Zoa Journal - Image Intensive - Dialup beware

[maxalmon]

I'm kindof obsessed with marine Macro photography, it's really amazing what you see, details, textures, colors. Several of these I'm going to have blown up into 24x36 posters. Enjoy...
Some I'm not really thrilled with, but it's all a learning curve and I have room to learn and improve

[maxalmon]

It's taken me several weeks of playing with the camera to figure out correct settings, usually an F stop in the 11-20 range.
Still going to get rid of the D40x and go for the D200 or 300

These are not photoshopped, this is the correct and true colors...












One of my favorite shots

[maxalmon]

Now that I look at some of them, they look like crap, I'm going to re-shot most of these next week...amazing how you get hooked onthe details and even though most people would say they are nice photos, all I see is visual noice....argh, huff snort.....must take better pics
More

[maxalmon]

More shots of frag tank and zoas....You'll notice a slight decline in the image quality, these are older images captured before I learned about F-Stop and using the manual focus and NOT autofocus






The little green things with tentacles are Rock Anemones

[maxalmon]

[maxalmon]

Now these are some skirts! they almost look fuzzy....I love the unusual stuff, even if it's not colorful

[Echidna09]

Beautiful zoos. I'd like a frag of most of them

[zhenjw]

One day I want to be just like you

[dc_909]

Sweet

Macros are the best for sure.

[giantbicycle]

Its awesome.... i share the same idea and interest as you, can i know how you achieve that nice blurring of the unfocus details? issit by playing with the F-Stop? what lense are u using ?

Thanks

[maxalmon]

Originally posted by giantbicycle
Its awesome.... i share the same idea and interest as you, can i know how you achieve that nice blurring of the unfocused details? issit by playing with the F-Stop? what lense are u using ?

Thanks

LOL.....I've spent the last few weeks playing around and figuring out how to get rid of "that nice blurring of the unfocused details" too funny.....
I realize the blurring effect is sometimes interesting and will make certain elements in the photo "pop"....This is created by using a smaller F stop
My goal right now is to try and capture images where the frame is full of details, incredibly hard to accomplish when you have skirts waving around, the zoas are not on a flat plane so you have depth issues etc...When you kick the Fstop up to 20 which is the setting use on the below photo you see how the image is just "real" all the details are there but then you get some color issues so the trick is finding a happy medium.
All of the above images were taken when I took the camera out of the box, now that I've spent some time creating a staging area in my tank, have a mcro slider and better under standing of optics I'm going to re-shoot all the images and hopefully capture images like this one
Nikon D40x with a 105mm Macro VR lens

[pscheel]

Nice pics! I recently got a new camera that has macro. These were taken on auto setting with flash off. Can't wait to start playing with manual mode. I need to get a tripod first. These were taken under 2- Ushio 14k and 2- 460nm T5's.











Just with the 460nm T5's

[giantbicycle]

Originally posted by maxalmon
LOL.....I've spent the last few weeks playing around and figuring out how to get rid of "that nice blurring of the unfocused details" too funny.....
I realize the blurring effect is sometimes interesting and will make certain elements in the photo "pop"....This is created by using a smaller F stop
My goal right now is to try and capture images where the frame is full of details, incredibly hard to accomplish when you have skirts waving around, the zoas are not on a flat plane so you have depth issues etc...When you kick the Fstop up to 20 which is the setting use on the below photo you see how the image is just "real" all the details are there but then you get some color issues so the trick is finding a happy medium.
All of the above images were taken when I took the camera out of the box, now that I've spent some time creating a staging area in my tank, have a mcro slider and better under standing of optics I'm going to re-shoot all the images and hopefully capture images like this one
Nikon D40x with a 105mm Macro VR lens

Dargn!! Insane madness. . Great picture there. You did it right by placing the subject in focus at the same time eveything else is framed in the dark. Noted about the F number.

Are these picture taken under the water or outside the tank?

105mm Macro VR lense .WOw..

You got the audience attention by looking straight into the subject.

Im sure you will drown us with pictures over your next few practises.

Is this coral in a display tank or in a prop tank? wont the fishes get into your way?

[spleify]

Those are some awesome Zoa's, but I gotta be honest man you're avatar is freaking me out.

[Lotus99]

Some great shots there.

It seems to me that some of the less good shots have either lighting issues or exposure issues. The tops of the zoas that are facing the light look very washed out. If you've set up a staging area, perhaps those problems are a thing of the past.

[maxalmon]

What I've learned is that it's a combination of everything. Overhead lighting, position in the tank, waterflow, clean glass, tripod, Fstop, type of lens, background, compostition and time, lots of time......I've actually been putting off taking the next round of photos as it's usually an all day affair, I have to stage the corals so that the background is neutral, wait for the zoa to openback up, then move onto the next one etc....

I had to move the staging area inside the tank to a lower depth because the MH would wash out the zoa's

I'll be working on a few zoa's today and hopefully capture another great photo....If I get a good one, might even swap out my avatar

[giantbicycle]

Originally posted by maxalmon
What I've learned is that it's a combination of everything. Overhead lighting, position in the tank, waterflow, clean glass, tripod, Fstop, type of lens, background, compostition and time, lots of time......I've actually been putting off taking the next round of photos as it's usually an all day affair, I have to stage the corals so that the background is neutral, wait for the zoa to openback up, then move onto the next one etc....

I had to move the staging area inside the tank to a lower depth because the MH would wash out the zoa's

I'll be working on a few zoa's today and hopefully capture another great photo....If I get a good one, might even swap out my avatar

Oh, so you reposition your zoas for phototaking, Cool, Wont the fishes get into your way?

May you get a good photo and it would be great swapping out with your avatar

[maxalmon]

Still having overhead lighting issues, looks like I'm going to setup a tank just for photography and then move things around, probably tie it into the main frag tank.

I'm thinking about calling these "ghost zoa's" kinda creepy looking


My newest zoas, Rainbows, really trippy looking almost like that effect when you have oil on water, they cahnge colors and shimmer.



Not the prettiest zoa's,...but I like them because they are different


Basic Neongreens

[maxalmon]

And the best for last,.......Ye-Haw....I've got myself 2 pics now...

[maxalmon]

This is the way these zoas look, not enhanced, colored, photoshopped or altered in any way, just cropped.


screwing around and playing with the zoom...

[maxalmon]

Another zoom
These are now my favorite zoas in the tank, the frag was kinda small and I'd forgotten about them. But now I see how freakin colorful these are, more to come on this one.

[Reefer07]

wow that is reallly nice, what kind of camera are you using?

[maxalmon]

Nikon D40x with 105mm Macro, going to upgrade to D200 or 300 and lighting system

[Ladipyg]

Oh man, I gotta agree with spleify...your Avatar is totally freaking me out...now I'll be seeing that face as I'm trying to fall asleep...YYYEEECCHHH!!!!

However...your zoa pics are great...

[maxalmon]

And you'll never forget me......hehe I'm in your brain......