up on the concept of focus stacking. Both of these will allow you to get more of your subject in focus. Macro, to do well, is a tough nut to crack. There are folks here that do it really well, so hopefully they will chime in.

Overall it looks like you are off to a great start, and the best thing you can do to improve is read, post, ask listen, learn and most importantly get out and press the shutter a whole bunch. Thousands of times. Photography (for me anyways) is a "learn by doing" kind of endeavor.

Thank you for your honest feedback! You are absolutely correct, the first 2 shots were simply taken to try out the 50mm lens. I was very excited about it and wanted to see what kind of bokeh I could get from it.

The others, I was pretty happy with the results, but I completely understand what you were saying about most of it being out of focus. I was not even aware of focus stacking before reading your post. I read up on it, watched some "how to" videos, and then took a shot at doing it myself. This is what I came up with. Again, thank you for your help, this is why I love forums. There is so much knowledge and so many people willing to share it.

Taken in Manual Mode, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO-500, using Nikkor 105mm macro lens.

 

[Derrel]

Shots 1 and 2 both devote the vast majority of the picture to out of focus chairs. Cropping off the bottom of the Wendy's soda cup is a big no-no. The Mickey Mouse phone is interesting, but the hallway divider's corner post/bannister support kind of cramps his ear,and again...the big expanse of filing cabinet and chair...not very good composing. But you got to se what the brand new 50mm/1.4 lens does, bokeh wise. I get the rationale for test frames like this...I have zillions of them, but I do try to frame as if shooting 'for keeps'.

Shot 3, of the coral: Again, kind of less-than-optimal use of the frame. Coral is too low, too far to the right, the left hand side and upper left blue areas, just not harmonious nor well-balanced, as a photograph. The camera's exact placement and the framing is not really that good.

Shot 4: now you've got a much better framing, and the small in-focus area looks engaging. I think this would have been an outstanding photo with the picture area moved to the right a bit, and a slight bit more space below the bottom of the coral. I LOVE the look of the in-focus coral, but lament the lack of depth of field. The preponderance of the image is out of focus, heavy bokeh...had this been shot frames just a slight bit lower, and to the right, and with more DOF, this would be super-engaging coral shot. This shot is really close to being really engaging, and I'm not even interested in aquariums or coral...it has nice dark areas, and is fundamentally engaging.

Shot 5: Again...a lot of unused top space, and a lot of OOF coral, but nice colors, interesting. #5 is marred by what I call "edge distractions"...the edge areas of a frame have a lot of "pull"...in this case that full-width broad dark band is hurting.

The focus-stacked shot tells me you are open to new techniques and not afraid to learn right NOW! I can imagine how beautiful the coral in shot #4 would look with a nice, deep DOF shot, or focus stacked, either one.

 

[xenskhe]

I LOVE the look of the in-focus coral, but lament the lack of depth of field. The preponderance of the image is out of focus, heavy bokeh...had this been shot frames just a slight bit lower, and to the right, and with more DOF, this would be super-engaging coral shot. This shot is really close to being really engaging,

I agree. These are better images stopped down. There an excess of blue and also green that could benefit from correction one way or another.

 

[beachrat]

I have more snaps of 7-11 coffee cups than I have of my kids I think.
That and eggs and fruit.
Keep pulling the trigger man,and learn how to use that tool.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

.... There an excess of blue and also green that could benefit from correction one way or another.

I think the blue color is the most difficult part of shooting a reef tank and it's inhabitants. The lights are a VERY blue color and comes from MANY LED's. I changed the k rating in post, but wanted to keep things as close to actual colors as possible.

I still have a LONG way to go. I plan on shooting reef aquariums primarily, so this type of macro work will be a big part of it. I will have to work on getting greater DOF before going to post. Maybe this evening I will have some time to do some more tinkering.

 

[Derrel]

Tripod. 105mm macro lens, at f/13, on a tripod to control framing, and to allow you to shoot a shot, and then use the rear LCD to critique the image, evaluate the choices you made, and to then make minor corrections, so you can walk yourself onto the target and have an almost perfectly-composed shot, right off the memory card. More DOF. You have a currently state-of-the-art sensor in the new Nikon D5500 body...you could also do a little bit of an ISO boost if needed. But if there's one thing that will improve close-up shots and table-top shots it is shooting from a tripod, and then evaluating everything, right at the time of shooting. Once you get the framing, composing, lighting angles NAILED, then you can easily make several images, with variations that you think will help. Focus bracket series; exposure biased shots; white balance offsets, whatever.

