Photo editing

[Samw]

Again, 1st shot was too blue (VHO Actinics fault). Anyone have suggestions on photo-editing techniques that can reduce the blue? In the 2nd shot, the sand was too washed out. I don't think even photo editing software can fix that if the original was washed out.

[Jack]

I don't know photography so I can't help Sam. Either way your tank looks awesome. So much diversity and colour Awesome tank!

[Jason McK]

Sam
In photoshop I was able to correct for the blue cast. How does this look



As for the sand being washed out. depending on the camera you are using. If you have the ability to switch metering settings try switching to spot metering. Then meter off something in the tank that is halfway between the white of the sand and the dark of a cave. push the exposure button halfway down then recompose your shot and take the pic. This does not always work but thats what I do.

J

[Chad]

You can also increase your shutter speed. Faster shot means less light. Though I do not know if your using a conventional camera or a digital?? But you can do the same with a digital.. just go manual and increase or decrease your Fstop (depending on the shot). You can do what is called "bracketing" by taking multiple shots at different fstops and then just choose the photo you like best.

Chad

[Samw]

Hey Jackets. That looks great. That's exactly what I want. So what's the technique called in Photoshop? I don't have Photoshop and don't really plan to buy it but if I know the technique I might be able to find some cheaper software with that same function.

Maybe I'll have a better chance at photocontests if I can photoedit the pics. I got beat by some pretty uninteresting pics of colts and mushrooms. Winning shots were usually heavily photoshopped, some to the point that they look more like paintings than photos.

[Samw]

Chad, I'm using the fast shutter option on my Powershot S40. I've got 4 lights turned on which brings out all the colors of the corals. The MH brings out the whites, the VHO brings out the blue/green, the 50/50 adds intensity and the halogen spot light brings out the yellow and adds lighting to areas in the shadows like where the sponges are.

The problem is that there is a lot of light contrast in the tank. The area below the branch rock is shaded while the sand area is fully exposed to light. So I think the reason why the sand turned up almost completely white has something to do with the camera letting more light in to get a good shot of the area under the branch rock. However, if it doesn't let in enough light, then the area under the tonga branch would be too dark.

[Chad]

I worked this one in photoshop... turned out pretty nice..

[Chad]

Originally Posted by Samw

Chad, I'm using the fast shutter option on my Powershot S40. I've got 4 lights turned on which brings out all the colors of the corals. The MH brings out the whites, the VHO brings out the blue/green, the 50/50 adds intensity and the halogen spot light brings out the yellow and adds lighting to areas in the shadows like where the sponges are.

You can modify two things, shutter speed and appature.. Try playing with both.. increasing shutter speed and increasing the appature.. to like FS8 or maybe even 11 if the light is that intense or something like that..

Chad

[Jason McK]

The relationship between shutter speed and f-stop is fixed. if you open your shutter, making the number smaller, you must speed up the shutter. Because there is only one proper exposure for the lighting of the scene. Now the larger the f-stop number (usually around f22) the greater the depth of field or the more stuff that is in focus. This is all true for normal film cameras or digital cameras.
Now the beauty of Digital cameras is that you can white balance the camera to a variety of different lighting and some have several custom settings. But the camera can only look at one light source at a time. so if the MH are illuminating the majority's of the scene but the Actinics are picking up the shadows the camera can not compensate.

So try to perform a custom white balance before you shoot the pic.

J

[Quinn]

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a cheap alternative to Photoshop, with many of the same functions. It's geared towards the home market, so should have all the colour tweaking options you need (brightness, contrast, levels...).