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Photography tricks

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aporter360 View Drop Down
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    Posted: October 08 2015 at 2:21pm

I just wrote up a thing on how I get good pictures for someone, so I thought I would share what I use. This is just copied and pasted.

Well I use a standard Nikon D80, few years old, and standard lenses. I have a 24-85mm lens and a massive 70-300mm lens which is a bit harder to take pics with, requires a tripod. However I have found its not the lenses, rather the internal settings of the camera and lighting. I think the biggest thing is the lighting. You will need to turn white lights all the way up, and blue lights up as much as possible, and to get the best color, a flash of some sort. I'm using the built in flash right now and it works pretty well, but a purpose built external flash or two positioned correctly will give you stunning photos.

As for the internal settings, you want the ISO to be as low as possible while still allowing for the most amount of light and no movement blur. I like around 400-800. Any higher and you get grainy pictures. I always shoot on Manual, And tend to keep the Fstop pretty low, which Focuses the object, but leaves others even a slight distance away blurry. If I had a flash I think I could get around this and get more focus. I also Keep the shutter speed around 150-200, fast enough to stop all motion, but not too fast to start darkening the picture.

However the most stunning thing that I figured out, was changing the white balance settings. I have the standard "sunny" "cloudy" "shade", but I found a color temp setting. I set it to around 6,700K and that seems to really bring out all the colors without letting the blue lights mess up the picture. I have yet to try a yellow filter on mine but I do plan on trying it soon.

Anyways, that's how I get best results. I'm sure others will give better options too. And I also never photoshop any of my photos, so what you see is what I shot. Check out my facebook page for some photos that I took. The photos of the 10G tank are using the method described above.
https://www.facebook.com/Andrew-Porter-Photography-1395856257321224/timeline/

54 gallon rimless mixed
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Adam Blundell View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Adam Blundell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 08 2015 at 8:53pm
Thanks!!!!
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redleader View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote redleader Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 09 2015 at 6:18pm
It works.  thanks for the great tips.
I'm just starting to unlock the potential on my camera.  

So much that these cameras can do.

Everything in life is possible. You just have to dream big, and act bigger.

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aporter360 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aporter360 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 10 2015 at 11:10am
Thanks! Yah I'm just starting to get the real potential out of my camera. Just gotta keep fiddling.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jeffm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 07 2020 at 10:05am
Thank you for the helpful tips! I tried cranking up all my lights to get as much color as possible and it really has made a huge difference!
Jeff Martin
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