Show off your tangs

[Aquarist007]

BTW---very neat idea for feeding your tanks the kelp. IMO brilliant---I leave that stuff on a clip and the sailfin just rips the clip right off the side of the tank
I hope you don't mind if I add the pic to the Capn's logbook thread as a cool idea

[Reeftanks6]

I totally agree with you capn. My sailfin does that every so often.

[maroun.c]

Capn I have a 150 G custom made 5 feet long. should have changed my profile.
Still as I mentioned all of these are not mine. I only had a hippo tang which I lost recently and a kole tang.
My plan for tangs is:
1 hyppo
1 yellow
1 PBT
1 kole tang that I already have.
if I ever find an achilles that might be my last tang.

[Reeftanks6]

In a 150 you are doing those tangs or another. Because if your doing them in a 150 then the PBT and Achilles wont mix but other then that it should be a great combo. I ll be back in a little going to get some pictures.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by maroun.c
Capn I have a 150 G custom made 5 feet long. should have changed my profile.
Still as I mentioned all of these are not mine. I only had a hippo tang which I lost recently and a kole tang.
My plan for tangs is:
1 hyppo
1 yellow
1 PBT
1 kole tang that I already have.
if I ever find an achilles that might be my last tang.

thanks Maroun--now I feel bad with the tanks in my 110gal--but the tank is going to be upgraded before they reach six inches
yellow, powderblue, sailfin and regal tangs

[maroun.c]

Reeftank? does it make any difference if its a long 150 (5 feet) and got lots of rockwork and hiding places? Still I have only seen 2 achiles over the last 10 years around here so you can count that I will not be doing all te mentioned tangs minus the achilles. Yes it will be in the 150 as I'm in the final build stages and don't see an upgrade in the near future.

[Reeftanks6]

ok i just tried to get some photos but i cant seem to get what i am looking for. Can someone give me tips on how to get clear shots. I have two cameras.

Kodak EasyShare M763
Konica Minolta Dimage z3

[maroun.c]

Nice collection Capn. you got 3 out of the 5 I want and the kole tang does not really count as It never acts as a tang does (agression wise towards other tangs in teh tank)

[Reeftanks6]

I said what i said because if they fight they are bound to get ich because they are so pron to it. I think and this IMO that a 200-250 gallon tank is needed for both of them even to live happily. But that IMO.

[maroun.c]

Not familiar with your camera models however for fish shots I would bump the Iso to get decent shutter speed (around 1/90) If you have an external flash then great use the camera straight to the glasse and the flash angled up if not then use the built in and in this case you will have to shoot with the camera pointing a bit down. this angle will cacsue a bit of distortion but will deal with the flash reflection on the front glass. it's a compromize so you will have to decide on how much angle is the best on both sides. for fish shots I tend to rely on the flash and no tripod to be able to follow the fish. if flash does not work try using a tripod and compose the frame and focus and wait for the fish to go into frame close to your focus point. try to use an aperture that gives yo uenough Deapth of field at still a fast enough shutter. try to chose a well lit areas in the tank and increase your ISO.
hope this helps.

[maroun.c]

I see your point.

[Reeftanks6]

Thanks i will have to try this.

[Reeftanks6]

maroun.c on your last shot of your kole tang on the last page. What settings did you use for the photo because that is a great shot.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by kar93
Here are the only 2 Tang shots from the trip that came out half decent.
Sohal Tang - Acanthurus Sohal. This was taken while dangling my feet in 12" of water.

beautiful shots Kar--lay some more on us

You should have tangled Nori on your big toe--and you might have been able to bring that beauty back with you

[Reeftanks6]

LOL

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by Reeftanks6
LOL

Reeftanks---do you know how to post pictures horizontally rather then vertically?

[maroun.c]

maroun.c on your last shot of your kole tang on the last page. What settings did you use for the photo because that is a great shot.

Do you mean this one


Nikon D70s
Nikon 50 mm 1.4
Shutter speed 1/100
Aperture 3.5
Iso 500
flash on
Shutter priority
center wieghted metering.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by maroun.c
Do you mean this one


Nikon D70s
Nikon 50 mm 1.4
Shutter speed 1/100
Aperture 3.5
Iso 500
flash on
Shutter priority
center wieghted metering.

great I have a nikon dx40---I imagine I can use the same settings

while we are at it--what settings do you use to take a pic with the attinics on so the blue still comes through on the pics?

