Cali Kid Corals

i have a question

Elite

Elite

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How come pics I took of aquarium never come out clear? There is always seem like a layer of "fog" or something. Some I can adjust in the PS.. Some I can't. I'm doing something thing wrong but I don't know how to fix it .. It can't be a camera problem :D

Here is an example of I'm talking about. Pic is out of focus too ;D ..
dragoneyezoa.jpg
 
Well there's a difference between the two shots first, the aiptasia one looks over saturated only, where as the top one looks out of focused. Oversaturation is a lot easier to fix in photoshop than is an out of focus image which I don't know that you can.
 
Do you know how to stop the saturated problem? I don't want to fix it in PS. I want to know what I did wrong when I took the shot.
 
Well I'm hoping the photo gurus will chime in here... :D

But honestly it looks like your shutter speed is set to fast, often that can happen if you have a particularly dark patch somewhere in the photo (like you do) so the sensors over compensate for that, and as a result over saturation. I'm unsure however if they sensor adjusts the shutter speed for the focal point (what's in the box) or they whole picture though.

So you'd have to manually adjust the shutter speed,
Adjust the F/ratio lower the f/ratio the more light you can get (so you'd want a higher f/ratio, more magnification less light)
or just open photoshop and do it via auto-levels, which it looks like you did, it also adjusts for white balancing issues, and in my experience makes for a much more "Truer color" picture (sometimes), however it can be a pain if you have a lot of pictures to do this to.
 
Also my camera displays in the corner a number from +2 to -2 (I have it set to 0) which also adjusts for brightness without messing with the shutter speed, occasionally I hit the up arrow on the camera and it's set to +0.3 or 0.7 and makes the picture too bright, unsure what that is actually called but might want to look into it as well
 
That's exposure compensation that Mike is referring to.

You taking these at an angle or anything? Looks hazy to me w/the lack of contrast in the apt. shot. Usually you see it happen in pictures with deeper or larger tanks (e.g. Lap's). You can get it w/crappy lenses too at times.

Try stopping down or increase shutter speed. Also post settings the picture was taken at. I tried reading the exif info, but that was stripped.
 
I think I was using the macro mode and auto. I might had increase the exposure without knowning it. :p The 18-200 len is hard to use when taking aquarium pic. I need a macro len.
 
looks like the effect you get in photoshop when your contrast is low and brightness is high. Is your camera auto adjusting contrast and brightness per photo taken?
 
are you talking about the last picture? Actually I lower the brightness a lot already and also increase the contrast. If I adjust the contrast higher, I would get a LE aiptasia because that sucker will glow ;D :D ..
 
We are talking about the same thing but you understood what I was saying backwards. The process you described to get from your cloudy to uncloudy is what I predicted would need to be done to go from normal to cloudy.

Check your camera and make sure it isn't doing auto contrast/auto brightness in its processing to handle low light images.
Some cameras have this in auto but has the option to do it manually. if so, set to manual and make the values equal to zero and see what that gets you.
 
Phong,

1. Are you using a tripod?
2. If it's possible, shoot in RAW or at least save the exif data so we can see the shutter speed / focal length etc. Don't know exif? google it =) lots of resources about it.
3. Your first shot you might be trying to get too close. Lenses have a minimum focal distance, meaning at a certain point it can't focus anymore. It's like holding something really close to your eyeball, at a certain point you can't focus at all no matter how close. Step back a bit and try again. If you're shooting with a shutter speed slower than 1/1.5x focal length, it's going to be blurry (unless your a surgeon).
4. Your weird hazy shot vs. your clear one may have to do with glares on the glass etc. What does it look like in your viewfinder?

Those are just a few guesses that I have =) Exif data would be very useful. Let me know! Hopefully we can nail down the causes.

btw. focusing is really difficult, AutoFocus is hard to use too sometimes. Get a Sigma 105mm F/2.8 1:1 macro, it's only like $300 and it kicks butt!
 
Thanks Art.. I will search for the exif data. I use PS to edit and save. I don't know why it took out those info.

The clear one I use PS to edit the weird hazy one :D .. I will wait until christmas to buy me a macro len;) .

Oh I don't have a tripod yet. Thinking about buying a cheap one for now since I don't shot that much. I don't see any cheap one that I like in the store yet ;D .
 
I checked my photos and the exif data is not there when I shoot in RAW. JPEG format has all the info but not NEF ??? ..
 
It's there, somewhere =/

sounds like you're getting a bit of glare or haze on the glass which is giving you that weird hazy look. play with a circular polarizer. In fact I'm selling my 72mm Hoya Pro1-D circular polarizer since I sold my 18-200 recently. Let me know.

but anyway, that's just one theory. try different angles... and cleaning your algae off the glass ;)

best thing is to see how the shot looks through the viewfinder, if it's also hazy then you're probably getting glare, if it's totally clear something else is wrong =(

try to reproduce the problem and see if it's just the angle or situation you're in.
 
What is a circular polarizer? What does it do?

The tank wasn't clear to begin with. That was part of the problem too. He cleaned the tank 5 minutes before I showed to pick up some stuff and take pics.

I have been testing it on my tank at home. Much clearer shot now but I still have problem with focusing.
 
Ok.. someone please tell me how to save the exif data. I search and did what they told me but it's not working :( .. I have PS CS. All it save is the width, height, H. Resolution, V. Resolution, bit depth, frame count, creation software, color representation. >:(
 
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