View Full Version : Taking a good picture of the tank/fishes
yhbae
08-30-2003, 12:21 PM
For those who consitently take good quality pictures of your tanks, how do you do it?
I have a Canon A70 digital camera, which is a 3 mega pixel camera. It takes great pictures on just about everything except what's in the tank... :D
So far, I must have taken over 300 shots, and I have about 2 that I can recognize clearly which fish it was. The rest was garbage.
I tried:
- Macro mode (with auto and manual focus)
- Sports mode (for shorter shutter time)
- with and without flash
- with and without red-eye reduction
- Zoom from further back (dunno what I was thinking when I did this - probably got desparate... :D )
- During the day and night with aquarium light on.
There must be something I'm missing here... please help! :confused:
ChilDawg
08-30-2003, 12:30 PM
I've been having trouble with the A70, too...I think it's just taking a whole bunch of no flash pictures and getting lucky.
A tripod helps a lot along with strong lighting and never zooming in unless absolutely necessary.
Here are a couple of Pictures I've taken with my A70.
http://adkins.dynip.com/forum/30-gallon-crypt-22-jul-2003.jpg
http://adkins.dynip.com/forum/corydoras-schwartzi-7-6-2003.jpg
Obviously fish are harder than plants. When you want to take pictures of fish you have to setup where you want to take the picture of the fish and then hold the button halfway down to focus and then wait for the fish to swim into the picture and then snap it off. I usually delete 9 out of 10 pictures I take trying to get good ones of fish.
Alex
Man, that looks so much better than what I have managed so far... :D
Sounds like the best advice I have so far is be patient and outwait the fishes until they come to your view - I'll try that...
Thank you for the advice!
kveeti
08-30-2003, 5:27 PM
I second Alex's suggestions. First, a tripod is practically essential. No matter how hard you try, you just can't hold a camera steady enough. Also, patience. You can't follow your fish around, you must wait for the fish to come into view and anticipate when that will be miliseconds before they make it there. Something like corys are definitely easier. Trying to get a photo of a zebra danio is very hard. I found I liked the colours in the pictures without a flash better, but then the fish have to stay still that much longer.
Matt W
08-30-2003, 7:23 PM
Originally posted by Alex
Here are a couple of Pictures I've taken with my A70.
Ok other than a tripod and being patient, what settings do you use on your A70?
I have been trying all the same settings as yhbae, also with no success :(...
125gJoe
08-30-2003, 8:15 PM
The Canon A-70 is better than my Olympus!
I wonder what's going on with the poor pictures?? :confused:
stoopid
08-30-2003, 10:10 PM
Make sure your image quality is set to max and take pretty "wide" shots, then edit/crop them later... no flash either, that causes grief with the auto exposure and focus because of the glass.
Having the image quality set to max gives you the largest picture, which will allow you to crop and still retain the image quality if the cropped photo then needs to be enlarged some.
yhbae
08-30-2003, 10:26 PM
It was set at the max resolution that the camera can go. I did in fact take many shots further away, hoping that there will be enough pixels used for fishes but had no luck there either - still blurry...
I do have a black background, and I noticed that the close-up pictures taken from the front is vastly different compare to the one taken from the side... Side ones have more natural look overall, but fishes come out real dark. The frontal shots give better fish colors and definitions but everything else looks a bit messy... Hmm...
stoopid
08-31-2003, 2:33 AM
May need to photoshop the images a little, it's rare I don't have to sharpen my digicam photos even a small amount.
125gJoe
08-31-2003, 9:45 AM
yhbae, can you post some of your pics? Before that, try having the camera about 1 to 2 feet away from the glass and shoot straight on, and at angles (left or right). Don't use the flash. Try the tripod. My pics are without a tripod, but it does help..
Make sure the camera is "re-set". Meaning some settings may have been changed by accident. Your camera should work fine as a "point and shoot" without problems.
Post some pics soon, I'd like to see what they look like... Hope you don't have a bad cam.....
Oh yeah, have the tank lights on. You might want to try the flash again too, but take pics at an angle so the flash won't show up on the pic.
125gJoe
08-31-2003, 9:49 AM
Childawg, do you have some pics to post? Hard to believe that camera has probs.... :confused:
There must be a setting somewhere that has been turned off or on that's effecting the pics...
NJ Devils Fan
08-31-2003, 9:50 AM
Joe, check your pm.
ChilDawg
08-31-2003, 11:02 AM
Originally posted by 80gJoe
Childawg, do you have some pics to post? Hard to believe that camera has probs.... :confused:
No, no, I don't think it's the camera...just the goofball behind it. :D
I don't have any pix here as it's my parents' camera, but I'm going to give Patriot-ic photography another chance when I get picked up to go home Columbus Day weekend.
How do I post a picture here?
NJ Devils Fan
08-31-2003, 8:49 PM
Have the address of the picture. Click the "IMG" button right above where you type your message. A screen will come up and there is where you type in the address. Then, you click ok and "submit".
Do you have any recomendation on where I can upload some pictures?
Appreciate some help...
PumaWard
09-01-2003, 10:52 AM
You can upload them directly off your computer using the attach file option. But it allows more pictures if you have them on the web.
