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I struggle to imagine a commercial publisher being interested but plenty of online print shops do photobooks these days, it should be easy enough for someone to put together to sell on the forum, but wider reach might be tricky.

Examples?

That was probably my favorite yes. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

I just prefer the stronger greens with the 6500k tube really. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Nice one. I think I like the 10k + pink rendition least actually, but you're the one who has to look at it every day so I wouldn't give a monkey's what anyone else thinks :p

Could always do it in two steps if your computer is in the same room as the tank... close as possible in camera as described previously, then tweak the colour balance in PS to match what you can see even closer. The colour balance sliders are often better for this than a simple white balance...

I find tube ratings to be all over the place really. I don't think you should correct WB in PS or use a grey card - all that will do is attempt to mitigate the differences in color rendition which is the opposite of what you want. Just go by sight. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Assuming you have live preview, I would use manual white balance and adjust it on the screen to look as near as possible to what your perception of each set of tubes is. Obviously you're then relying on the camera screen to give a fair representation of what you'll see on your computer, which...

Sigma 150 is the daddy. I really miss that lens. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Have a google for examples of shots taken with those lens/raynox combinations. The adaptors work better on some lenses than others (you tend to get very heavy vignetting at wider focal lengths and with larger lenses).

I'd normally say the 600D was worth the difference, but in this case with a limited budget you're probably better off putting the difference towards some sort of macro-capable lens which will make far more of a difference than a higher spec body. What are you planning lens wise?

Macro for 200 notes is always going to be about compromise. You can get an entry level DSLR + kit lens, then use reversing rings, extensions or a Raynox adaptor. These will get you high level of magnification, but at the cost of fidlyness, light loss, extremely narrow depth of field and (perhaps...

Haha yeah I remember the frustrations of the old reversed lens malarkey. These were just taken with the kit lens on my E-M5, the semi macro mode is surprisingly useful.

As a doornail.

I was cutting up an old willow stump last week for use in the aquarium, and found a bunch of bore-holes and a larval casing. And today I found what made them - a pair of quite spectacular lunar hornet moths (Sesia bembeciformis), I think. Pretty good mimicry, huh.

Yeah I almost went B&W with 4, it works equally well. Using screw in 4 and 10 stop B&W full ND filters (and a couple with them both stacked for 14 stops during the day). A couple of the shots are blends for different exposure/shutter speed between foreground and sky.

Thanks Humbert. Exposure times were... 5. 239 seconds (using a 10 stop ND filter at sunset) 6. 139 seconds (stacked 10 and 4 stop filters at mid-afternoon) 7. 8 seconds (10 stop filter at mid-afternoon) I think aquascaping and photography tend to go hand in hand really, lots of people on...

Yeah no biting midges at all this time of year, and still warm enough to get sunburn. Would love to go back in winter when the Rum Cuillin have some snow on then.

Hurrah, someone with taste. I love this sort of minimal shot with acres of negative space but when I post them on photo forums they attract so much criticism.

The dog was a bloody idiot. Came hairing across the beach from out of nowhere then proceeded to dig holes in front of my tripod every time I tried to set up a shot. Played that game for about half an hour before spotting it's owner on a cliff a mile or two away and ran off again.

Cheers chaps. Base camp was pretty ace too, bar the ticks.

Hi all, Just back from a few days camping on Eigg (via Camusdarach). Suffered a bit from photographer's paranoia that all the good light was happening where I wasn't and was on foot so couldn't chase it, but fairly pleased with some of what I came away with despite a few missed opportunities...

Yeah it depends whether you want 1:1 macro or not.... the Sigma 17-70 is a pretty ace general purpose lens by all accounts, but only goes to 0.36x magnification, compared to 1.00x magnification with a dedicated macro lens. The 17-70 will also be very hard to get even to 0.36x if photographing...

PS. Unless you'v got a billion watts of light above the tank you may quickly find yourself wishing for an off-camera flash as well. There are relatively basic but correspondingly cheap options form the likes of Metz and Yongnuo which are worth looking at.

Go for as long a lens as you can afford for macro. Especially for aquarium photography where you're physically limited by the glass as to how close you can get. Something around 100mm is good. I used to have the Sigma 150 which was utterly superb for aquarium work. But don't get rid of the kit...

Heh. If the room is nice and dark the walls shouldn't be too visible. Otherwise yeah, you can try drawing a black sheet or curtain around the tank which should have the same effect.

Night time, lights off, room as dark as you can get it. If there's light spill from the tank illuminating stuff then cover anything showing in the reflections in dark material (including yourself if necessary!).

