Reef Tank Photography Using a Camera

General Reef Tank Photography Tips

1. Use A Tripod

For reef tank photography, you will likely be zooming very close to the coral (macro photography) in order to really show off the corals' detail. Because of this, all slight shifts or instabilities will cause imperfections in your image. Though you may be able to increase your shutter speed to account for some of this, you will be limiting yourself in terms of apature size and creativity. As such, it is best to simply use a tripod.

2. Turn out the lights

No, I'm not talking about the the aquarium lights. Reef tank photography has one discernable problem that other types of photography typically do not. The glass is especially reflective of seemingly everything! To help with this, you should turn off the lights in the room, and close any blinds or curtains. All monitors and lights other than the reef tank lighting should be turned off. This will greatly help with the reflections.

3. Minimize Water Flow

Playing off of the first tip, by turning your pumps down or even off for a short period of time will reduce the amound of movement in the tank. In terms of reef tank photography, this is helpful to prevent any blurring.

4. Take photos at Right Angles

Another challenge presented with reef tank photography is that the glass causes odd distortions. The best way to prevent this is to take photos at right angles to the glass. Meaning streight toward the glass of the tank. This will help prevent the odd distortion the glass causes.

5. Use a Yellow and/or Orange Filter

With the blue light from the reef tank lights, it may be easiest to use an orange or yellow filter to remove this deep blue coloration. When doing reef tank photography, you can adjust some of this with white balance adjustments, but these color filters are a very easy solution to the problem.

6. Don't Use Flash

Not only could this startle or stress aquarium inhabitants, but it will also likely reflect off the glass, messing up the photo. The colors of the corals will also not be as accurate with this lighting.

Advanced Reef Tank Photography Tips - Manual Camera Settings

1. Adjust White Balance

This one is likely painfully obvious. Because of the blue colors in the reef tank lighting, reef tank photography requires you to adjust the white balance in the camera in order to prevent the blue from washing out the entire photo.

2. Aperture Settings

More of a reminder than a specific reef tank photography tip. The lower f-stop (aperture setting) means the depth of field will be shallower and allow a faster shutter speed. This means that a small distance range will be in focus and everything else will be blurred out. This can add a very creative and appealing look to an image, but can be a bit more challenging in terms of nailing in high details.

Opposite of the low depth of field, using a higher f-stop will give you far more detail in your photograph, but your shutter speed will need to be slower. This means that any movement is more likely to cause a blurry image. But you are likely to b=have better focus on many coral details.

A personal reef photography tip is that for SPS corals and non-flowing LPS/Soft coral you will likely want to focus on the aperture, as these corals are not moving. Soft and LPS that move or flow in the water, such as euphylia, you may want to focus on shutter speed. This will help reduce the blurring from water movement.

3. Macro Lens

Investing in a good Macro Lens for your DSLR Camera will help with your reef tank photography by allowing you to have a closer image. Emphasizing the details of the coral polyps. Many of these macro lenses will be very limited in aperture. As such, it may be good to play with other lenses first to get an idea of what you would like to use.

4. Shoot in RAW Format

If your camera allows, shoot photos in the "RAW" setting. Not only does this give you the ability to fix the most details later, but also allows you to fix white balance mistakes later on.

5. Underwater Housings

Underwater camera housings will allow you to place the camera within the reef tank itself. This lets you get closer to the coral for images. This is beneficial for REALLY large aquariums as well as scuba diving.

6. Learn about Advanced Macro Photography Techniques

There is a lot more advanced understanding that many may or may not care to learn. Rather than talk about them here, I will point you to Advanced Aquarist - Macro Photography for Coral Reef Aquariums for more information.

Conclusion

Hopefully these tips work as well for you as they did for me! If so, tag Reef Stable with the #ReefStable tag on facebook and instagram!

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References:

• Reef Bum - Reef Tank Photography Tips
• Reef Tank Photography Tips : A Quick Guide
• Tidal Gardens - Photography

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About the Author

John Krenzer

John is a Software Engineer with a passion for saltwater aquariums, as well as the founder and president of Reef Stable. He started in the aquarium hobby as a child with a 20 gallon freshwater aquarium. His interest in aquarium life grew and in 2008, John set up his first saltwater aquarium.

Today, John maintains an over 300 gallon reef tank system, consisting of a 120g reef and a 210g reef. These large tanks are contained within the same system, sharing a sump as a means to reduce total maintenance and increase total water volume.

John writes articles for the blog as a means to learn about more reef aquarium topics. These articles act as a reference for the readers as well as himself. John updates these articles frequently to provide additional information or make corrections as new information becomes available.

If you would like to request an article, tank tour article, or to collaborate, let me know via the Contact Me Page!

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