 

[xenskhe]

Having a good input blue channel signal to noise ratio is not a bad thing. Try reducing the blue channel with curves or levels tool.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

Derrel, I had to use a tripod to do the stacked focus. I get the feeling it is going to be my best friend. haha

Here is a shot that I took tonight of a tube anemone in the tank. This was taken with only blue night time LED's over the tank. it was taken with the 105mm, camera in hand, f/3, 1/320 sec, ISO-25600, manual mode. I know that it is not perfect, but I think that the composition is better. I tried to frame the shot so that there was as little wasted space as possible, while keeping the anemone the main focal point.

I shot it with a low f stop because I was taking the photo in low light and the tentacles of the anemone were in motion. My thinking was that the large aperture would let in more light and allow me to stop the motion of the tentacles. I believe it was a good choice, because there was VERY little post needed.

Please let me know what I could have done better.

 

[Derrel]

You did pretty well with the anenome. I think you made a very good choice on the exposure settings...I wasn't there, and have no idea on how rapidly the movement was...this shot is pretty close to a stop-motion shot, done at a very high ISO value, and at 1/320 second; did you try any slower speeds? You could have gone with a slower speed like say....1/30 second....or 1/8 second...or 1/4 second...and allowed some blurring and some still tendrils... I dunno...this is where it's really up to the photographer to decide what the goal is for the image. This shot is a perfectly fine interpretation, and it's fine to look at.

ISO values that high cost fine detail and cost you some dynamic range, and bring in noise; it's really up to the photographer to decide. If there were any requests, they might be to see a bit more space below, on the bottom edge of the frame...or to see different tentacle positions. This could also perhaps been done at a crazy-LONG exposure too...say, 15 seconds...that would make it more blurred on the moving parts. That could have been used to get deep DOF, to pull the rocks or corals behind into sharp,clear focus, and thus to make the anenome look more in-motion, so to speak.

There's a limitless way to shoot this stuff! I think a person could spend a whole evening shooting a great aquarium. I do not mind strong-colored lighting on some subjects...some people go all Adobe R-G-B color values on you when they think they see a color "issue"...it's all good though...

 

[Lpsouth1978]

Thank you. I like that the photo above is nearly identical to what my eye sees when I look at the tank. I knew that by using such a high ISO, there would be a good deal of noise introduced, but was not sure how else to make the photo work. I liked your comment on maybe trying a slower shutter speed in order to cause some of the tentacles to blur a little, so I tried a number of different shutter speeds. I used shutter priority mode, because I am still learning how to chose the appropriate ISO and f stop settings for each situation. I started with a shutter speed of 10 seconds, but all I got was a big white blur in the middle of the picture. A good number of shots later and I settled on 1/10 sec, f/3, and ISO-2000. The result was this picture (the color of the anemone is off slightly).

There is some obvious blurring of the tentacles, especially at the tips, but the majority of it is in focus. I also got more of the sand at the bottom edge of the photo as you suggested.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I have been doing some more research, and purchasing small accessories (such as a focus rail) to help me get better Macro shots of my corals. As you all know, my first attempt at focus stacking was OK, but had some flaws and significant errors. I have been playing with things and working on improving my methods and here are some of the resulting images. I have placed them in the order that I Like them best (from least favorite to WOW, I took that?).

I do not remember which settings I used for these, and am not on my home computer, but I know it was in Aperture priority mode, f/9-f/11, ~1/130 sec.

This is a Red Goniopora, not my favorite pic, but a very nice coral.


I do not know what this coral is, but it is one of the simpler ones to photograph. I think the color makes it work. (same coral as earlier picture, just focus stacked)

My FAVORITE shot that I have taken to date. Unknown coral, I just call it Watermelon.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I git out today and took some spring blossom shots. It was a bit windy, but I was able to use try both my 105mm Macro and 50mm prime lenses. I think that I did pretty well for a first attempt at it. The shutter speed was pretty high because of the wind, but I think I was able to compensate well. Pointers, advice, and constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.

1. f/5.6, 1/4000 sec, ISO-5000, 105mm Macro lens


2. f/5.6, 1/4000 sec, ISO-6400, 105mm Macro lens


3. f/5.6, 1/4000 sec, ISO-3200, 105mm Macro lens


4. f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO-5000, 50mm f/1.4 Prime lens


5. f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO-5000, 50mm f/1.4 Prime lens

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I decided to try my hand at getting some photos of the fish in my aquarium. I was astonished at how difficult it was to get good shots. I was trying to focus on the nearest eye, but the fish simply do not stop moving long enough to focus properly. I think that this turned into a good learning experience.

In the end, I had to set the camera to full manual mode. I set the maximum ISO to 800, aperture to f/5.6, and the shutter speed to 1/400 sec. I did very minimal post processing, primarily just exposure and contrast adjustment. Some could definitely use improvement, but I am pretty happy overall. I took over 200 photos, and these are the only ones decent shots. The rest were either poorly composed, out of focus, or both.

This is my favorite shot of the bunch.