How do I take not-rotten photos of my tank?

[Linden]

I am a point-and-shooter. Any tips for taking photos of my tank that don't focus on the algae on the glass, the shine of the flash on the glass, or blurry fish? I have a digital camera that has a gazillion settings, but I always use the "dumb" mode. I would like to post pictures of individual fish, mainly.

Not sure which forum this belongs in; put it where it belongs.

 

[DougsGraphics]

A few pointers:
set your camera to 'macro'
turn off room lights
use a black cloth to cut down glare
put your lens right to the glass, if you can
use off-camera flash if you can
practice and experiment!

 

[GraphicGr8s]

I've shot with macro, primes and zoom. They all work.

Stop using "dumb" mode.
Clean the glass.
Doesn't matter if room lights are on or off. I shoot with them on.
Manual focus.
Shutter speed 125. Minimum.
Adjust f/stop for exposure. Try not to shoot with the lens wide open. If your focus is off or fish moves out of the range it's oof. Add to that no lens is at its best wide open although it does give nice shallow DOF
Shoot and look at the shot. Adjust as necessary to get proper exposure
Record the exposure (it will be in exif anyway.)

 

[Linden]

Good tips. I don't understand them all, but I have a starting point for research! Thanks.

 

[GraphicGr8s]

Good tips. I don't understand them all, but I have a starting point for research! Thanks.

What don't you understand? Maybe we can clarify.

 

[TheAdmira1]

Linden, take a look at this link, its a Prof of mine from college. There are some great resources for taking HDRi photos I'd you want to get crazy with your camera haha but about halfway down there is a link for the standard fstop chart... If you click it you will download a pdf that explains most of the common functions of cameras. It'll shone some light on all the numbers you see when you take a picture hope this helps.

Should check out his portfolio if you get a chance too! Some really awesome work and he does a lot of work with panographic spherical images. If you see an image and it appears to be a QuickTime video click and drag around in the video and you can look all the way around the room it was taken in ;D

http://kirtwitte.com/

 

[Sunn]

like the others have said, definitely check out macro mode, it's for nice close up shots. and definitely turn off the flash if you're taking pics through the glass. other than that when i take fish pics i usually set the white balance for flourescent or something like that to get truer colors.

if you're just using a point and shoot camera it probably doesn't have manual focus or shutter speed settings, so i wouldn't worry about that. you can still get fine pictures without them.

 

[rufioman]

There's a taking photo thread here somewhere's.

:cheers:

 

[TheAdmira1]

Forgot to add the resources link haha sorry!

http://employeepages.scad.edu/~kwitte/html/HDRI.html