Marine Macro

Overread · Nov 1, 2008

Since your liking macro I think you might find this blog a good read:
http://nocroppingzone.blogspot.com/
though he is dealing more with insects than marine there is still some great advice on the site!

polymoog · Nov 1, 2008

Really great marine pics, I remember when I was in Sea World in Florida last year, taking a whole load of pics thru glass and getting extremely mixed results

But I could have stayed there all day I thought it was really interesting. Hoping to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in LA on my forthcoming US trip so maybe I'll get a chance to take some more shots like that ...

maxalmon · Nov 5, 2008

polymoog said:
Really great marine pics, I remember when I was in Sea World in Florida last year, taking a whole load of pics thru glass and getting extremely mixed results But I could have stayed there all day I thought it was really interesting. Hoping to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in LA on my forthcoming US trip so maybe I'll get a chance to take some more shots like that ...

Marine Macro when shot thru a glass or acrylic tank is really tricky, you have to shoot directly at the subject, image quality diminishes if you shoot at an angle, thats why all my images are at eye level. Acrylic is even more of a pain to shoot thru, especially if it's very thick. Curved tanks are the absolute worst, I don't even try anymore

maxalmon · Nov 5, 2008

Tried raw mode using the Nikon NX2 program, still learning and a long way to go,

Ricordia (Ric's) About .75" across

Zoanthids (zoa's) Each one is maybe 3/8" across

Wow, this was a tough one, this anemone is about .5" across and sitting directly underneath a 250w Metal Halide 15k light, didn't help that the light was only 6" away from the anemone

Markw · Nov 6, 2008

The combiunation of my two favorite things. Marine keeping and Photography, especially macro. I envy you. Amazing shots.

Mark

pete_6109 · Nov 8, 2008

Great shots!! What flash are you using?

maxalmon · Nov 13, 2008

No flash. This tank has a 250w metal halide and 2x45w actinic lighting system so the colors of the corals really "pop". A flash won't work as you get nothing but reflections. I ususally move the corals around for proper lighting as I have a staging area in my tank.

My newest tank is 215g with 3x250w MH and 4x96 actinic lighting so i'll have a total of 1224 watts of lighting, killer on the electric bill, but intense lighting is required to keep the corals alive. Another expensive hobby..

a_spaceman · Nov 13, 2008

beautiful photos and great colours!
in the second photo of the second post, is it some kind of blue jawfish?

pete_6109 · Nov 13, 2008

maxalmon said:
No flash. This tank has a 250w metal halide and 2x45w actinic lighting system so the colors of the corals really "pop". A flash won't work as you get nothing but reflections. I ususally move the corals around for proper lighting as I have a staging area in my tank.

My newest tank is 215g with 3x250w MH and 4x96 actinic lighting so i'll have a total of 1224 watts of lighting, killer on the electric bill, but intense lighting is required to keep the corals alive. Another expensive hobby..

You fooled me. I thought you were SCUBA diving! lol

Canon 450D · Aug 25, 2010

Good stuff! I too am into Reef Hobby and have an SPS Dominant 100g Display. One thing I have trouble with is getting the Whitebalance configs right.

What do you have your WB configs at; auto or manual?