Help I'm Bleeding!

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know why the White Band on the Clownfish is bleeding all over the place? I used a tripod and a quick shutter speed so I don't think it's motion. Is it the camera? Is there anyway to prevent it? I'm using a Kodak DX7590 in macro mode.

Take a look at the last post in this thread ---> http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... 386#914386

 

[Len]

Ha! I was looking for blood and then I realized you meant color bleeding

If not movement blur, then it looks like chromatic abberations. It's a limitation of your sensor/lens combo. I've found that turning off actinics helps a lot with this type of C.A. Also, if your camera can do custom white balance, use the function. Auto or preprogrammed white balances almost always suck for reef photography.

However, I gotta say it still looks like motion blur to me (at least part of the issue). A tripod helps steady your hand so there's no camera shake, but the fish is still moving Even tiny movements will cause this blurring. There's no surefire solution other then using artificial lighting such as flash or strobes (but these do weird things to the perceived colors and often look unnatural). Other then that, set your shutter speed faster and keep snapping pics until you get lucky. Up'ping your camera's ISO (it looks like you are using very low ISO, hence the very saturated, noiseless images) will help you increase shutter speed. All cameras are a bit different, but I would aim for 1/100 or faster to increase your chances of getting a crisp, sharp shot.

 

[Anonymous]

When you say 'quick' shutter speed, what speed exactly are you shooting? When I shoot my fish, I'm rarely below 1/180sec. Most of the time 1/250.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks to both of you. I've experimented a bit and got it a whole lot better now. I think you've pointed me in the right direction!