fish photography techniques

[cootwarm]

Does anyone have any special techniques or advice related to fish photography to share?

In the past I've taken quite a few wildlife photos with both macro lens and zoom lens on a 35mm. My favorites were taking macro pictures of insects and plants. I've got some excellent shots, but I'm still a novice as I've had no formal training. Recently I've used a digital. This winter I plan to take many photos of my apistogrammas, using both 35mm and digital. I currently have at least 10 different species and plan to add 4 or 5 more species before winter. I'm already finding that fish photography has quite a few unique problems & differences compared to other photography.

I just started trying it out with the digital camera. So far I've encountered dark backgrounds when it was actually well lit, colors are sometimes different than what was seen with my eye, reflections (both light and background), different colors with flash and without flash, etc. With the digital there is a delay when you press the shutter button and often the fish has moved during the delay. But the nice thing about digital, you can try and try again! These are just a few examples I've encountered already, so I'm sure there are others.

I've got a wild caught Apistogramma sp. "Blue" that is sparkley blue with just room light and the tank light off, but when the tank light is on the blue disappears and he is rather plain looking. How do I deal with this?

I'm sure many others would also benefit from such a discussion.

Thanks,
Michael

 

[tjudy]

One of the big debates is flash or no flash.. persoanlly I flash. I have started using a white flash filter that totally eliminates the glare and scale reflection. I have to sdjust for darker images... but that is pretty easy with digital.

 

[greenfish]

There are some digital photography tips on another forum I am on. You might want to check it out.
Here is a link: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=4783

 

[cootwarm]

Thanks greenfish,

I'll definitely be looking it over.

I was going to try playing with the lighting a little bit. I had no background on the tank. I'm going to try a dark background and use a light other than the tank light. I'll try to reduce the room light as well. This should help to cut back on the reflection and glare.

Ted, Do you have filters on a digital? I don't think I can get filters for my digital camera, but I have a few for my 35mm. I'll be giving the 35mm a try soon.

Michael

 

[tjudy]

I have filters for my digital... I have a flourescent filter that I use when taking fish pics. It removes the green tint that the flourescent bulbs give of. THe filter I mentioned is a white plastic cap that fits over the accessory flash I use on the digital. It diffuses the flash light so that it is not as bright.

 

[jerseyjay]

Michael,

1. #1 element of successful aquaria photography is LIGHT. Invest in flash if you don't have one or increase power of your light fixture.

2. Try to use your flash in Remote mode if it’s available and set your camera to send IR signal to flash. If you camera/flash doesn’t have Commander/Remote mode (wireless) then purchase off-shoe cord which will let you set your flash on top of the tank.

3. Not sure if you are completely familiar with your camera. If so then use M mode, if not use S mode. M mode will let you set shutter speed/aperture while S mode only shutter speed and aperture will be set automatically.

4. Black background / Not Black background depends on your shutter speed/aperture setting. One will give you "normal background" while other will expose the object and darken area around it.

5. Set you White Balance correctly. You are getting off colors because your camera is set to Auto White Balance (I'm assuming). Place white object in given tank, point your camera at it and set White Balance manually.

6. Set you focus on non-movable object and LOCK IT. Now move your camera left and right to find your fish and move IN and OUT. Do NOT !!! Refocus again or you will never get fish in focus. Apistogramma are easy to shot because they do not move as much compare to East Africans.

Check my website for some samples. Most of those pictures were taken using Canon G2 + Canon 420EX external flash. Recently I upgraded my equipment to Nikon D70 DSLR + NikonSB800 external flash and like became even easier .

Let me know if you have additional questions.

www.greenstouch.com

 

[cootwarm]

Hi Jay,

I read up about your Nikon D70 DSLR by doing a google search. Pretty cool camera! Does it adapt to 35mm lenses? Does it only accept lenses other than Nikon?

Maybe someday the price will come down to $500 or less. :roll:

What lenses do you have? I think I saw a mention of a 70mm-300mm but no details for it. Don't know if it's both zoom & macro or just zoom.

Do you have any delay when pressing the shutter button?
Can you set the focus and take the picture? Or do you have to wait for the camera to autofocus?

Thanks,
Michael