New Camera (Canon 6D)

[Steve Ruddy]

Great shots! I am going to need to stop by and checkout the tanks/your gear at some point. The MPE shots are at 1x-2x I am assuming. Edit: Scratch that, just remembered you are on full frame and I am shooting M4/3, very hard to tell. Its really hard to learn to use that lens, especially if you are trying to do a 5x or further with good depth of field.

I have found a few things that really help. The basic rules for aquarium macro are of utmost importance, like turning off absolutely all flow and ensuring there is no reflection. Specific to this lens, for maximum stability you want a heavy studio tripod with a geared head and a focus rail. Anything causing floor vibrations should be shut off (air conditioner, fans ect), as the shutter speed can be very long. I also use an 100 lumen Actinic flashlight to illuminate my subject and shorten the shutter speed.

Good tips I set my ISO to 100 with long exposure when possible.

 

[patheticsquid]

Good tips I set my ISO to 100 with long exposure when possible.

I do the same. If there is anything causing vibrations nearby it will interfere a lot, so watch out.

 

[noy]

good tips. david definitely swing by if you are in the neighbourhood

 

[noy]

Some recent shots

Green Leather Coral - growing rapidly.
IMG_2463

Goniopora
Love the multi-colored goni

goniostacked1

Goniopora 2
IMG_2454

Euphyllia
Playing with clustering arrangements
euphylliast1

 

[noy]

Mini-Carpet Anemone
(not so mini they actually grow quite large)

minicarpetst1

IMG_2482

gonipolyp1

 

[rickztahone]

amazing shots. TFS

 

[noy]

Xmas came early. Scooped up the Canon 180mm L macro. This won out over the 100mm L IS macro.

Hands down the sharpest lens i've ever used. Definitely a different and very noticeable perspective than the 100mm (i have the non-L one). Requires a longer working distance (compared to the 100). Love the bokeh on this lens.

clove1st

grandst1m

IMG_2578

zoa1

IMG_2589

IMG_2601

IMG_2604

IMG_2607

zoa2stf

zoagreenap

 

[noy]

Not really "photography" but kinda cool. My peppermint shrimp eggs hatched.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lOafLegPWHs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u5R1wnBG7LI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[rickztahone]

Very stunning shots. That lens is smooth as butter.

 

[noy]

More stuff!
Orange tipped green torch.
IMG_2614

Fiji leather
Really psyched about this piece - completely cool!
softfiji leather

Alveopora
IMG_2627

IMG_2626

IMG_2639

The NPS tank
fts

Shot this for a magazine cover - but they ended up using another photo.
suncoralcover

 

[noy]

Image stacking

Image stacking

Just doing some experimentation on Recty's technique of using image stacking to reduce noise. I read up on it a bit and thought i try it out.

This is a shot using my 180mm macro shot at F32 to get maximum depth of field. The speed was 1/5 and the ISO was 12800 - pushing the upper limit of the 6D. As you can see - good depth of field but because you are pushing the ISO - its grainy and you can see noise artifacts especially at the front - the little white specs.

IMG_2663

I took 6 shots - tried to keep everything identical.
I then aligned them (as if I was doing a focus stack) - I then converted them into smartobjects and then applied a median stack. Here is the result

imgst1

The distortion is definitely reduced. Most dramatic is that on the top shot you can see on the left my tang's tail. Completely disappeared with the median stacking. No photoshop touch up's - just a bit of white balancing on both shots.

I'm going to keep working on this - its a nice trick in the bag if you ever have to push ISO in a light limited shot. The 6D can handle itself on high ISO but I think with a less sophisticated camera the effect could be quite dramatic. Going to try this with my old T1i on the weekend.

 

[noy]

Have to sneak in a few other shots

zoast1

IMG_2641

This shot was at F3.5!!! - no focus stacking. The (foreshortened) perspective on the 180mm is something else.

IMG_2649

 

[rickztahone]

Very nice. I have never actually shot at f/32 for fear of distortion but you did well here. Question though, why did you not go to a slower shutters speed than the 1/5? I imagine you were on a tripod? This would have allowed you to reduce the ISO

 

[noy]

Very nice. I have never actually shot at f/32 for fear of distortion but you did well here. Question though, why did you not go to a slower shutters speed than the 1/5? I imagine you were on a tripod? This would have allowed you to reduce the ISO

The high ISO was by design - just wanted to see the technique (image stacking with median stacking) in action. Wanted to get as much distortion as possible to see if the stacking will smooth it out (which it did quite nicely).

 

[rickztahone]

The high ISO was by design - just wanted to see the technique (image stacking with median stacking) in action. Wanted to get as much distortion as possible to see if the stacking will smooth it out (which it did quite nicely).

agreed. I have done this technique in astro-photography and works very well as well. However, lower shutter speeds are more difficult to pull off in astro-photography. Thanks for explaining.