Some really fun images there. I think those Chinese cormorant fisherman must all be professional photographic models by now though.

Generally anyone who shouts for one marque over the other without having a specific detailed reason on account of one's particular needs should have their opinion thoroughly ignored. Decide on ergomonics (some people just plain prefer one over the other), available lenses (having access to your...

Hah yeah don't worry I didn't think that. I find pricing very hard - things seem expensive until you actually work out the amount of time and travel costs that go into the photography and then it seems like a pittance, haha. Such a subjective thing.

You don't sound too sure :lol: Hmm. In terms of the prints the majority of the price is made up from printing costs (with the exception of the smallest sizes), but they are very good quality. I am hoping to run occasional 'specials' when print labs have offers on which I can pass on to people...

Cheers Nath. I've been meaning to put something together for ages, it feels good having a proper home for my images.

Hi all, In celebration of finally finishing my gallery website I thought I'd share a trio of recent shots and unabashedly point those of you that might be interested at the new website and FB page. Thomas Black Photography Thomas Black Photography | Facebook Cheers, Tom

I use a Chrome extension called EXIF Reader. Although for Flikr you have to click through to the main image page and then look at the info tab for the shot there. I may also have downloaded these in order to look at the expanded EXIF, I can't remember.

The Panasonic kit lenses are pretty good for starting out. If you want any advice give me a shout, I'm pretty well invested in m43. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

Yeah, prices from traders and even eBay don't tend to be terribly competitive on used gear. Worth keeping an eye on talkphotography and avforums classifieds though. Also, I don't normally recommend buying imported cameras but HDEW are very well established with a good reputation - you get a...

Happy to help. Just had a look at the EXIF info and it seems you were using AI autofocus mode for the bridge shot. I'm not really familiar with how Canon AF modes work, but for still subjects try using One-shot AF and selecting the AF point closest to where you want the middle of the focal plane...

So some constructive technical crit - With both the shrimp shots it looks like you either missed focus or were shooting at an angle through the glass, which inevitably leads to softness. Unless they're crops? I'd also say you could have got away with a slightly slower shutter speed than 1/320...

I'd get the 18-55 as an entry level walkabout lens and then the 35 for low light stuff which'll be handy for aquarium photography. Then either the macro or a 70-300VR depending on what takes your fancy. 200mm will never feel long enough for wildlife shots. And then an ultrawide :) And then...

Golitha Falls ;) Natural England - Golitha Falls NNR

Partly this will depend on how important video is to you. The D80 has no video, D5000 will record 720p and the D3100 has 1080p. The D80 has excellent ergonomics and is very well built, but the sensor is aging quite badly now and will not do well in low light situations. I'd go with one of the...

Lovely naturalistic shots here. I like the deer in the winter, do you have any wider shots of the same scene? I pretty much gave up on wildlife photography a couple of years ago, requires too much patience and frustration!

Thanks. I'm not sure about that, all my workflow is geared for landscapes really. There are much better aquarium photographers on here.

It was done in Hugin, which is free and very powerful but a bit finicky. Takes a little practice to get good results. Then some final puppet warp tweaking in PS, before going through my usual processing which involves lots of localised contrast adjustments using various blending layers. I had...

Yeah a hard ND grad might do the trick. I'd rather do it in post 99% of the time though.

Thanks Nutty. Last shot is a stitch of about 12 portrait images giving a horixontal field of view of probably about 270 degrees.

Somewhere on your Canon will be a setting for displaying a live histogram. This is a graph that shows the distribution of the brightness of all the pixels on your sensor. At the left hand side of the graph is pure black, at the right hand side is pure white. The graph I linked was from one of...

PS, you can clean up noise pretty easily these days (excuse the lazy blending, you could make a much neater job with the full size file) - Here's George's brightened shot after noise removal and removing the blue cast - You'll never recover those blown highlights though, which is why you...

This sort of scene is asking a lot from any sensor - a pure white object in bright light and dark objects in shadow. I hate to think how many stops the dynamic range is. You have to expose for the cat - spot meter on its fur, or go by trial and error. And then as George said, either use...

Yeah I remember the days of heading out with a D200, Sigma 120-300, 150 macro, 10-20, a mid range zoom, ringflash, full size tripod, two massive heads, etc, etc. God knows what that lot weighed in at.

It really depends whether or not size is an issue for you. I realised one day that I'd stopped taking my DSLR out with me unless I was on a specific photography mission, whereas with m43 I can always chuck a body and lens in a coat pocket (or my girldfriend's handbag!) and so have it with me far...

