I guess my first noob question is, I how do I size, change, take pics that will fit on the sight? I use a nikon 5700. I tried to resize in another program, but as you may have noticed, it looks like a large page with a small photo on it.

Use a site like photobucket. It is easy and resizes them for you.

what?:eek: grrrrr

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) You load your photos from your hard drive to the site and it gives them back to you with a line of code that you paste into your post. The code changes into a picture when you submit your post or go advanced.

I set my camera to 640 x 480 and the pics are just the right size to be uploaded.

ok I did it! My first lousy shot of my tank!!! I'll have to get familiar with the site, I just cropped, resized. right clicked 'save as'. I will try the camera setting too. OOOh Im so excited!!:D

OOOHHH, looky here, I did it again!:dance:

i use photoshop to resize my images then upload them to photobucket.

I should clarify that I do take pics at 640 x 480 only for upload to the web, If you want to print them at any size you will want max resolution. In that case I would take a pic at both settings so your covered,

thanx, I think that I am confusing size and resolution.

This article might help you a little

PPI, DPI, resolution and print size | DigicamGuides.com (http://www.digicamguides.com/print/ppi-print-size.html)

I will check that out. I was actually just reviewing my camera manual that I havent looked at in a couple years. I was almost beginning to understand it then, Now I have to start all over. I am working on understanding aperture and shutter speed functions. One of these threads awhile back (rob?) mentioned high iso and aperature. I will take a look!

Looking good Laura!

OK, excited:w000t: this one is on 800 iso, and highest aperture, macro

this one too. but shutter was a bit higher


so, acropora is looking better AS WELL AS the photographer!

I have ALOT of settings to get more familiar with. but that is the wonder of digital!

OK, so any 5700 users out there??!! I was so excited about my previous shots:D I am having trouble getting a good whole-tank shot.

I have a D50 and love it but I can't give you any advice on the 5700. In general I would tell you to play, play, play! Take hundreds of shots at different settings. If you have a tripod use it. Try shooting with the flash off.

ok, maybe not so much the camera, but settings. for example i probably will not use close-up if Im 4-5 ft away (or will I?) ISO being on 400 or 800 will depend on what? If there is light in the room, some natural light? The flash doesnt even come on because there is so much light in the tank with both halides on. I know that thats another factor that makes others advice difficult. I guess right now I am working on iso, aperture and shutter speed, and distance setting. I found thhat shutter speed priority left me with dark pics, aperture priority seemed to to work well for close-ups, but not when taking some steps back to get a whole tank shot.

GRRRRR



:grrr!::anyone:





Hey!! But how about those great shots Laura got of those acropora, they are quite lovely, fabulous compared to her first attempts!

ok, maybe not so much the camera, but settings. for example i probably will not use close-up if Im 4-5 ft away (or will I?)


I have been really tied up with home and work and have not been around much. :)

The close-up mode is great if you want to take a picture of an individual coral for instance but not for taking pictures from a few feet away. It gives you really great detail but very shallow depth of field, that is the amount of the picture from front to back that is in focus.

ISO being on 400 or 800 will depend on what? If there is light in the room, some natural light? The flash doesnt even come on because there is so much light in the tank with both halides on. I know that thats another factor that makes others advice difficult. ISO 400 is usually fine for full light shots but you may find 800 is better when all the lights are not on. 800 may be useful if you are trying to use a faster shutter speed in order to stop action.

I guess right now I am working on iso, aperture and shutter speed, and distance setting. I found thhat shutter speed priority left me with dark pics, aperture priority seemed to to work well for close-ups, but not when taking some steps back to get a whole tank shot.When you use shutter or aperture priority do you have a choice of what shutter speed or f-stop you are going to use?

I do have a choice. There is also manual where I would set both, this may be what youre talking about. Thank you so much for responding. I think that aperture is where I am most confused. As I said, shutter speed priority really gave me dark pics. Unless I have an indication of how to use the two together, or aperture priority and adjust shutter speed. UUUGGHH!! Trying to learn:roll:

I don't know how much you know about cameras so I am going to presume nothing. :)
How dark or light your pictures are depends upon how much light falls upon the sensor. There are several things that affect this.Think the lens of your camera as a window covered by a blind.

