Photographing Fish

[SharkBait]

I've looked around and can't seem to find much about actually taking pictures of fish in a tank.

Now camera equipment wise, I have a digicam of 2.0MP and a nice sturdy tripod.

Lighting is bleh.

What is the best way to take pictures? Manual focus? Macro? Point-n-shoot-n-be-lucky?

Anyone have any tricks?

[Cearbhaill]

Only advice I have is to wait until after dark, turn out all the room lights, use a tripod and no flash.

[roliva]

Maybe pm Mojo. He has taken tons of beautiful fish photos with his dig camera.

[belmont0182]

i want to know how to add pictures directly to my posts, does anyone know how to do this?

[OrionGirl]

belmont--the picture needs to be hosted on the web first (some places work better than others, I use http://www.aquaticphotos.com/ and haven't had problems--this site it ran by an AC member). Once the pic is online, right click on it and go to properties. Copy the address from there. Then, in a Reply window, click on the IMG button and paste the addy. Or, type [ IMG ] (paste addy here) [ / IMG ] but without the spaces between the brackets and text.

For taking pics--I've found that practice makes perfect. Don't be afraid to burn a lot of electrons--take as many pictures as you can, under different settings, and see what gives you the images you prefer. I have success using my tripod, having all the light in the room turned off, and taking pictures at a slight angle to the tank--I've played around with the flash, and some pics are better with, some better without. For close ups, I use the macro setting, but for general tank shots I prefer to use the quicker speeds, shorter exposures (Action setting for most cameras). Otherwise, I tend to get fish that are little more than blurs.

[SharkBait]

Ah cool thanx for the advice.

I'll have to play with the cameras manual settings and see what combination of shutter speed and apeture for the best, non-blurry pictures.

[RioXingu]

Lighting is key. Usually, more is better. It helps to give you more latitude with the cameras settings.
Get close, too. Fish are small, and you need to fill up the frame.

Bill in WI

[fishlvr]

lighting seems to be my problem when photographing my tank. if I dont use the flash the pic is too dark. so when using the flash, I have to angle the camera so the glare isnt coming right back at me. :( I'm thinking about changing my bulbs to something brighter.

[roliva]

I agree with the lighting. If you have alot of lighting, then you may not need the flash and the picture looks alot different (than with the flash).