Types of Tubes to use for Photography of Tanks

[craftsman]

On my monitor, Paul, your small tanks looks bluish. Hardly what I would consider natural. 6500K should be good. Lower kelvins ratings will give yellow cast.

ghim, the set without exposure compensation looks more "correct".

Why not just shoot in RAW? Then you can dial whatever WB you want.

ck

Hi CK,
Yes you're right. The small tanks are more blue-ish. The colour reproduction on the 30D is very accurate. The photo shows it the way I see it with my own eyes. There are 2 small tanks. The left tank (small) looks the most natural compared to the right (small tank) which has a blue tube.

THe 2.5ft tank has 2 x 6500k tubes, and the tank always appears yellowish green even to the eye. I suspect this is probably due to the following:
- slightly yellowish water
- 6500k tubes

I'll do a 50% water change to see if I can correct the tanin issue with the water. I'll also change the tubes to see if I can get something more in line with the left small tank or something like what ghim has posted of his tanks.

CK, don't you think the 2.5ft tank looks more yellowish than normal? My HC all appear almost bright yellowish green. Not dark green like ghim's.

I do shoot in RAW and change the WB later on in Aperture. That is very useful. The funny thing is, CK, the post production looks very nice on my Mac, but upon upload to flickr, the colour appears vastly different. I wonder if anyone has experienced the colour "change" with flickr. Maybe there is a better photo album service on the net which is more true to colour representation? Any advise, anyone?

Thanks!

[CK Yeo]

ghim probably Auto WB.

If you are shooting in Adobe RGB or processing in that, you need to convert to sRGB before uploading to web (I should set this as my signature. ) else there will be a colour/exposure shift when you load onto web.

Yes, the 2.5feet does look warmer. Could be your driftwood leeching. It is a bit overexposed too, so that might lighten it somewhat. Else, try custom WB with card in tank.

ck

[craftsman]

Just as a simple test Ck, Ghim and all...

(No Post production)
On Flickr


On Photoblog


(With Post Production)
On Flickr


On Photoblog


Wow.. interesting! Uploaded photos on Flickr are more sharp than the ones uploaded to Photoblog!!! They're exactly the same photos, which means, either Flickr or photoblog made changes to them. Colour reproduction wise, Flickr also seems more vibrant compared to Photoblog.

[CK Yeo]

photoblog file size is half that of flickr. I can't really tell if there are colour difference.
BTW, colours still warm isn't it?

ck

[trident]

Hi Paul,
Sure looks better (sharper) in flickr.
I use smugmug, a paid photo site, much better

[craftsman]

photoblog file size is half that of flickr. I can't really tell if there are colour difference.
BTW, colours still warm isn't it?

ck

Yeah.. Colours still too warm. I'll go get me some 10000k tubes, and see if theres a difference. If not, it would be the tanins in the water.

[craftsman]

Hi Paul,
Sure looks better (sharper) in flickr.
I use smugmug, a paid photo site, much better

Hmm. how much do you pay Trident?

[trident]

Actual price for a normal plan US$39.95,
I use a discount coupon for 40% discount.
Paid about SG$34 per year

[craftsman]

Actual price for a normal plan US$39.95,
I use a discount coupon for 40% discount.
Paid about SG$34 per year

Wow! Hmmm... dunno if I wanna pay that much. :P

[craftsman]

I did a 80% water change this afternoon....

You can tell that the light is pretty yellow. I definitely need to change the lights.


After filling her up, and letting the filter run for a few hours to clear up the cloudiness, I took another shot.

I did a little post production to tune the WB and hue so I get a slightly greenish green instead of a yellowish green. I'm now convinced that the light has quite a big part to play in how the plants appear. I'm glad nevertheless that I did the water change. Hmm.... I think I also need a UV light to kill the algae. They smell terrible!!