Aperture is how large the window is. Aperture is the volume of light that can come into your camera at any given time. A great big window lets in more light than a tiny window. However, in a camera the bigger the aperture (window) the shorter the depth of field. Thinking of your aquarium, a shorter depth of field means that only the front, middle or back can be in focus at one time. Conversely a smaller aperture will let in less light but can allow you to have everything from front to back in focus.

Next is shutter speed, that is how fast the little blind that lets light in opens and closes. Depending upon the camera this can vary from staying open several minutes to 1/4000 of a second. If the blind is open longer more light gets in. In the aquarium you will want a faster shutter speed when photograping fish but can use a slower one when photographing corals.

If you let more light in the picture is brighter, less light it is darker. ISO also comes into play. You can think of this as sensitivity. The lower the ISO number the less sensitive it is to light. A lower ISO makes for a finer grained, less rough, picture.

In a situation that is brightly lit you may need to use a lower ISO, faster shutter speed and/or smaller aperture. So if the pix you were taking in shutter priority were too dark you could have chosen a slower shutter speed, bigger aperture (which is indicated by a smaller number) or faster ISO.

Good advice. I have a minor in photography and I would say well said.

I personally use my nikon d200 for all my photographs. I am relatively lazy when it comes to reef pictures and normally dont use my tripod, however if I feel extra gumption I will pull it out, making a world of difference.

With the smaller point and shoot cameras you really dont want to go above 400iso for most. They get grainy, and really dont look amazing. The lower the iso the better the display/print given proper exposure. I would tell you to use the lowest iso you can espically when photographing stationary targets.

If you feel capable or willing to play shoot on manual mode. This way you are in total control. If your camera has a histogram setting use that instead of just looking at the LCD display. LCD displays can tell you if you have good composition, and good focus, but they are espically bad at telling one if they have a good exposure. A histogram will tell you if you are over exposed or under exposed. For a generic picture with equal darks and light you would want a bell shaped histogram, with no part of the histogram going off the top of the graph. Pros shoot via the histograms, they will tell you exactly what you have.

Reguarding focus: an "unsharp mask"(photoshop term) will always sharpen an image. A digital image is never complete without digital processing, its like running your reef without a skimmer, it can be done but then again it can be done better with a skimmer. So like the reef tank if you can use photoshop (or another processing product) to digitally adjust your images (light, color, sharpness, ect...) you will be better off. Also if you are using a wide angle lens from far away everything will be in focus where as a telephoto lens will only be able to keep one object in focus, generally. With macro photography plane of focus is key! Your ccd image chip is a flat vertical plate behind your lens, it captures all the light just like film. photographers often forget that when taking a macro shot that you want the plane of the ccd chip to be parallel to the plane of the subject. this is because your plane of focus is where everything will be sharp. If you take a pic of a coral that is at an angle it is best to put your camera at that same angle. This can cause a problem when shooting through glass as glass bends light. Here is a picture i took that is displaying plane of focus:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2063/2376865274_c170259c56.jpg?v=0
you can see the plane of focus easily, in the forgroung all the green moss in the board is blurred then it becomes sharp and then fades to blurred again. The plane of focus is the sharp section. Aperture can increase the depth of field, basically the width before and after the plane of focus that will look sharp. The larger your app # the greater the depth of field.

one more thing: take your photos at full resolution! you can resize them later for web use but if you ever want to make a print 72dpi isnt going to get it done.

keep playing and posting your thoughts.

OMG you guys ARE the best!!! That info is gonna keep me busy for a while Thank you!!

John, great advice and the picture of the fly is wonderful!

thank you. I love my macro lens. It makes for some really interesting pictures, espically here in FL with all the spider and insects. You would be amazed to see what the jaws of those little jumping spiders look like.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2184/2385897414_b7f8523f07.jpg?v=0

*singing* The eensy teensy spider went up the water spout. :)