NJ Devils Fan
09-01-2003, 11:26 AM
I strongly recommend Image station (http://www.imagestation.com). It is great and easy to use, no pop up adds, and it's free.
yhbae
09-01-2003, 12:47 PM
Originally posted by NJ Devils Fan
I strongly recommend Image station (http://www.imagestation.com). It is great and easy to use, no pop up adds, and it's free.
Thank you for the link - I registered myself and upload 4 pictures. Just one problem - how do I get my URL that others can click to get there? I can see they want me to provide e-mail addresses for viewing. I just want a URL that I can copy/paste into other sites like this one...
Thank you!
NJ Devils Fan
09-01-2003, 4:27 PM
When your picture is in an album, just right click on it and go to properties. Just copy it right from there and paste.
Devils Fan, Thanks for that link. I have been looking for an easy, free service.
yhbae - Go into your album, and click on Index at the top of the right of the page. When that loads, at the bottom will be a link to "Add Album Link". Click on that and it will generate the code to paste in your message. This link was done that way:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289214505
The link looks like this:
<A HREF="http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289214505"><IMG SRC="http://www.imagestation.com/images/is/community/this_album_button.gif" BORDER="0"></A>
Just cut out everything except:
>> http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289214505 <<
NJ Devils Fan
09-04-2003, 4:01 PM
rsava, what kind of camera do you use? The pictures were so clear.
I use an Olympus D490Z. I don't use a tripod, I use the flash at an angle to the glass so it doesn't bounce back. I've had some great success taking pics, probably just beginners luck, and LOTS of bad ones that I have to discard.
If you click on the link at the bottom of each pic "Image info" a box pops up with all the digital specs - an excellent feature.
NJ Devils Fan
09-04-2003, 5:00 PM
Wow, I didn't even know about that, ha.
125gJoe
09-04-2003, 5:37 PM
Originally posted by rsava
I use an Olympus D490Z. I don't use a tripod, I use the flash at an angle to the glass so it doesn't bounce back..... That's what I'm using. Try some pics in closer with "no" flash. You may be real surprised without the flash!! I use both - and no flash - mainly experimenting with what looks good..
It's so nice being able to instantly review pics and decide which ones are 'keepers' and which are 'deleters'..... :)
Warning warning THESE PICTURES COULD BE HAZADROUS TO YOUR EYES, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO FOCUS ONTO OTHER OBJECTS ONCE YOU SEE THEM!!! :D
Alright, here we go...
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289242445
Why are my pictures so much worse than anyone elses? :mad:
NJ Devils Fan
09-04-2003, 10:35 PM
What kind of camera are you using?
yhbae
09-04-2003, 11:02 PM
I'm using Canon A70. It's no high end camera, but I don't think it sucks either... I just tried whole bunch more, and I am getting better results. The only adjustmentsI made were that I am being more patient - pre-focus then wait.... Seems to be working out better...
By the way those pictures were taken using the highest quality possible - at 3.2 mega pixels... :D
My method - I get in a comfy chair and do a lot of waiting. I usually get the camera focused (depress the shutter release slightly until the in focus indicator is on [do digitals have shutters?] ) then I wait until the fish comes in view. I sit back slightly, at an angle so no flash bounce (gonna try without a flash in the next week or so), zoom in to get the area I want to photograph then ...... wait. Wait until the fish is in the picture and snap. If you try and chase the fish you'll get blur.
The biggest thing is to keep plugging (er, snapping) away. With a digital, the only thing you're wasting is time. But hey some people say spending so much time on aquariums is a waste of time (until they see the tank).
Check out this link
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1866&highlight=taking+pictures
and also do another search on these boards. I got a lot of tips from reading the posts here (but that was before the big change so I'm not sure if those posts are around). Anything by morleyz and Mojo are very good to read (among the many, many others who take excellent pics).
125gJoe
09-08-2003, 11:54 AM
yhbae,
From what I saw from the one picture is there's not near enough light. Also, how do you "snap" a pic? The camera I have, you need to hold the button down first for a second or so, then push it down all the way. Keep in mind while doing this to be extremely steady.
I'm having much better luck now. As some of you have suggested, I partially pressed the button to let it focus first, then wait for the "opportunity"... You are right that I don't seem to have enough light - I only have 20w of light in this tank. This probably explains the show of grains, especially when I zoom in. Some at work suggested that I put a light behind me facing towards the tank at an angle so that it doesn't reflect back to you - haven't tried this yet.
Here's some more pics...
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289173363
125gJoe
09-08-2003, 11:18 PM
Originally posted by yhbae
[B]I partially pressed the button to let it focus first, ... You are right that I don't seem to have enough light ....especially when I zoom in.
There! That's so much better than the last pic I saw..! Have you tried the 'flash' yet?
yhbae
09-08-2003, 11:34 PM
Yeah it sure looks better! (Than you! :D )
I did try the flash, and the first one didn't turn out great... One of the platy was looking at me when I took a shot and it came out rather comical - the eyes came out completely white, rather large. It looked like those cartoon face with enlarged eyes looking very surprized at something! :D
I'll keep try...