[maroun.c]

great I have a nikon dx40---I imagine I can use the same settings

You could but that would not necessarily give the same quality.
Usually lenses are at the lowest of their quality wide open and stat improving as you closing till you reacha certain point called sweet point which is different from lens to lens.
Now if you take the kit lens which comes with the D40 (18-50 3.5 5.6?) this lens will not be able to be a 3.5 when at 50 mm and will instead be 5.6 it will be a 3.5 when wide open which is at 18 but still it will not give the best image quality till you close it a bit. Pro quality lenses will improve faster than non pro ones and will even offer better image quality wide open compared to their non pro glass. the 50mm 1.4 which is still a chep lens (around 350 USD) is considered to give pro quality, that is nearly as true fo rthe 50mm 1.8 which is around 100 usd too.
This is not the best image quality I get out of this lens as on this shot I was not on tripod. A tripod would have allowed a bit more stability and also I would have worked more on the camera position to be totally perpendicular tot he glass. when following a fish you end up shooting at angles no matter how hard yo utry to stay perpendicular to the glass.

what settings do you use to take a pic with the attinics on so the blue still comes through on the pics

Not yet successful at this. however I beileve it's all in the post processing if you don't want to buy a specific lighitng and a filter for it that I believe costs a lot. I posted some images of a lobophylia on my build thread 1-2 pages ago and believe this was the best image I ahve takes so far under actinics. also on the post your favorite item in the tank in the photography forum where I posted some pics of a favites.
Still I only have T8 Actinic fluorescents on my tank. should be adding T5 actinic by next weekl and hopefully this will help my actinic photography or at least make clear to me what s related to the intensity of lighting and what's not....
HTH

[Reeftanks6]

Capn no i do not. How do you get the reflection of the flash out. I would of never said that flash was on if i had to guess. My pictures are usually taken with the lights on and no flash.

[maroun.c]

How do you get the reflection of the flash out. I would of never said that flash was on if i had to guess. My pictures are usually taken with the lights on and no flash.

As I said before camera straight to the glass and external flah bounced 45-60 degrees up. you will not see the reflection. also I add rubber hoods on my lenses so I can support my camera on the glass and follow the fish this will allow me to be square to the glass, have more support as well as deal with any relection that might appear. for that you need to have a lense that will focus close enough for not to have to go back.
I bleieve for fish shots using a flash is always better as it freezes the image and gives vivid colours. try to use manual on the camera and use exposure factors that should work without the flash then add the flash to just freeze the image this way you can pick more colours from the background if you want.
for corals I will not use flash most of the time as it will fade the colours. if I ahve to use flash I will limit th eamount of flash by manually dialing my flash down or increasing my ISO, or using a smaller aperture. A faster shutter speed will not affect flash contribution as falsh is much faster but will limit the normal lighting. a smaller aperture will affect the flash contribution.
Lots of things to experiment with before yo udecide on a final shooting method.
I even experimented with shooting with two external flashes triggered wirelessly for FTS and ended with acceptable results witht he softboxes showing on the edges.
I could post some more flash lit imageshowever these are not tangs and I guess will take from the purpose of this thread which I guess we have hijacked on this page sorry Kar.

[Reeftanks6]

Here are some pictures that i took recently.

Chocolate Tang





Sailfin and Convict

[Reeftanks6]

Sailfin and Convict









Group

[maroun.c]

nice shots I like the 3rd from last the most.
Still yo uare shooting at around 60mm with 1/40 shutter speed which is slow ususaly you should be at 1/focal distance for subject that are not moving too mcuh and even faster for fish.
your aperture is 3.2 so you can really open a lot more but your Iso is 50-80 which is very low. I'm sure yo ucan double it or tripple without having much more noise in the image which will allow yo uto shoot much faster.

[Reeftanks6]

Thanks i will try that next time i shoot some shots. But yea i think the one that your talking about is one of my best i ever talk. Of about 100 pictures that was the best one.