Contest Aquascaping Photography

[Ehcosbie]

Hi all,

I thought that it would be good to have a thread dedicated to contest aquascaping photography. I have yet to take a contest photo, but I have been thinking about this subject a lot and have some questions/ discussion points where I would like to hear your opinions.

I note that the IAPLC rules state that submissions need to be in jpeg format, this is probably consistent with other contests. Has anyone taken the photo in raw format, processed and then exported to jpeg? Is there any benefit to doing it this way rather than shooting directly in jpeg? Would this approach be breaking the rules?

In Josh Sim’s Green Aqua Masterclass, he stated that he uses photography studio lighting to illuminate his work for contest photography. Is this something that others do, or do you keep to the aquarium lighting only? I am interested to hear how others approach lighting their works for the final photo.

When thinking about what lens to use (even for a smartphone) would you choose a wide angle lens and get closer to the aquarium, or a more standard width with the camera further away? I have noticed when using the wide angle lens on my phone and moving closer, that I get a different perspective with the reflection on the sides of the aquarium.

I’m sure that I have other discussion points for contest photography, but think these three are a good starting point.

Over to you.

 

[Tom Ryan (@aquascaperay)]

Hi Edward,

Thanks for starting a discussion on his topic! I feel it isn’t that well understood and I only touched the surface in my IAPLC 2024 journal.

I’ll try to provide my view on your queries below based on my experience. However note there are many ways to take a successful contest photo and it can differ from scape to scape.

I note that the IAPLC rules state that submissions need to be in jpeg format, this is probably consistent with other contests. Has anyone taken the photo in raw format, processed and then exported to jpeg? Is there any benefit to doing it this way rather than shooting directly in jpeg? Would this approach be breaking the rules?

Yes, the majority of contests only allow submission in jpeg format. This doesn’t stop you taking your photo in RAW and editing it. You can then export it to jpeg for the contest.

There are advantages and disadvantages of shooting in each. For jpeg photography you have the ease of transferring it wirelessly to your editing device. The photos also take up way less space and some cameras allow a ‘Extra Fine’ jpeg file (basically the equivalent of a lossless audio file) to be captured. I’ve read that this is very close to the quality of RAW files and a bit of a gamechanger!

What you do however get with RAW images is the ability to capture the ‘true tone’ of the colours in your photo. This means there’s more scope for editing in terms of making sure the colours are more close to reality. This is best for dark layouts with a lot of shadow. As inevitably you’ll need to increase exposure and this can blow out the colours on jpeg formats.

For me, my layouts haven’t yet required this kind of editing and I don’t actually own a device where I can transfer RAW images to it (I edit through Lightroom on my iPhone)! So I’ve only ever used jpeg ‘Extra Fine’ format.

In Josh Sim’s Green Aqua Masterclass, he stated that he uses photography studio lighting to illuminate his work for contest photography. Is this something that others do, or do you keep to the aquarium lighting only? I am interested to hear how others approach lighting their works for the final photo.

It depends how strong your light is above the tank and whether it covers the whole length! I’ve only ever used the aquarium lighting but on 100% intensity and made sure it is a good distance above the water surface to give a nice even distribution of light.

It’s more important to try to use a black board to cover the top of the aquarium to stop any light travelling straight into the camera lens. You will reduce reflections this way and also get a sharper image.

When thinking about what lens to use (even for a smartphone) would you choose a wide angle lens and get closer to the aquarium, or a more standard width with the camera further away? I have noticed when using the wide angle lens on my phone and moving closer, that I get a different perspective with the reflection on the sides of the aquarium

This depends on the look you’re trying to achieve. At the time of purchasing my camera I only had enough for one lens so opted for a wide angle lens (28mm) as I preferred the look of scapes shot with this perspective. As you say, it also shows more of the side reflections of the tank.

Hope that helps and I’m also intrigued to hear other people’s views!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[keef321]

this is a great subject. I have often thought about the lighting with photos and as I am due to get a light for my new 75p that I am building I am thinking of getting one that is stronger than I need so that I can use it to take photos. I’m guessing this is why some of the lighting out there is so strong because, I mean seriously some of it is soo strong that I would think it would just Fry most plants and you would have a algae fest, so I think perhaps these lights are designed for allowing you to use photography.

In regards to RAW, personally as a RAW user myself if you have the ability, I would always use RAW over JPEG, like stated you can bring out the shadows, control the highlights, and start with a muted palette, that you can then add saturation and colour for a more realistic render. It provides a more flexible file, and this flexibility means the RAW file is more forgiving. The downside though is that you have to spend more time processing the image.

 

[finniche]

Great topic! Important and interesting as well. Many masters have emphasized in their recorded workshops and masterclasses that aquascaping contest are in reality photography contests. Obviously meaning that the photo of the scape is the only thing the judges can evaluate.

As the scaping has evolved during the contest history so has the photography. I feel that nowadays there is more of a difference between the scape as seen with the naked eye and contest photo than ever before.

I randomly came across a unprocessed, "natural" photo of one IAPLC Top100 entry that I recognized. I think this is a fairly good example of the differencies I am thinking about.



There might be some minor differencies other than the photographic but mainly it is about lens, angle, color, exposure etc. Huge difference IMO.

As for myself I have been quite unsuccesful with photography so far. My own biased opinion is that my contest scapes have been better in actuality than the photos I have been able to produce of them. Crappy equipment, user errors, laziness and lack of skill. I have been using extra LED lights from other aquariums with the normal aquarium light. Big thing is to get the room/space otherwise dark to eliminate reflections.