I swapped from a D200 and have hands like hams, fingers like sausages and abuse the hell out of my kit and have had no issues :). A few more fully weather sealed lenses would be nice, I'll admit, but I've got my stuff drenched plenty of times without damage, and they do seem to be starting to...

I'm pretty sure Alasatir has already picked up a new camera (not sure what he went for in the end), so this is fairly moot, but m43 does have two very high quality native macro lenses, plus several options in 43 mount that work well with an adaptor, and are also very well suited to macro...

Yeah 10-stop. Was a bit much really, but the CPL wasn't giving me enough. 3 or 6 stop would have been better. Nothing so exciting here :p

No drama on my walk this afternoon, just quiet damp sleepy old woods.

Only this :D - There was an even bigger bit which I left propped next to the first ruined mill, you'd need 3 people or a wheelbarrow to get it back to the car park though.

I'd probably look at Nikon and Canon in that case, as I'm guessing some of the more niche astro equipment might only be available in those mounts (not my field though, so I could be wrong). I'd also imagine high-ISO performance being a priority, in which case APS-C or full frame sensors are...

I use a Panasonic GH2 these days. Switched out my old Nikon SLR gear for a much lighter micro 4/3rds setup.

Cheers Mark. You can have a lot of fun with photography, well worth investing some time in. Just a CPL to cut down reflections for these Rob. It was pouring with rain and dreary as anything. It's a little wooded valley on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

Not the most dramatic of falls (more a tumble, I guess), but very pretty, even in the wet. Grabbed a couple of shots despite the rain while looking for wood -

Definitely go with a DSLR, you'll only get frustrated with a compact. A dedicatd macro lens is a must have really (a proper one with 1:1 magnification, there are lots of zoom lenses that label themselves as macro which will get you to ~1:3, which isn't always enough). Longer macros (90mm+) are...

Cheers. No flash, just natural light (of which there was very little) and a contrast push.

Cheers Ady. Not sure the frogs were so impressed!

Took a break from work this afternoon for a quick stroll and picked up the GH2 and Olympus 35 macro in the hope of spotting some fungi. Only one such specimen obliged, but I did also spot a few young common frogs who were quite well behaved. This is the first non-aquarium macro stuff I've done...

Post processing technique is absolutely crucial to digital photography, in my opinion. It's also very easy to learn (there are a staggering amount of free resources online) and I also find I enjoy it. But if you do not want to any at all, then that is obviously your preference and you will...

Sorry, missed this bit. There is more to a camera than it's sensor, and more to sensor performance than simple signal to noise ratio. FF will have better tonal range, dynamic range and colour sensitivity. You can see DxO charts for these here - DxOMark - Compare cameras side by side But you...

That's precisely the point of the dpreview sample images - to compare sensor performance equally. The above samples were taken from the full size, unprocessed RAW files that dpreview provide, and I processed them myself for noise and sharpening. This was done just by using the colour and...

I'd also recommend looking at second hand gear, but I wouldn't pay dealer prices; talkphotography forum has a good active members market, I've bought and sold plenty of stuff on there. http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/ That simply isn't true. Here's a 100% crop from a 600D and a 5D2, both at...

I think that's a little disingenuous. With some gentle noise cleaning I can get good results at 1600 and 3200 with my GH2 which shows more noise than a 600D. While going full frame will undeniably give some improvements I'd suggest looking at the rest of your technique and post processing...

The thing to bear in mind here is that most of the advantages of the 7D over the 600D boil down to things like ergonomics, build quality, weather sealing, autofocus speed, etc. Actual image quality will probably be very similar to the 600D the majority of the time. I'd always recommend getting a...

Damn, this is one of the only moths I can do except for boring old Antler moths and the terribly obvious Burnets and Darrel beat me to it!

Just had a google, those Plitvice lakes look absolutely stunning. Added to the bucket list!

That was a stream bed that was well and truly dried up.

Hi all, Had a lovely break in the south of France last week. Absolutely roasting, so took shelter in the forests and hills and ended up snapping quite a lot of plants while pootling about - thought you lot might appreciate them! This last one was really cool -...

I hate 99% of HDR with a passion. Everything that you want to achieve in terms of balancing exposures throughout an image can be done with local adjustments of levels using layer masks and then you don't get that the awful muddied midtones, grey highlights and haloing that plagues so much poorly...

Mega pixels is probably the least important specification. Anything on sale at the moment will have more than enough. For aquarium use, good high-ISO performance is a priority (ISO = how sensitive the sensor is to light... increasing the ISO will give you brighter images, at the expense of more...

