Photographing Coral Fluorescence

Green zoanthid corals photographed to show difference between standard reef tank and fluorescence photography methods.

Yeah yeah yeah. More corals. But this is kinda cool. Many corals will fluoresce under actinic or other deep blue lighting. Here's how to shoot them!

The header photo is composed of two (obviously). One taken with standard reef tank photography and one using fluorescence capture techniques.

The actual full spectrum photo
from the beginning of this article.

Most reef tank lighting either has actinic bulbs, or deep blue LEDs. Mine is using a mix of 440nm LEDs and 460nm LEDs. Fluorescing pigments in corals generally react in that range. But cameras have trouble capturing the neon colors.

Here's the fluorescing version.

While our eyes catch that fluorescence pretty well on their own, the cameras just end up with muddy dark colors. The trick is to block out as much of the light that ISN'T coming off the corals themselves. So we need a barrier filter.

Sad hammer coral.
It's recovering from being bleached by
a way too intense metal halide light.

There are companies that will sell you barrier filters made specifically for corals. But if you have a Tiffen Yellow #12 around, it's the SAME THING.

That means any quality #12 yellow filter will work. You probably have one already. Or can get them relatively inexpensively online. Then it's just a matter of playing with exposure.

These shots in this article were all shot at f32 with my Nikon D3200 and 85mm Micro lens. I didn't turn off the pumps on the tank (I should have), but they all came out ok.

Sometimes, the coral is so dark that it's difficult to get the dramatic photos, but the favia coral above still takes a handsome photo.

And this isn't only for DSLRs! I was experimenting with my Canon Vixia HF M500 video camera, and just held the Yellow #12 filter in front. You can see a dramatic change in this video I put on YouTube.

Play around and have fun!