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Help with Pixelation
- Thread starter mott768
- Start date
You need the wb object INSIDE of the tank where the light is hitting it.
Your shutter speed is how fast the lens opens and closes to let in light. The faster your shutter speed the less light you'll get in. So any time you're overexposing you have two options. Either make the shutter speed faster (which in your case would really help because you have object movement causing blur) or change the aperature to let in less light (larger number lets in less light, smaller hole).
The classes over at Ritz are only like 10-14$ for the class and SOOO worth it. They explain all those settings and what affect each of them have on your picture.
The other thing you need to do is just sit in front of your tank and take shots up all the way in one direction and back down with the other. Then look at the XIF information on each picture (especially the really good ones). That will tell you what your settings were.
It would be great if your camera had a bracketing mode. Then you could use that to help find the "sweet spot" for taking pictures of the tank. Especially helpful for the White Balance.
Your shutter speed is how fast the lens opens and closes to let in light. The faster your shutter speed the less light you'll get in. So any time you're overexposing you have two options. Either make the shutter speed faster (which in your case would really help because you have object movement causing blur) or change the aperature to let in less light (larger number lets in less light, smaller hole).
The classes over at Ritz are only like 10-14$ for the class and SOOO worth it. They explain all those settings and what affect each of them have on your picture.
The other thing you need to do is just sit in front of your tank and take shots up all the way in one direction and back down with the other. Then look at the XIF information on each picture (especially the really good ones). That will tell you what your settings were.
It would be great if your camera had a bracketing mode. Then you could use that to help find the "sweet spot" for taking pictures of the tank. Especially helpful for the White Balance.
Wanna post the XIF on the picture? The crab looks dark in comparison to the sand, which makes me think that the picture was taken on some automatic/program mode. The brightness of the sand is causing the crab to come out darker. I'd like to see a little less depth of field so that he stands out from the sand more.
His face, which is what I think should be in focus, seems a little out.
Otherwise it is one of your best photos
His face, which is what I think should be in focus, seems a little out.
Otherwise it is one of your best photos
Just keep taking pictures in different manual settings and try to remember the settings. At least it wont cost you anything. I have about $2,000 in 35mm equipment sitting in my closet that I haven't touched in years. I remember taking rolls of pictures of my tank, dropping them off at a 1-hour shop, picking them up for $10 a roll, and being excited when one picture came out nice. Long live digital!
I am sorry Greg, but I have to very strongly disagree with this. Keeping on such low ISO will only force him to use longer exposures which will just blur the picture. Keeping it on ISO 800 will give you the sharpness of arrested motionGregW said:
Phyl said:
Phyllis, if you are talking about the bright sand in the lower portion of the picture (not the one in the shade beneath the crab's body), I don't think that narrowing the depth of field will work in this case. The distance to that sand, for the most part, seems to be between the distance to the crab's claws and its face. If the focus is on the face (presumeably) then by narrowing the depth of field, the claws that are already out of focus and somewhat blurred will become more blurred. The problem with that is that they cover 3 times more surface then the face and being in the front plane are definitively working as primary focus of attention.
I still believe that big problem here is the coloration of the light. The original picture is too much blue. Would white balancing solve the problem, or would you need to use different lights (reduce actinic or blue lights and/or introduce warmer reddish/yellower tones).
Another thing that you might try, is polarizing filter,which should reduce the dynamic range (contrast between glaring sand and dark crab). And by the way, I assume that you are using the UV filter. It is a must with these type of lights (MH) used in our systems.
Well There is no way I am going to be replacing MH bulbs everytime I want to take pic's, I really don't think changing my bulbs are going to help my skills anyway, the tank has 1 t5 actinic and 2 250w 12k bulbs which gives a blue color in the tank, I do notice everytime phyl tells me it is too blue it's always from pic's I take in this tank, I have WB it tried all differant WB settings and always get the same too blue out of focus never GREAT! for that fact I don't think I have ever taken a great pic no matter what is was, it is very discouraging and makes me feel the camera was a waste of money. I know it's not the equipment it's the person(me) that's the problem.
mott768 said:
I certainly didn't imply replacing the bulbs ;D, rather, maybe, turning the blue ones off. And you can allways add more like external light.Strictly speaking, and assuming that you don't have the full control of the color composition of a shooting subject (which we do not have in most cases involving our tanks or dives) you have the following options:
1) Use different lights. Compare the colors you get from only your built in flash, only your tank lights and their combination. Take the same picture in all those combinations and that should tell you something. Many professional photographers will tell you that the secret of the success is the use of proper lights.
2) Adjust the camera's white balance. Rather limited solution there, IMHO.
3) Use filters. Specialized color filters are a bit expensive and I am not sure that you should go there. Polarized filter will narrow the light intensity range making it fall much more comfortably in your camera's dynamic range. By balancing the total light intensity, balance between individual colors will be much nicer.
4) Heavy work with the Photoshop. Work on individual color channels, mask, blur, soften and sharpen individual parts of the image in different color channels. I strongly advise you to get good version of Photoshop (forget Elements) and play with. It is really mind-blowing how powerful Photoshop can be on its own, and what can be achieved with the right combination of tools that are available in it.
I may not drop the ISO all the way to 50, but I'd certainly bring it down to 400 or 200 with a shot that bright to begin with. I shoot at the lowest possible ISO at all times. I just like the look of my pictures better.
You should be able to set a white balance that allows you to pull more of the blue out of your photos (even if you had 20Ks). I can WB mine all the way to a yellow spectrum by messing with the compensation factor after I've set the custom WB. It isn't a setting that comes naturally or looks good on the camera necessarily. I find my camera renders a little more yellow than my screen on my PC. So it has to have a hint too much yellow when I'm looking at the picture for it to look good for me.
If you had the Nikon I'd offer to have you over to play with the cameras, lenses and RAW software. While you could still do that, I don't know diddly about your camera and you'd be far better off sitting with Brian.
You should be able to set a white balance that allows you to pull more of the blue out of your photos (even if you had 20Ks). I can WB mine all the way to a yellow spectrum by messing with the compensation factor after I've set the custom WB. It isn't a setting that comes naturally or looks good on the camera necessarily. I find my camera renders a little more yellow than my screen on my PC. So it has to have a hint too much yellow when I'm looking at the picture for it to look good for me.
If you had the Nikon I'd offer to have you over to play with the cameras, lenses and RAW software. While you could still do that, I don't know diddly about your camera and you'd be far better off sitting with Brian.
Ritz Camera of Freehold is having a class tomorrow: Thursday: Introduction to the Digital SLR 6:30pm - 8:30pm. It would be a perfect class for you to get a great understanding of your camera.
You'd have to call them to see how much the book of tickets costs or to see if you can just buy classes one at a time.
You'd have to call them to see how much the book of tickets costs or to see if you can just buy classes one at a time.