Second hand camera gear is often a good way of saving money. If you're in the UK then have a peruse of the for sale forum at talkphotography (you may need to register to see it). I buy and sell loads of stuff on there and never had a dud deal. As for which brand to go for; it probably doesn't...

Some cracking sequences in there. What sort of setup are you using for the pan/zoom shots?

Or an MPE-65 Mike. You know you want to ;-)

Yup :) And really cool probosces -

I've got a Raynox DC-250, you can get some excellent super-macro images with it but it's tricky... you're down to a few mm working distance usually and depending on what lens you use with it you can get some very heavy vignetting. These, diopters and reversing rings are all cheap and cheerful...

Flickr says ISO 100-200, so definitely from sharpening unless they were very under exposed and have been pushed a lot.

Yeah I always leave the sharpening as the very last thing to do after resizing, and do it on a separate layer so you can mask out areas like the sky which don't benefit from it. I find unsharp mask does a perfectly good job normally - my base settings are usually amount 80%, radius 0.8...

I did click through to flickr... there's a definite sharpening halo around the tower, and sharpening artefacts in the sky and shadows as well where its picking up the noise. Not sure what software you're using but its easily avoided by slightly increasing the sharpening threshold and reducing...

Nice series Mark, I'm a sucker for a good seascape. Exposures are spot on, they seem a touch oversharpened though.

Rockwell is a funny old sod. Never really sure when he's being straight talking or just being controversial to generate traffic. Anyway, there's no such thing as a bad SLR these days really and if you're faily well invested in Canon then its the obvious choice. If someone was starting from...

I assume you've seen the excellent dp review? Canon EOS 6D In-Depth Review: Digital Photography Review Main issue seems to be relatively slow AF and burst rate, and that it isnt a D600 :p

Have to admit I'm a bit of a fan of the Lightroom/Photoshop combo. LR for organisation and basic adjustments, PS for full blown post processing. And both being Adobe they integrate well. Doubt it's the cheapest option though, although you can sometimes get a good deal on Lightroom and I don't...

Really nice. What sort of dolly were you using? Would be nice to see some slightly longer slidetrack (is that the right term?) shots if you've got them.

Focal length doesn't define whether or not it's a fisheye (although fisheyes do tend to be quite wide), the internal construction of the lens does. For example, here is a non-fisheye image which has had no adjustments in Photoshop (other than the B&W treatment), shot at 10mm. EDIT - just...

Depends on the lens design. 15mm fullframe is roughly equivalent to 10mm on a crop sensor, which is normally the limit for ultra wide angle zooms. Think there's a Sigma that gets down to 8mm without being fisheye. Fisheyes tend to cover the same sort of focal lengths, but have different lens...

Good review and IQ comparison of D800 vs 5D3, 5D2, D700, etc http://mansurovs.com/nikon-d800-review D800 is simply a monster, better performance than 5D3 at all ISOs, despite 36MP.

Nice series. I like the portrait shots (oranda and chromis) best I think, followed by the angel fish as they are the ones that are least obviously 'fish in an aquarium', and hence suspension of bisbelief is easier.

That's a pretty big price hike for what looks like a fairly standard model evolution. If I was investing from scratch I have to say that the Nikon D800 looks a much better buy right now. 5d3 will probably edge it for high ISO work though I guess, but then I doubt the D800 will be too shabby...

Only a 10yr I'm afraid, all I had in the house!

Just drunk a bottle of wine to get my courage up, decided I really want to switch to micro four thirds format, and ordered... Panasonic GH2 Panasonic GF1 Panasonic 14-42mm Panasonic 20mm pancake Olympus 9-18mm (will be selling the 14-42 and getting a 14-140 or 14-42x down the road) So long...

Just a couple of odds and sods really, thought I'd stick them up anyway. Harris, looking towards Luskentyre and Taransay: Monarch Islands: And a lovely evening trip out to St Kilda (it's normally around gale force 9 when I make this trip, made a nice change!):

Flashing means its close, constant means its spot on. In low light, it might not manage a constant confirm.

You should have a little green dot in the bottom left of the viewfinder that lights up when the camera has focus on whatever is under the selected focus point. It can be quite tricky to spot until you know where it is, try manusal focusing on something until you see it appear. It's much more...

Yup, if you want to do full tank shots then set the ISO to 200, set the aperture to around f8-16 and use a tripod to counter the low shutter speed that will result. If you're shooting fish then you will need to use flash to avoid the graininess associated with high ISO, preferably with the flash...