Then there is the whole hassle of getting the tank ready for it´s closeup and getting the fauna to behave, maybe material for futher discussion...

 

[Wookii]

Interesting topic - one thing I'd love to know if how to go about taking images (just general ones, not necessarily competition ones) without reflections on the front glass. I've tried adding circular polarising filters which help a little, but short of erecting an 8ft sheet of black velvet so there is nothing to reflect off, and sticking the lens through a hole in it, I'm not sure how to stop them?

 

[Ehcosbie]

Thank you for continuing the discussion.

It depends how strong your light is above the tank and whether it covers the whole length! I’ve only ever used the aquarium lighting but on 100% intensity and made sure it is a good distance above the water surface to give a nice even distribution of light.

That is a good bit of advice, I don’t know why but I would have tried to get the light down to a level that would be similar to the final shot increasing shadows. But this way round may give better colour rendition, and I guess shadows can be brought out in post processing. Food for thought.

It’s more important to try to use a black board to cover the top of the aquarium to stop any light travelling straight into the camera lens. You will reduce reflections this way and also get a sharper image.

Another thing that I had not considered. I have seen green aqua have a black card (probably) cut out only showing the front face of the aquarium. Likely to reduce light bleeding out of the side of the aquarium causing more reflections?

In regards to RAW, personally as a RAW user myself if you have the ability, I would always use RAW over JPEG, like stated you can bring out the shadows, control the highlights, and start with a muted palette, that you can then add saturation and colour for a more realistic render. It provides a more flexible file, and this flexibility means the RAW file is more forgiving. The downside though is that you have to spend more time processing the image.

My camera can shoot raw and jpeg at the same time, but when I have tried, the jpeg highlights have been blown out. I will have a play with raw, but need to get a raw editor for mac. Any suggestions?

I randomly came across a unprocessed, "natural" photo of one IAPLC Top100 entry that I recognized. I think this is a fairly good example of the differencies I am thinking about.

Wow, what a difference between the photos. When I come to do my contest photo, I will be sure to do a more standard picture at the same time and share here (once the contest is over). I guess we could ask Tom, as our in house expert, if he has any non contest photos of his entries that he would be willing to share and post them alongside the final contest photo?

Big thing is to get the room/space otherwise dark to eliminate reflections.

Seems like good advice. Would you wear plain dark clothes with dark gloves too, or consider a remote shutter release, so that there is no chance of you appearing in your photo?

one thing I'd love to know if how to go about taking images (just general ones, not necessarily competition ones) without reflections on the front glass. I've tried adding circular polarising filters which help a little, but short of erecting an 8ft sheet of black velvet so there is nothing to reflect off, and sticking the lens through a hole in it, I'm not sure how to stop them?

Were the filters worth the cost or was the effect minimal? I have a feeling the velvet sheet method may be the most robust, but I am happy to be corrected.

Then there is the whole hassle of getting the tank ready for it´s closeup and getting the fauna to behave, maybe material for futher discussion...

I know MD taps the glass before feeding, but that is promoting schooling (or is it shoaling) behaviour, what would you do? I think Tom showed in his journal a photo of his tweezers chasing the fish, would that be to un-nerve the fish and get them to stick together?

Thanks again for your replies, happy for the discussion to evolve if anyone has any issues/subjects they would like to cover.

 

[Wookii]

Were the filters worth the cost or was the effect minimal? I have a feeling the velvet sheet method may be the most robust, but I am happy to be corrected.

I already had the filter, I wouldn't have paid out for it just for that. It did work yes, to an extent, but not completely, and obvious it sacrifices a lot of exposure.

 

[keef321]

My camera can shoot raw and jpeg at the same time, but when I have tried, the jpeg highlights have been blown out. I will have a play with raw, but need to get a raw editor for mac. Any suggestions?

Your camera may come with some software to allow some RAW corrections prior to importing them into an editor, so have a look and have a play 🙂 . I use 'Phase One Capture One' as I use the fujifilm system (it works well for my sensor) and I particularly like the workflow. The most well known one used is 'Adobe Lightroom'. There are many others on the market. They are all getting more and more capabilities over time, so much so, I rarely use Photoshop now, as I can do so much in Capture One.

It's always better to brind details out of shadows, than trying to recover clipped highlights. If you are not confident working in manual mode yet in your camera, adjust exposure compensation on your camera to slightly reduce exposure (this will increase your shutter speed etc), take a photo and see if you can then slightly adjust your shadows etc back up to compensate in your chosen RAW App.

Seems like good advice. Would you wear plain dark clothes with dark gloves too, or consider a remote shutter release, so that there is no chance of you appearing in your photo?

Yes if you watch some of MD Fishtank's videos you will notice he uses a black sheet behind him when filming to reduce reflections on the fish tank 🙂.
As long as you are using a tripod, you only really need the remote shutter release for using slow shutter speeds. You could always just use the timer on your camera instead of the remote shutter whilst you are experimenting.

one thing I'd love to know if how to go about taking images (just general ones, not necessarily competition ones) without reflections on the front glass. I've tried adding circular polarising filters which help a little, but short of erecting an 8ft sheet of black velvet so there is nothing to reflect off, and sticking the lens through a hole in it, I'm not sure how to stop them?

I think most imporant thing is using black materials etc to reduce reflections. I have a circular polasrising filter, but they are not cheap, I would try other things first.