How-to: Tank pictures and macros with Iphone

A few years ago nobody thought that cell phones could also shoot good pictures comparable with a DSRL. Now, we can even shoot with a mobile phone, in this case an iPhone 4S, great shots of our tanks and even sharp macro shots of coral and fish without much effort and without professional photographer know how.

Well, the iPhone 4S does have a 8-megapixel camera, but lacks standards, which today every reasonable compact camera has: aperture, shutter speed, ISO .. all this is controlled automatically by the software.

Still can use the Iphone easily for photography – you can only just set anything mentioned above on the camera. So you have to make your tank “Iphone-compatible”. Here are some tips:

1. Find out, in which the images appear the most realistic lighting. In my case, a 8×54 watt ATI sunpower dimmable T5 lighting, the following setting is recommended:

First Channel (2 x blue): 100%

Second Channel (blue 3x, 2x white): 35% -40%

This setting bright areas such as sand areas will not be too bright and the coral colors are very realistic.

With a variable LED lighting, the set can also very good.

2. Darken the room:

To avoid reflections because of ambient light – all the pictures will be exposed the same.

3. Focus and exposure:

Here you should use the trial and error method. Tapping on certain areas in the image on the display lets you adjust the focus point. The camera app then automatically adjusts the exposure and focus. At full tank shots it makes sense to try different focus points.

If the preview of the white sand is too bright, this area can be focused by tapping and exposure controls down.

Tip: For macro shots, the iPhone can be simply pressed against the glass tank (to avoid camera shake). The Iphone can refocus the motifs from about 5cm-6cm distance using the autofocus.

4. Postproduction

Color rework in my case has never been necessary. Per app, such as Camera +, you can cut and trim images. For a professional post certainly are good professional programs like Photoshop.

Conclusion: With the iPhone you can quickly and easily create realistic color images and very good fotos. For professional images, a good DSLR is undefeated.

For me, with relatively little photographic know-how, the Iphone is a good solution for a realistic and beautiful images.

Here are a few pictures made with my Iphone:

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