Category:Before You Shoot
From ReefPedia
Preparation
Enough with the background stuff, let’s bust out that camera and get to the nitty gritty. Right? Well, almost. First you have to get that tank ready to shoot. Taking these few simple steps can have more of an impact on your photos than any filter or adapter you can possibly find and slap on your camera.
Clean the glass!
Don’t just run the algae magnet across the front. Clean it thoroughly. With a razor blade if your tank happens to be glass. Get all the corners, all the nooks, if you have substrate get the glass below the substrate. Then step back for five minutes and take another look. Missed a few spots, didn’t you?
It never fails, the one area where you missed a spot will be where that once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity happens. Trust me on this one. Don’t let Murphy’s Lawyers get you. Clean the whole thing before you ever turn on the camera.
Now clean the outside glass. Get all the spots, or fingerprints, or salt creep, or whatever you happened to get on there. Go over it twice, using a good cleaner (carefully!!!) to make sure it’s streak-free.
After you’ve cleaned the glass, you may notice two things: A bunch of gunk in the water and some unusually active critters. The gunk in the water will try its best to mess up your photos. The unusually active critters will give you lots of opportunities. Might as well give it a shot… what’s the worst that can happen?
After several minutes to an hour, depending on the tank in question, the dust will settle and the glass will be nice and clean. When all the fish have moved past their panic attacks and they resume begging for food, you’re ready to go. Cut the pumps but don’t cause a flood
The less movement in the tank, the better. Most corals and plants will respond positively to cutting the pumps for a while. Fish? Depends. Get to know your critters and which ones respond better to the pumps being off. All things being equal, you’re much better off without circulation. When photographing aquatic plants and corals, you’ll find the lack of motion to be incredibly advantageous. Just make sure your sump doesn’t overflow in the process. Unless you’re trying to get candid shots of angry significant others, this technique is not recommended.
Scope out the action
Stand there with the camera for a couple of minutes before you start snapping away. What’s going on? Who’s doing something cute? Which critters are closer to the glass? Which ones are arguing? Which plants or corals are looking good today, and which don’t? Think about what you want to capture before you look into the viewfinder (or at the LCD screen).
Charge your battery and get your tripod ready.
When you start taking photos, you likely won’t want to stop for a while. While being in a zone can be a very good thing for your photos, make sure everything you might need is handy. If it isn’t, there’s a good chance you won’t want to put the camera down to get it – even though you should.
Check your camera settings.
Get into the habit of checking all the settings before you start shooting. It’ll save you the heartache of discovering you got the perfect shot at the wrong settings. Trust me, it ain’t a pretty experience.
Get in the zone. But don’t stay for too long.
It’s easy to get carried away, taking photos of everything that catches your eye. That’s good. That’s excitement and awareness of what’s going on, and the zone is a very good place to be. But after a while, your shoulders and possibly neck will stiffen, your arms will get tired, and you might want to just keep on shooting. Stop. Take a few minutes away from the tank. When you come back, take a look at what you might have missed in your excitement. Formulate a few new shots you want to capture. Then, pick up the camera, check all the settings, and get back into the zone. You’ll have to figure out for yourself when you should stop and when to keep going, just know that my experience tells me things come out a lot better with the occasional breather.
