These are out of my reef tank. With the lighting (20k metal halides) and the tank glass, it is always a challenge. Raw is the only way to go!

Absolutely beautiful Julie - very nice work!

Post up the gear and settings if you have the chance and recall the info please.

These were shot with an Olympus E-1, 50mm macro, I believe at F2 with a shutter speed of ~1/125 and around 400 ISO. I will have to go check the exif. Smugmug doesn't seem to allow it on hosted pictures, though, it is at the site.

I did use a tripod and shot in Raw. I adjusted the white balance in CS2 to match the light temperature(20k) to get the colors natural. Resized and sharpened.

Julie,

These are quite good. Can you talk more about the lighting technique working around the tank?

Thanks
James

I rarely use any lighting beyond the tank lights. The tank glass tends to glare too much. I have taken the flash off camera before and either put it right above the water line or right up against the tank. It produced marginal results

I have done better shooting in raw and matching the color temp of the metal halide bulbs(mine are 20k)

One of the hardest things to deal with is the glass of the tank. The reason I did these the other night is my husband scraped the coraline algae off(it is like purple cement) I actually had a clear shot. Not to mention you cannot angle the camera unless you want distortion. Has to be perpendicular

But, to expose properly I tend to bump the ISO open up all the way and get the shutter speed to at least 125. Everything in the tank moves, either the fish, polyps swaying or the tentacles.

Some people turn off their tank pumps so some of the movement stops.

You might try a set up like this one

Hi David,

Thanks for posting your set-up. How are you slaving the flashes? Pocket wizards?

-JM