Solytaryensis (?) Portrait

[64Ivy]

My "plating Acro" just taken today. Camera: Canon D30. Lens: 100mm macro. Off camera flash.

[coralite]

64ivy, that coral is truly unique. I love it. I know theres more of you out there w/ pics of these, let's see them.

[PetConnection]

Nice color on it! I have one of these (had it only 2wks.) , it is still brown though =( But i just recently moved it into my tank with 2 400 wt 10K. Did it have color when you bought it or did it "color up"? How long have you had it...BTW how much was it? These seem to be a "fad" coral that are in demand now...

[64Ivy]

It's just starting to color up. Got it from Steve Tyree about three months ago so, as you can imagine, it was pretty expensive. Came in solid brown. I'm hoping it will become the color of the one posted by Minderaser in the "Solytaryensis Keepers" thread in the SPS Keepers Forum. I'm keeping it under 250W 10Ks in Spiderlight reflectors and in moderate water flow. Currently it's about 2 1/2" in diameter.

[PetConnection]

Cool! I wonder how big these get in the wild? I've seen pictures of HUGE table tops, but never any that looked like A. solytaryensis...maybe it is a deepwater acro? I know our wholesaler says they are the hardiest acro he has ever dealt with...

[jameso]

D30? No fair!!! :)

Notice that with the D30's big CCD, you don't get the depth of field that you do with a "consumer" camera with the smaller imager size.

Maybe bump up your f-stop to get the whole coral in focus?

Good luck!
James Wiseman

[gljjr]

You lucky dog! I want it! :)

I don't think the depth of field issue has anything to do with the D30 and has everything to do with him using the 100mm Macro. If he were to use a 50mm Macro with the Extension Tube it might work better. But playing with the F-Stop will certainly help. I'm trying to save up my $$ for a D30 as well. I have 2 Canon Elans and 5 lens that would work well with the D30!

[jameso]

The depth of field depends a lot on the size of the imager for digicams. For consumer digicams where the imager is 1/5 the size of 35mm film, the DOF is 5x as big.

The imager on the D30 is big though, so yeah, it's the macro lens...

Cheers
James

[64Ivy]

Come on guys, in classic portraiture, only the eyes have to be in focus. :D

[PetConnection]

So if you think of the "eyes" as each individual polyp... Ahhh! that would be tough! I think your pic looks excellent... although I have no idea what you photographer types are talking about! Are you using a digital camera? I have a sony CyberShot Dsc-s75 (3.3 megapixel), takes some good pics, but sometimes i have trouble on the really close macro shots you need to make corals look good! I know i can do manual settings but i havent' had much success with this...

Also whats the best way to tailor your images for posting? Mine are always way too big!

[64Ivy]

I am using the digital Canon D30. This camera uses interchangable lenses like a traditional SLR so to get macro shots I use one of my macro lenses. As for tailoring the images, I use Photoshop. Doug's "Quick Tips..." thread has some excellent information concerning the 'how-tos' of digital photography. A lot of people are doing excellent stuff with Nikon Coolpixes.

[gljjr]

BTW Ivy, I think the compsition and depth of field of your shot are excellent! It is a far better picture than anything I have come up with yet on my Kodack DC210+ :)

Gary