View Full Version : Nikon D70s
JeffDubya
10-11-2006, 07:27 PM
Anyone here shoot with a Nikon D70s?
I'd love to chat with you about it.
Amphibious
10-11-2006, 11:06 PM
Yes, I do the Nikon D70.
CarmieJo
10-11-2006, 11:17 PM
I shoot with a D50.
PreauxPhoto
10-12-2006, 04:11 PM
I have the D100 and the D70 i also own my own photography studio. what can i help you with?
JeffDubya
10-13-2006, 03:11 AM
Well my first question is... do you shoot your fish tank?
Because I keep trying... with blurred results. I called my local dealer, thinking my lens isn't fast enough and perhaps a better, faster macro lens would help me out, but they insist that the Nikkor 18-70mm lens I have should be more than adequate.
I have tried shooting in every available mode.
I have a nice tripod. I have the remote cable.
But all I have are photos that SHOULD HAVE BEEN beautiful, but anything in motion is just a blob.
I love to take photos, and I have good equipment, but I must admit that when it comes to the technical aspects of using this camera - I am a novice. Yes, I have bought some books, but if I had the time to read them... well... I would!
I'm just looking for general suggestions that will let me take photos of my hobby so I can record them for posterity and to share them (sometimes show them off :) ) to/with others.
Amphibious
10-13-2006, 06:46 AM
Jeff,
All, my pics are shot using the same Nikon lens. Shooting into an aquarium is one of the most challenging aspects of photography. Not only is most of your quarry moving but, you have the glass or Acrylic bouncing your flash and absorbing your flash, then the water plays tricks with the light, too. Here is what I did. The D70 comes pre-set at an ISO of 400 (I think that's what it was.) I changed my ISO to 800. (A faster film setting.)
Here's the process to follow.
1. Turn the camera on.
2. Press Menu once. Your screen will light up. The little camera Icon tab should be highlighted. If it isn't, scroll up or down using the round scroll button on the right side of the screen until you see the camera Icon. Press the right arrow button.
2. Scroll down to ISO and Press enter or the right arrow key. Read the ISO your camera is pre-set on.
3. Scroll down to a higher ISO number. The higher the number, the faster shutter speed your camera will use.
4. Once set, Press Menu twice and the Menu screen shuts off. Your camera should now give you better shots of moving targets.
I'm using 800 ISO right now. Experiment a little. Here's a shot of my Sohal Tang, a particularly camera shy fish, zooming by. The picture is not perfect but it will give you an idea of how to capture a fast moving fish.
http://www.theculturedreef.com/Sohal-1.jpg
All ways moving. And below a shot of my Anthias, who never sit still for their portrait either.
Try a higher ISO. I think you will like the results.
http://www.theculturedreef.com/Anthias-9-13-06.jpg
PreauxPhoto
10-13-2006, 09:50 AM
amp is right ISO is a very important piece to ths puzzle. the second is light photography is the art of capturing light the best way is to control it by adding your own. but,
first listen to the podcast pertaning to photography it will cover all the basic you'll need to know.
Second add as much light into the tank as you can i have an old PC strip that i put on when i'm shooting but not for more than 30 min at a time or what ever your tank feels is too much.
I also use some flashes IN the tank (yes inside the tank) i have several small slave flashes (Quantaray MS-1 Wireless Flash Booster / Slave 19.99 @ wolfcamera.com) i will then put them in a ziplock or a glass bowl with a watertight lid and drop them in. the ziplock want to float so i weight them down and hold the to the glass with my magfloat. the bowls i lay on the bottom so the glass bottom is point at where i want to shoot.
the next thing you want is to move the flash from you camera (the one that will trigger the slaves) away from you. i use a Nikon SC-28 TTL Remote Cord 69.99 at wolf and put the flash shooting down through the top of the water. i usually just hold it by hand or put a glass top.
next you want your main flash (the one connected to the camera) to be just strong enough to trigger your slaves but not so strong that it will cast a shadow downward i use 3 so it takes some playing to get it right. just work from the lowest power setting triggering your main and moving it around in varios angles till all your slaves fire at once.
now with shooting coral this is easy you set everything up in the tanks and wait about 20 min for the coral to relax then shoot. BUT your fish will run and hide not to mention hate you!!!
