I have tried and tried to take some pictures of my fish but every one with no exception has turned out blurry... Its a new digital camera 2... What do you use?
Taking Pictures
- Thread starter slowlyburn
- Start date
Aim the camera at a spot in the tank. Then wait for the fish you want to photograph comes into view, then take it's picture.
Your problem is probably that the camera is auto-focusing on the glass of the tank and not the fish because so much light reflects off of the glass. Most digitals will focus on a spot when you hold the button down half way. Focus on something away from the tank that you think is about the same distance from your camera as the fish will be, and then move back to the tank, center on a fish, and snap the shot. You can tell if it has focused on most cameras because the bracket things on the screen move and change color or a box will appear around the area that it is focused on.
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Just tried it... "hold the button down half way" I just read that in the manual. I think im S.O.L. This is kindof upsetting... I would like to show off some of my fish...
i usually use the manual focus and set to one point, then wait till the fish comes to that place, works great
does your camera have a automatic flash or not if your using a flash theres a delay in the moment you press the button completely to the moment it takes the pic. best advice take the flash of use alot of light and do the half way down thing without flash, follow said fish all over while looking through lense dont look away, you might be to close if its really blury so steo back and zoom in and SNAP! take pic at good pose. 
Only like 2 maybe 3 came out crystal clear and about 6 maybe 7 out of 40 or so came out ok i guess... I used my honduran redpoint as my avatar. Its kinda blurry if you see the reg size.
You guys know a lot about fishkeeping, but you don't know beans about photography. On the flip side, I know a lot about photography and I don't know beans about fishkeeping.
slowlyburn, I'll bet that your problem is not your focusing technique, or your aim. Most digital point and shoot cameras lack the light sensitivity (400 ISO is usually the max for point and shoot cameras) to be able to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze an animal's movement in a relatively low light fish tank. That is to say, when the shutter opens, it allows light to strike the camera's sensor, making a picture. When there is not a lot of light, typical of most indoor settings, the shutter has to stay open longer to allow enough light to hit the sensor for a proper exposure. When the shutter is open longer, animals and people have more time to move, leaving the subject blurry as if it were steaking across the image. Unless you use your camera's flash, you will most likely be left with a picture of a blurry fish.
Another possibility is that your are closer to the fish than your cameras minimum focus distance. If your camera has a macro setting, try using it together with the flash and see if it helps.
When I take photos of my fish, I use a digital SLR (Canon 20D) with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. This is a lens with a huge aperature that allows the maximum amount of light to hit the sensor. I also typically shoot with an ISO of 1600. All this allows me to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze a moving fish.
It doesn't matter how new your camera might be. You may just be asking it to do something beyond what it was designed to do.
Here are some pics of my fish:
Yellow Acara
Motaguense
Beani Hyrbid
slowlyburn, I'll bet that your problem is not your focusing technique, or your aim. Most digital point and shoot cameras lack the light sensitivity (400 ISO is usually the max for point and shoot cameras) to be able to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze an animal's movement in a relatively low light fish tank. That is to say, when the shutter opens, it allows light to strike the camera's sensor, making a picture. When there is not a lot of light, typical of most indoor settings, the shutter has to stay open longer to allow enough light to hit the sensor for a proper exposure. When the shutter is open longer, animals and people have more time to move, leaving the subject blurry as if it were steaking across the image. Unless you use your camera's flash, you will most likely be left with a picture of a blurry fish.
Another possibility is that your are closer to the fish than your cameras minimum focus distance. If your camera has a macro setting, try using it together with the flash and see if it helps.
When I take photos of my fish, I use a digital SLR (Canon 20D) with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. This is a lens with a huge aperature that allows the maximum amount of light to hit the sensor. I also typically shoot with an ISO of 1600. All this allows me to use a fast enough shutter speed to freeze a moving fish.
It doesn't matter how new your camera might be. You may just be asking it to do something beyond what it was designed to do.
Here are some pics of my fish:
Yellow Acara
Motaguense
Beani Hyrbid