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Reef Tank Photography Using a Phone
Last updated on November 17th, 2023
Reef Tank Photography Using a Phone Camera
Though a DSLR camera is the best option for reef tank photography, not everyone has a camera available. Smartphones have opened the door to having a camera available at all times. Even if you have a camera, available, it's likely that the camera on your phone is better... Either way, let's take a look at some tips for taking photos of your coral using your phone.
Reef Tank Photography Tips
1. Use A Tripod
For reef tank photography, you will likely need the phone to be very stable in order to really show off the corals' detail. Because of this, you will need a tripod. Yes, a tripod for your phone! You can use a standard camera tripod, and then purchase an adapter to hold your phone instead of a camera. This makes it very easy to use the equipment you already have, or switch between a phone and a camera later on.
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, which is especially noticable in smart phone photography. 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 caused by the glass. The best, and easiest way to accomplish this with a smart phone is to place the camera against the glass. Keeping a perfect right angle at all times.
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 with your smart phone, you can get a number of clip on lenses for your smart phone. This will give your photos the closest look to real life without photo editing.
A couple of the most popular, clip on reef tank photography filters for smart phones are the Polyplab Coral View Lens Kit and IceCap Stackable Clip-on Photo Lens Kit. Both of which clip on to your smartphone and let you change the filters being used to get the best look out of your coral photography.
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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.
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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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
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