Help at the Aquarium?

[d70_n00b]

Hey all, I've been lurking for the past 2 days or so, and already have learned a ton from you guys... This is a great forum, I'm glad I found it! Anyways, some background first:

I'm a native Chicagoan sent to Sydney for 3 months by the company I work for... I found it a great opportunity, and seeing as how I was always interested in photography, I took a running leap and bought a Nikon D70 Kit along with a 70-300mm G lens, a case, and a tripod. I've been reading up a lot on photography as I've had no training, and I'm starting to understand this stuff pretty well I think (aperature, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, white balance, bracketing, etc). I'm trying to experiment with all this as I go along.

Anyways, following is a link to some shots I took at the Aquarium in Darling Harbour, can anyone give me some pointers? I was trying to get a good exposure (judging by the histogram/highlights), but of course everything was quite dark in the exhibits and so the ISO was set at 1600 the whole time... I seem to have gotten quite a bit of noise on all the photos, is there any way for me to avoid this short of lugging around a tripod (or monopod, which I probably need to invest in next)? I shot in RAW (another first, experiments, experiments...) hoping I could save the shots, but as it turns out most shots were afflicted by either motion blur (handheld at 1/40 or 1/80 is still a bit rough for me) or noise as it was underexposed and I had overcompensate with exposure in Photoshop. Let me know if you have any ideas/tips/tricks, and sorry for the <b>LONG</b> post!!!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/acaruso/sets/1163799/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/acaruso/sets/1163799/</a>

Edit: Btw, all the shots were taken with the kits lens (18-70).

[big pix]

hi ....... and welcome to the forum and AUSTRALIA...... if you are using PSCS2 try the noise filter or neat image plugin for photoshop. But your images look a little over processed in ACR, I would reprocess to get a better result, then use neat image. Hope this helps......... Don't forget the Sydney mini meets on Saturday, one of the Sydney people will help you get there......... and meet some fun people.......

[stubbsy]

Largely what BP says, but shooting at ISO 1600 is pretty much sure to give you noise. In this case you have little choice but to use it, so a de noise process is your only solution. An alternative longer term is a lower light lens eg one rated at f1.4 or 2.8 such as the 50/1.4. With these you can use a lower ISO value.

[d70_n00b]

Hey guys, thanks for the quick replies!

I'm sure the post-processing wasn't perfect (PSCS1 btw). I haven't tried any noise-removal solutions yet as I wasn't too worried about saving the shots... it was more of me just double-checking to make sure I didn't miss some crucial concept that would've helped them to begin with.

I'm definately already looking to buy another lens or two (something macro, something prime, who knows), but first I want to get the fundamentals down with the two lenses I already have.

The meets sound like fun, hopefully I can try to make some in the last 2 months I'm here... My next goal is to head down to the Circular Quay area and get some night shots of the Opera House/Harbour Bridge (yeah, i'm sure that's common enough, but night shots will be a new experience for me)... and I'll bring my tripod of course. Thanks again guys!

[MCWB]

My next goal is to head down to the Circular Quay area and get some night shots of the Opera House/Harbour Bridge (yeah, i'm sure that's common enough, but night shots will be a new experience for me)... and I'll bring my tripod of course. Thanks again guys!

Try taking them across the water from Milsons Point (North of the bridge, where Luna Park is), Blues Point (a bit further around inland) or Mrs Macquarie's chair.

[TonyH]

Hi Anthony,

Welcome to the forum. You'll find (as I'm sure you're aware already) they're a good bunch in here with lots of practical advice.

Re your shots I try never to shoot over 800 ISO as I'm never happy with the images. I wouldn't delete these shots as they will help you as you learn what mistakes have happenend previously and how you have overcome them.

It's good to look back as you improve....

Best of luck

Tony

[kipper]

Fast glass is a must imho. I used a 50 F1.4 at an aquarium in France and had pretty good success. There was no flash allowed like a lot of aquarium and most times the flash will bounce the light and cause reflections unless you put a rubber lenshood on and press it against the perspex.