New kids in town

[kien]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Thanks Kien, I may take you up on that. I did try several different ways of trying to photograph him and I was hoping to use 1/125s shutter speeds but none of the details showed up (at best) or worse it was just way too underexposed to be of any use. The camera is a D70s and the lens is a 60mm Nikkor Micro lens, both of which I thought had pretty good reviews? At least in their day. An equipment upgrade is a total non option financially. I could see maybe to a faster lens though (not sure if I'm using the term right .. "faster" as in "it lets in more light therefore you can use faster shutter speeds" and not "faster AF" or whatever), if there was a good option like that, I started to do some reading up on options but .. well, no sense in torturing myself either.

Maybe the trick is not to use a macro lens for fast swimming fish..

Ya, I noticed in the EXIF that you were using the 60mm macro. That is a great lens.. for taking macros! Hehe. Generally speaking macro lenses are very slow to focus and are not great choices for action shots. They were not built to focus quickly because flowers and still life typically doesn't move quickly :-) Although, having said that, I typically shoot everything with my 100mm macro lens, but I can get away with that because my camera goes up to ISO 6400

Your terminology is correct, a "faster" lens would help, but also one that could focus faster would help too. It takes a lot of practice but panning shots help with fast moving subjects also. I suck at panning shots though. I usually just plant myself in a spot that I know the fish like to swim by often and wait for them to swim into or very close to the field of view.

If you are shooting at high ISOs often i would recommend sticking with RAW and then post processing the holy heck out of it. You'll be able to pull a lot more noise out of RAW files than processed files like jpgs. Also, if you shoot raw you can usually crank the exposure in post processing. What do you use to process/edit your photos anyway?

I just noticed that in at least one of your photos you were shooting at f/5 ? You should be able to bump that to the wide open aperture f/2.8 and gain more than twice the shutter speed. f/2.8 will be a very thin depth of field but if you shoot the tang on his side you should be able to get the whole tang into focus. Even if you don't, the other side will be out of focus but it doesn't matter because you can't see the other side, hehe. Could also try standing back just a little bit.

Finally (are you sick of me yet?? hehe), try shooting with an exposure compensation bumped down a little bit. The tang is dark, so if you have spot metering on, or even evaluative, the camera in Aperture priority mode could be trying to compensate for his dark tone, so it will try to bring in more light to even him out (which isn't really want you want it to do since he is supposed to be dark) with a slower shutter speed (needlessly). You ca also solve this by just shooting in manual or shutter priority mode to hold the shutter speed.

[Delphinus]

I don't even bother with AF. It's not the speed of focusing it's just there's too much to focus on and 9 times out of 10 it grabs the wrong subject (like, say, a spot of salt creep on the glass that I *thought* I had cleaned up 5 minutes prior, but turns out I didn't )

Wow, ISO 6400.

Didn't notice at first the stuff you edited in, so I'll edit in my responses.

The f/5 was my attempt to bump up the aperture in an attempt to widen the DOF. The wide open aperture gives a razor thin DOF which means the focus has to be 100.0% perfect not just 99.9% and .. well the odds of that are nil.

I am already standing back 2 or 3 feet, otherwise I would just be posting pictures of their eyes.

And Picasa is what I'm using. Because it's free. Which is about my budget. I don't really like it very much. I had a package on my old PC but the motherboard is fried so I can't get at it. Forget what it was offhand but it was like a mini-photoshop. I should remember what it was because although it wasn't free it wasn't expensive either, so I could maybe just buy it again or something.

Thanks for the tips. Lots-o-stuff to learn here..

[kien]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I don't even bother with AF. It's not the speed of focusing it's just there's too much to focus on and 9 times out of 10 it grabs the wrong subject (like, say, a spot of salt creep on the glass that I *thought* I had cleaned up 5 minutes prior, but turns out I didn't )

Do you use all of your focus points ?? If so, try using just the centre focus point :-)

K.

edit: I have some spare cycles this weekend, just let me know. I can come over and we can play with your gear.. er.. I mean, perform important experiments with your (and maybe my) equipment.. er.. I mean.. oh nevermind! You know what I mean.

[Delphinus]

That would be awesome!! I've never tried playing around with different focal points. I'll have to see what I can do about that then.

I thought I might try taking some photos with one of the regular (ie non macro) lenses and see how it goes but I think the minimum focus distance is kinda huge in comparison... Seems kind of defeating if you have to stand 6 feet back? Also it's not even in option to stand that far back where I have the tank.

[christyf5]

But if you stand back you get the photo in focus and you can then crop it afterwards? Thats what I do anyways. Either that or take photos at night with the room lights off, the fish don't seem to be as bothered with me hovering hear the glass.

[Delphinus]

Just trying out some of your tips, thanks guys. Although that said, only 2 made it past the cull tonight, most of them I missed the focus. And wouldn't you know it the one good tang shot was right when he swam in front of the dirtiest patch of glass. But it's the only shot I've managed so far out of easily one hundred where you can see the little yellow pencil line markings.

Also the trigger seems oversaturated somehow, he's not quite THAT blue. I should mention he's only blue like this when he's anticipating food; otherwise he's green. I don't know if it's a mood thing changing the colour or just a trick of the way the light hits him (ie., maybe because he's out in front he looks blue but if further back in the tank the angle is different and thus green?).

[christyf5]

Those pics are great Tony! That trigger looks awesome!

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

That would be awesome!! I've never tried playing around with different focal points. I'll have to see what I can do about that then.

I thought I might try taking some photos with one of the regular (ie non macro) lenses and see how it goes but I think the minimum focus distance is kinda huge in comparison... Seems kind of defeating if you have to stand 6 feet back? Also it's not even in option to stand that far back where I have the tank.

Hey I would love to come over to, I can bring my Canon 30D over, with all my other gear. We can probably get some neat pic's

[Delphinus]

Anytime! Would be a great way to share tips and stuff.

Some more pics, just playin' around tonight..







And, ok, this guy isn't one of the new kids but he posed so nicely I had to oblige and take a picture. Still looking for a buddy for him ..

[Lance]

Tony, the pics are better every time. Nice work!