Pics w/ New Camera

[bnoel210]

Well I got my new camera today. Did a little research, asked some friends on here and shopped around and picked up a Nikon d3000 with 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G lens today. I do plan on upgrading lenses later on down the road once I finish a few other projects first and save up for a good fish lens. In these pictures I used Manual Mode, ISO 1600, Shutter Speed 200 and F/3.5. Hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment or ask questions. Also If you have any experience with this camera or can give me some pointers I would really appreciate it.

[charden]

Nice purchase

[fuzzylogic]

I see some great shots in there man!!!

[signde]

good shots. the high iso shows a little, but that is the balancing act you have to play when photographing fish. get a faster lens (f2.0) and you can tone down the iso.

[bnoel210]

In a couple months im probably going to try to get 50mm fixed lens

[glenoweth]

Nice dude!!! happt you got a camera! i just got in my new lens did not get a cahcne to try it out tonight because Wed is water change night!!!! i hate wed! lol

I got a nikkor 60mm f2.8 D AF i hope it works well... it costed enough! macro is not cheap! lol..

[davidtcb1]

Congrats Brian. Great shots!

[fishguy]

Feb 8, 2012 22:28:20 GMT -6 glenoweth said:

Nice dude!!! happt you got a camera! i just got in my new lens did not get a cahcne to try it out tonight because Wed is water change night!!!! i hate wed! lol

I got a nikkor 60mm f2.8 D AF i hope it works well... it costed enough! macro is not cheap! lol..

You are going to really like that lens. Crank up the light on your tank so you can shoot with a small aperture at a decent ISO. You're going to be amazed at the detail that your lens will capture.


bnoel - I can see you were shooting with different ISOs, shutter speeds, etc. Sweet. Make sure you try the auto-iso feature. It lets you set a maximum ISO and the camera picks the best ISO for you automatically. See how it does for you in S/Shutter Speed mode at 1/160 or 1/200 of a sec.
Are you shooting with manual or auto-focus? Try it both ways and see what works better. I can't shot in auto-focus - I find the lens is too slow to focus and I miss too many shots.
And now that you got the camera body, it's time to go get a Nikon speedlight. A LOT more light is the key to getting really sharp and bright aquarium shots.

[glenoweth]

fishguy, i have the 800w flash bulb set up but it is way to bright lol washing out the fish! with my 18-55 3.5f , not got to try the macro yet.

i even tried bouncing the light off the roof shooting through a white umbrella, and still to much light.i guess i need to find a way to make it less bright i am hoping that the macro will be faster.

[ree123]

Impressive pictures !
And to think this is only the beginning for you (w/ the new camera)...........WOW

[holmes114]

Feb 9, 2012 7:44:47 GMT -6 glenoweth said:

fishguy, i have the 800w flash bulb set up but it is way to bright lol washing out the fish! with my 18-55 3.5f , not got to try the macro yet.

i even tried bouncing the light off the roof shooting through a white umbrella, and still to much light.i guess i need to find a way to make it less bright i am hoping that the macro will be faster.

Can you control the power output of that flash setup? If not, you will need to dial down your aperture...say to F/16 or better. That will allow less light into your camera's sensor.

Aperture controls your flash exposure. If your exposure is too bright, stop down your aperture...too dark, open up your aperture. Then you can control your background, or ambient, lighting with your shutter speed. For example, my camera syncs with my flash at a maximum shutter speed of 1/200th. If I want to darken the background, I can shoot at 1/200th. Then I control the exposure on said fish, by changing the power output of my flash or my camera's aperture setting.

If this doesn't make sense, or is a tad too nerdy, let me know and I'll try to tone it down

[holmes114]

Those are really impressive for your first run with a new camera

If you get a better lens to deal with the high ISO or a flash you will be amazed!

[jon carman]

Glen you have to raise f stop, quicker shutter speed and lower iso. Keep fooling with it and you will hit it. It is rarely going to be the same for the perfect shot. It depends on depth of tank, flash, where the fish is in relation to the flash and so on.

[fishguy]

Feb 9, 2012 7:44:47 GMT -6 glenoweth said:

fishguy, i have the 800w flash bulb set up but it is way to bright lol washing out the fish! with my 18-55 3.5f , not got to try the macro yet.

i even tried bouncing the light off the roof shooting through a white umbrella, and still to much light.i guess i need to find a way to make it less bright i am hoping that the macro will be faster.

It's hard to have too much light! Try this with your flash ON:

Set your ISO to 200. Turn off auto ISO if you have it on.
You want a SMALL aperture (which means a big aperture number). Go to manual mode and select something like f22 or f28.
Set your shutter speed to very fast! Like 1/800 of a second.

I will almost guarantee you get a shot that is too dark at these settings

From there, step down your shutter to let in more light, and/or increase your aperture (smaller number) to let in more light.

You will dial in just the right setting for your flash that way.

[bnoel210]

So based on the above pics should i also increase my aperture. Some of my pics were rather dark.