Struggling with photos of corals

[Ladyhawk124]

Hello,
Have a 3 month old reef tank and I am struggling to get any quality photos. I have a apexel11 in 1 smart phone lens kit and use the orange lens on my Android Galaxy 21 plus phone.
Advice please??

 

[blaxsun]

Tripods make a huge difference.

 

[maroun.c]

Can u share few of your photos so we can see what's not going well ?

 

[TinyReefObsession]

Following to learn what i can! Lol

 

[TheBear78]

The usual issues are colour. All cameras will try to adjust an image to a overall brightness and colour and with the extremes of both in a reef tank this always creates a challenge.
The lens kits are helpful in that they trick the camera sensor into correcting the colour the right way so that the image produced is similar to what our eyes see.
Without going into manual adjustments the only other suggestions I can make is to use a tripod if possible (as mentioned above). Also, make sure that the lens is looking straight through the glass and not at an angle. Looking through the glass at an angle causes diffraction which will blur the image.

 

[Ladyhawk124]

Can u share few of your photos so we can see what's not going well ?

Here are a few I took recently. Some come out really orange, others look better, but do not compare to photos I see people posting.
Thanks for any advice you share.

 

[AstroCoral]

I think part of the problem (potentially) is that you are attempting to use an orange filter with too much white light on your tank which makes the photos amber/orange. If I’m using an orange filter, the blues are usually the only lights that are on which allows for that nice color pop - hopefully that helps!

 

[Ladyhawk124]

I think part of the problem (potentially) is that you are attempting to use an orange filter with too much white light on your tank which makes the photos amber/orange. If I’m using an orange filter, the blues are usually the only lights that are on which allows for that nice color pop - hopefully that helps!

Thank you, ill give it a try.

 

[AstroCoral]

Thank you, ill give it a try.

You’re welcome! Hopefully it works well

 

[maroun.c]

As mentioned above using filters without having blue light will cause shadows, also the picture is a bit over exposed resulting in the hazy look you see. Try decreasing intensity a bit and adding a bit of contrast. Samsung phones have an excellent built in pro mode that allows you to do that, for iPhone u need to download camera apps to allow for that. Also the shots are take with phone not perpendicular to front glass which causes some blurr u see in the shots.

 

[maroun.c]

This article might be of help

Your Guide to Aquarium Photography #5 - Taking Better Pictures with Mobile Phone Cameras

In our previous article in this Your Guide to Aquarium Photography series, we looked at the differences between using DSLR cameras and mobile phone cameras for aquarium photography. This week, we will continue that discussion by answering the question: How can I take better pictures with my...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Ladyhawk124]

As mentioned above using filters without having blue light will cause shadows, also the picture is a bit over exposed resulting in the hazy look you see. Try decreasing intensity a bit and adding a bit of contrast. Samsung phones have an excellent built in pro mode that allows you to do that, for iPhone u need to download camera apps to allow for that. Also the shots are take with phone not perpendicular to front glass which causes some blurr u see in the shots.

I will check out the pro settings. I use a galaxy 21S+...thank you!

 

[Ladyhawk124]

As mentioned above using filters without having blue light will cause shadows, also the picture is a bit over exposed resulting in the hazy look you see. Try decreasing intensity a bit and adding a bit of contrast. Samsung phones have an excellent built in pro mode that allows you to do that, for iPhone u need to download camera apps to allow for that. Also the shots are take with phone not perpendicular to front glass which causes some blurr u see in the shots.

Thank you

 

[aSaltyKlown]

In pro mode, play with the white balance. When I use my phone, it put the WB to 10k.

It's as close to seeing what I see with my eyes.

 

[Ladyhawk124]

In pro mode, play with the white balance. When I use my phone, it put the WB to 10k.

It's as close to seeing what I see with my eyes.

That is a great photo!! When the lights come on today, I know what I am trying...lol. beautiful tank!!

 

[StatelineReefer]

@billyocean Taught me some good settings to start with for good blue light photography with Samsung Pro Mode.


My baseline settings for blue light, they get results.... sort of.

 

[Ladyhawk124]

This is so helpful. Thanks for the screen shot. I love that i have a few options to try now.

 

[Ladyhawk124]

So I think this is a win considering I just started using pro camera choice for these pics. Thanks again!! Marked improvement already!!

 

[UndergroundReefCo]

Following