for shooting fish i will still use the PC but 2 slaves are set up against the side glass and held so the flash is pointing from the sides to the center of the tank. i will tape them in place using scotch 33 electrical tape and tape the head up so when the flash fires light dosnt leak around the sides. my main flash will still be set up top and then i wait.
i will usually tape the flashes up in the morning before i go to work so they have all day to get used to them. when i ready to shoot i will put my feeding cup ontop the tank to get everybody out.
they will hate you for the first couple of shots but if you take you time feeding a little while you shoot and taking LONG pauses between each shot the will be ok.
i also wont take everything down right after i shoot i will wait a couple of hours so they have a chance to calm down.
i havent been able to contribute much to site as of yet, but you hit what i know so i will be glad to help in any way.
i cant show any pictures i have using this setup i lost the setup and my tank photo album in Katrina. though this seems like a good excuse to start over again.
i must ask has anyone or anyone's spouse made a fish scrapbook? my wife likes to keep a scrapbook for all our fish and coral like a baby book. i think she takes it a little to serious if you ask me.
man am i glad i have MH lights...
i had a canon 300D (now a 400D) and i never had to do much
ISO 400 in <P> mode, no flash, point and shoot.. ;)
although with my old Point-n-shoot, i never had to do anything special, but Point-n-shoots are quite different than a dSLR
IMO, the ISO is secondary, the real thing here is you need a fast shutter speed. having a large aperture and a higher ISO is whats allows you to maintain that fast shutter speed. its the fast shutter speed that freezes that fishes movement in time, the slower the shutter the more blur you will have.
again, the problem is the faster the shutter goes the more light needs to be available. simple example..
if your shutter is 1/30 with x amount of lint, and you move the shutter to 1/60 you will need x times 2 amount of light to maintain the same brightness
increasing the aperture and the ISO is what allows this. larger aperture lets more light in, and ISO makes the censor more sensitive to what light does get let in.
HTH
PreauxPhoto
10-13-2006, 04:16 PM
true it's the speed that stops motion but in order to achive that changing your ISO is the simplest route when having a lens that has a set aperture. just remember that ISO shutter speed and aperture are all related to each other if you have a set value of light when you increase shutter speed you will have to decrease you f-stop the same when you bottom out you f-stop the only way to get higher shutter speed is to increase ISO.
When ever i teach classes this is the hardest thing for my students to understand so i built a balance scale that i can move the piviot point and load it with beans to show that if you adjust one setting its like taking off or adding a bean you must then adjust the other 2 by doing the same to the other side of the scale or moving the pivot point to compinsate.
I reciently bought a 85mm f1.8 nikon lens for studio shoots and it cost me $700 to get a 24mm f1.8 macro would easily run about $500 i could use that to do alot more for my tank than take photo's.
i will relay this to you one of my old photography professors tought me a cool trick if your camera has the ability in manual mode to shoot without a lens on take a standard zoom lens and turn it 180° so you are looking in the front you can move it while looking through the view finder to get focus and shoot it makes a great macro lens when you are shooting and dont have one on hand. i wouldent recomend it for tank photography but next time you want to shoot that flower in the yard try it. just remember to meter before you remove the lens so you know what you settings should be.
Reefbaby
10-13-2006, 04:30 PM
I think it's also important to note that if the ISO is too high, the photo can get quite grainy, especially if it's being enlarged at all.
I agree with Rob that the speed and f-stop are important as well.
For me, the biggest problem is getting warping through the glass. As soon as I'm not 100% perpendicular to the glass, my picture gets warped. I'm not exactly sure what to do about this...
PreauxPhoto
10-13-2006, 04:39 PM
thanks baby i forgot all about that. mine get really bad around ISO 1600-6400 cant even fix it in photoshop.
i use photoshop to take out the distortion.
CarmieJo
10-13-2006, 11:41 PM
The other thing to do is take hundreds of images!
As far as ISO goes, I think that my images are too noisy at greater than 800.
Preux, great idea about the slave flashes.
JeffDubya
10-14-2006, 12:41 AM
Wowwwwww...
I should have prefaced my question, "aside from setting up flash strobes inside my tank..." :)
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