I'm no photo expert but have often thought about taking pics of my fish (don't have dig. camera yet). Anyway, just a thought that maybe someone who's really good with cameras can chime in on. What about no flash, no room lights, opening the shutter aperture (I think some dig. cams let you do that) and increasing the shutter speed (again, some should let you do that). Wouldn't that let the camera make better use of the light from the tank and decrease the probably of motion blur from the fish?
Pictures
- Thread starter Crunch
- Start date
The problem is w/o flash usually your shutter speed is very low and you need a good steady rest and fish that are relatively stationary, unless you have a really good camera like a DSLR that has a much higher 'usable' ISO settings. FWIW I dont think I have ever taken a pic of my fish that the aperture setting wasnt fully open. W/O flash or room lighting I think my shutter speed is usually 1/5-1/30 second depending on the specific spot in the tank (and with an ISO of 50).
As of yet I do not have a nice DSLR :sad:
But I have been able to take a wide variety of pics with my point n shoot, which isnt that high end MP-wise. I havent myself found just one way that works the best. Sometimes no flash, most often flash. I even have some good pics were I didnt have any light on at all, not even the tank light. The room was completely black and I could only see the fish by the amber pre-flash illuminator. Makes for some interesting effects.
Que
I wish I was a fish I wish.
Last night I took out my Nikon 950. I took about 30 pictures on auto so I'm snapping like most point and shoots. I first shot one from across the room to get the whole tank in with just the tank lights on, no flash, and holding the camera as steady as I could and the blurry result is as expected. I then did a monopod shot which was better, then tripod which was best but the fish blurred. I didn't try flash from there.
Then I moved in for some close ups and got the same blurry fish result. I then adjusted the ISO to 800 and took some flash pictures at an angle to the glass and woo what a differance. Too much light now. I see all the wrinkles in the backround and the plants in the back are too well lit and my fish in front is blurry from being out of focus. I play with the flash first by partially covering the flash unit with a slip of paper until I get the amount of light desired and then stick the paper on. now to get that fish in focus. Most cameras let you hold the shutter button down halfway and when you do the camera sets up the focus and exposure if you're not using a flash. Since I was using a flash only the focus is set by holding the button halfway. So I found an object in my tank to focus on, I held the button down halfway to lock the focus and I then tried to keep that distance in mind (like there is an imaginary rod sticking out from the camera lens to the focused object). I then tried to point he camera at my fish so the focus point was right on it's body and bingo!
Bottom line is experiment with what you have. Sometimes you need to fool the camera into working the way you need it to. At least with a digital camera you can take a ton of shots to find out what works. I'll try to post some pics soon to show you what I did.
Q
Then I moved in for some close ups and got the same blurry fish result. I then adjusted the ISO to 800 and took some flash pictures at an angle to the glass and woo what a differance. Too much light now. I see all the wrinkles in the backround and the plants in the back are too well lit and my fish in front is blurry from being out of focus. I play with the flash first by partially covering the flash unit with a slip of paper until I get the amount of light desired and then stick the paper on. now to get that fish in focus. Most cameras let you hold the shutter button down halfway and when you do the camera sets up the focus and exposure if you're not using a flash. Since I was using a flash only the focus is set by holding the button halfway. So I found an object in my tank to focus on, I held the button down halfway to lock the focus and I then tried to keep that distance in mind (like there is an imaginary rod sticking out from the camera lens to the focused object). I then tried to point he camera at my fish so the focus point was right on it's body and bingo!
Bottom line is experiment with what you have. Sometimes you need to fool the camera into working the way you need it to. At least with a digital camera you can take a ton of shots to find out what works. I'll try to post some pics soon to show you what I did.
Q
I think Ive tried every setting on my camera one day and every angel, and only got like a handful of good ones, the rest of the 50 million were bad, lol
sawyer1206 I love your pics, and your spotted bullhead. I have 2. How big is yours?
sawyer1206 I love your pics, and your spotted bullhead. I have 2. How big is yours?
