Why Are Fish So Difficult To Photograph

[dayzofspeed]

i consider myself fairly good at taking photos of most things..... but fish, these little critters always seem to go out of their way to make me look like a complete idiot, any tips would be greatfully received. i have a pretty good camera Olympus sp550uz but with fish photography i may as well be using a 1900's box camera

 

[Curiosity101]

Using flash often helps but then it distorts the colours, so I can't help you there. However just so you know, you're certainly not alone. I tried adjusting the shutter speed which seemed to help (I think I made the shutter speed faster...). It meant the pictures were darker, but I think it also meant the picture was taken faster, eitherways there was much less blurring.

 

[ZoddyZod]

A tripod, lots of patience and taking LOTS of shots until you get the right one are my tips.

I've found that sitting and waiting for the fish to be just in the right pose is often a waste of time (especially very active species). Just get locked in on your subject fish and be prepared to take LOTS of pictures thereby increasing your chance of getting a great shot. That's the beauty of digital, you dont have to worry about the cost of wasting film.....just the time taken to scan through the dozens of pics.

 

[stonedcamel]

im the same..... i cant seem to get them

 

[LetsBeFriends]

I agree with Zoddy, also make sure the room is dark except for the tank. The more light from the tank the higher the shutter speed can be which will get rid of blurriness. A flash helps a lot but you have to angle the camera so the shot does not catch the flash bouncing off of the glass. And rather then move the camera to the fish wait for the fish to come into view. Make sure the glass is clean, you will be surprised how dirty a tank looks, the flash shows a lot of imperfections.

 

[DarkEntity]

Ive used lamps in the top of the tank to add light while blacking out the room, then tripod. Next set your camera so its focused on an area of the tank and wait. Dont start chasing fish about as this will make it much harder to shoot them. If you are already focused all you need to is click and take the shot rather than it having to focus then shoot.

 

[AstonN24vantage]

my fish are just stupid and my room gets a lot of light so i am useless at getting photos

 

[lljdma06]

my fish are just stupid and my room gets a lot of light so i am useless at getting photos

Same advice as above, but I add, learning to like macro. You can get some fantastic fish shots in macro mode. Also, get a good memory card and know where the fish are going to hang out. I'll often focus on a leaf or something first and the wait for a fish to pass by. Have gotten some good shots that way. I don't use flash, and will manipulate the shutter speed. Got to find the balance between good motion capture and getting too grainy a picture. Also, if you under expose your point and shoot, like set it at -.5 to -1, the colors will come out more like how you see them. But that is a personal thing. I really tend to underexpose, especially to capture golds and irridescence. I take ok pictures. I'm limited by my camera and my patience.

Some of my macro shots.

I've dozens of photos like this, all taken in a similar fashion. Just takes patience. A lot can be done with a point and shoot. You can get some good images. But all of my best photos are done on macro mode.

 

[dayzofspeed]

i'm already using fast shutter speeds, macro, room lights off and sitting patiently, i am beginning to think my fish are just awkward little buggers, there is only one fish in the tank who will stay still long enough for me to get a pic and thats a head and tail light tetra, i will just have to persevere i guess or else give it up as a bad job

 

[drobbyb]

The hardest part of taking pictures of fish is taking enough photographs to get a decent picture. When I take pictures of them, I will take a memory card full of shots, then go back through and pick out the good ones. Never be afraid to take hundreds of photos. Practice makes perfect

 

[SensesFail]

I'm new to fish photography my main photograph is landscapes and macro photography. With the fish I'm learning but I set my ISO very high, had a fast shutter speed and continous shooting with the camera lense focusing all of the time when I got locked in on a fish. Out of 400+ photos not a great percentage were good. Iv posted some of them in the "my fish" thread which is in my sig take a look see what you think of the photos. First time with fish taking so bare with me.

I didn't use a tripod because I couldn't move it fast enough to get the fish as they moved just a steady ish hand I guess.

 

[ATK!!!]

i found that when trying to take photos, some of the aquarium lights mess up my photos so i tried using some ordinary light bulbs to light up the scene more, when i used the flash on my camera all the fish got scared away