The Camera Thread

rallysman

Polypterus
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Aug 7, 2005
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Here is a visual:

D50, F5.6, 1/200 shutter, no flash


D50, F32, 1/500, over head flash


You can get the entire fish in focus when using smaller apertures. When you use a smaller aperture you have to compensate for the loss of light by either raising the ISO (which results in more noise) or adding more light. The simple solution is to use the flash which is much less expensive than a fast lens anyway.
 

akskirmish

Fire Eel
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rallysman;1695973; said:
I totally agree with the argument that a remote flash is way more beneficial than a fast lens for aquatic photos. As previously stated, when you open the aperture you lose DOF no matter what. The only easy solution is to add a lot of light which is easily done with a flash.

Once you have enough, or even too much light, you can choke the aperture and drop the ISO which will result in pictures with a deep DOF and low noise levels.
You say more beneficial----So this can be acheived with a fast lense....If done properly...

Or wrong again...
 

akskirmish

Fire Eel
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rallysman;1696009; said:
Here is a visual:

D50, F5.6, 1/200 shutter, no flash


D50, F32, 1/500, over head flash


You can get the entire fish in focus when using smaller apertures. When you use a smaller aperture you have to compensate for the loss of light by either raising the ISO (which results in more noise) or adding more light. The simple solution is to use the flash which is much less expensive than a fast lens anyway.
Same ISO settings or no....
 

rallysman

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akskirmish;1696011; said:
You say more beneficial----So this can be acheived with a fast lense....If done properly...

Or wrong again...
Only if you add more light. No matter how hard you try, you will have a shallow DOF if your fast lens is uses in capacity (ex. F2.8).

If you take a picture with a very large aperture it will have little DOF no matter what. When you shrink the aperture you lose light, but gain DOF. You have to compensate for the loss of light somehow. The easiest and most economical way is to use a flash. You'll start melting stuff if you stack enough lighting on the tank to have a "makeshift" flash.
 

rallysman

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akskirmish;1696016; said:
Same ISO settings or no....
no. In order to use the fast shutter on the first pic, I had to raise the ISO. Whenever I use a flash I shoot at ISO 200 (lowest my camera will go).

So when you use the flash you get the best of both worlds: Low ISO and fast shutter. You can't do that (efficiently) any other way.
 

akskirmish

Fire Eel
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rallysman;1696023; said:
Only if you add more light. No matter how hard you try, you will have a shallow DOF if your fast lens is uses in capacity (ex. F2.8).

If you take a picture with a very large aperture it will have little DOF no matter what. When you shrink the aperture you lose light, but gain DOF. You have to compensate for the loss of light somehow. The easiest and most economical way is to use a flash. You'll start melting stuff if you stack enough lighting on the tank to have a "makeshift" flash.
I do totally understand that part----

And like stated I will be going this route as soon as my gear is back---

I guess I'm more getting lost in my conditions guys...
To keep my setting where they are and to use a slower shutter---
I just dont understand how to compenstate that part....
My lense is ran at F2.8 and my god-I'm useing a $1300 lense so it's quite frustrateing.....or at 3.2 most of the time for my aquariums...
And my shutter(if I have that right) is ran at either 1/80 or at 1/100

What do I do from this point is what I'm asking guys....

I know more light--But can any thing else be done for me right now..
 

rallysman

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Aug 7, 2005
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akskirmish;1696034; said:
I do totally understand that part----

And like stated I will be going this route as soon as my gear is back---

I guess I'm more getting lost in my conditions guys...
To keep my setting where they are and to use a slower shutter---
I just dont understand how to compenstate that part....
My lense is ran at F2.8 and my god-I'm useing a $1300 lense so it's quite frustrateing.....or at 3.2 most of the time for my aquariums...
And my shutter(if I have that right) is ran at either 1/80 or at 1/100

What do I do from this point is what I'm asking guys....

I know more light--But can any thing else be done for me right now..
For now, no. Your lens is maxed out and you're right on the line of getting motion blur from the slow shutter speed. You want the shutter to be as fast as possible for the amount of light that you have. The absolute minimum that I shoot at is 1/125.

If you can't raise the ISO, and your fast lens is maxed out, then your only option is to add more light. When you get the flash working you'll be amazed. You'll have a lot of overexposed pictures because you're used to shooting wide open with a fairly high ISO and a slow shutter;).
 
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