# Bright Light, help needed



## Questin (Sep 30, 2007)

I have some ground cover that really reflects the light in the tank when I try to take pictures of it and I am not sure how to fix it.

This is from a Canon PowerShot SX10 IS









F-stop = f/2.8
Exposure time = 1/30 sec.
ISO = 250
Max aperture 2.96875









F-stop = f/2.8
Exposure time = 1/60 sec.
ISO = 640
Max aperture 2.96875









F-stop = f/2.8
Exposure time = 1/200 sec.
ISO = 400
Max aperture 2.96875

What am I missing here? To the naked eye I am able to see green all the way to the roots of the grond cover plant, the light is not nearly as powerful as it was captured in the photos, it is much more spread out when I look at it.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Try angling your camera down from the top a little more. Don't take the shot straight on. I think that may help. You might want to trim the plants away from the front glass about 1/2 " That would also help.


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## Avi (Apr 7, 2004)

It's going to be hard to get the camera to be able to deal with such high contrasts of light reflecting off some surfaces and not others. If you stand back, at an angle, and take the photo using the flash, it may make the light more evenly distriubuted when the shot is taken and that problem is relieved. You may have to take it a few times so that you can figure out how to avoid the flash causing a globe of light in the photo, though.


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## Tex Guy (Nov 23, 2008)

Also, you are going to have to wait until evening to do your photography. We see your drapes in reflection. I have the same problem at my home.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

There aren't too many things you can do to get around this problem. The contrast difference is pretty large and 1 single shot won't get everything exposed correctly, just like focusing on something close up won't make the entire object in focus - just one section of it. There are of course, ways around this.

The best thing to do would be to take 2 pictures using a tripod without moving it at all. The first picture will need to be taken with the fish and top part of the tank correctly lit. The second picture will need to be correctly lit to expose the dark areas of the tank (so you will need to increase the ISO/open the aperture [fstop] as wide as you can or reduce shutter speed to expose the dark spots). Correctly exposing the dark areas of the tank will overexpose other areas like the first picture. Then what you want to do is take both images and run them through light room and create 1 image from the 2 images.

Alternatively you could just try fiddle with the F stop to try get some sort of compromise between the two, but this option won't be as effective as the first.

Ooor.... you could just trim the plants so they aren't so dense - effectively eliminating the contrast problem.


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## Avi (Apr 7, 2004)

Good advice there....but, here's something else you can try: Using a tripod, you can have the camera focus...and automatically light read...on the areas that are very bright so that the "white" effect is "defeated" when you take the photo. The other parts of the photo, when you view it, will be darker than you'd prefer. Using a good photo software, then brighten the photo somewhat so that the darker areas show better and the lighter areas aren't too, too "white."


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