how to best photograph fish in difficult tanks to take pictures???

[Magnum Man]

so 1st and foremost I’m not a photographer… but I have gotten better, and have posted ( at least what I think ) are some very good fish pictures… but I have several tanks, that taking pictures of fish in them is challenging, and I have been chastised many times, from many members for posting poor quality pictures…. if I was the type that easily got my nose bent, I would quit posting pictures all together…

my last attempt at difficult pictures was to identify an unknown tetra, was from one of my challenging tanks, it’s a highly successful tank, in it’s own rite, for the fish, but it’s also highly shaded, and difficult to take good quality pictures out of…

I’m not going to turn a highly successful for the fish aquarium into a brightly lit photo studio, just for the benefit of easier pictures… I would suggest, rather than criticizing a picture that is lacking ( and I’m not the only one to do this ), and I bet we lose a lot of new members who try to post a picture of a fish with a problem or question , that is of poor quality, and get criticized for it, it would be better to offer suggestions on how to take a more useful picture…

I have a few brightly lit tanks, but also, on purpose, have tanks I’m allowing bio film to grow on the glass, or are highly shaded, for the benefit of the fish… I thought I was enriching the forum with pictures of fish of different varieties, but I guess I’lll stop posting pictures if they aren’t perfect…

so suggestions welcome…

 

[Archerfish]

Anyone who criticizes your images can take a hike. You aren't presenting them for publication. Good grief. Personally, I can't get any good images of a moving fish with a phone camera. I have to use my SLR if I want an good image. Back in the pioneering (Innes) days, the fish was removed from the tank, placed in a small container and 'sandwiched' with a piece of glass to hold it in position. Anyway, keep posting your images. I like them!

 

[CassCats]

Keep posting the photos! They're just fine!

 

[Magnum Man]

in the tetra question thread, I deleted almost 20 pictures I couldn’t clean up enough to use, so it’s not like I’m not trying… I do use a current I phone to take pictures, I have a digital camera, but it’s basic , and doesn’t do as well as my cell… I do usually apologize before hand, but there has been more than a dozen times I’ve been chastised for the pictures I’ve posted, even with the apologies in the text before the pictures…

I don’t think I can adjust basic functions on the phone, to improve aquarium picture quality…

 

[TwoTankAmin]

You can only be the second worst picture taker because I am #1. I do not really own a smart phone so that is out. I am still using:

The Canon PowerShot G12 was officially announced on September 14, 2010, and released shortly after in October 2010. It served as a premium compact camera featuring a 10-megapixel CCD sensor, a 5x optical zoom lens, and a 2.8-inch vari-angle LCD screen

In 1969 I was a photographic assistant in a NYC studio. I had been developing my own B&W film and making my own prints for a number of years. I was working the Friday of the Woodstock weekend. I had planned to ride my motor cycle to the event after work. But because so many people had showed up that they finally closed off all the roads going into the festival to prevent further potential attendees from being able to reach it. SO I never went

I hate my digital camera as it is too small. I cannot pick it up without accidentally pressing a button. I had a smart phone for a few months in 2023. Bu, I got it so I could get online with a laptop without having to use Wi-Fi. I had and still ave a flip phone for voice calls. It was even worse to use than the camera in terms of size. The phone is in a box somewhere not having been charged up in over 2.5 years. When it turned out I did not need the laptop or phone, I figured i could use the phone's camera and maybe even shoot vids. Talk about small and impossible for me to use since touch screens and I do not get along. I have only used the Canon in automatic mode. It does not like tanking tank pics and it shows in the poor quality of the pics I usually am able to post.

Where is is useful is for sizing fish. I put them into a specimen box with a grid on the underside, I then make a print and am able to size fish accurately down in 1/8 inch increments. But the quality of post of my pics is poor. I use the shoot a lot and pray method.

I make a print, then I measure the fish with a ruler and then place the ruler on the grid and see how many small squares that length is. It doesn't matter the measurement I take, what matters is how many of the tiny boxes that ruler length measures on the grid. The scale on the print doesn't matter as each little box is 1/8 of an inch and the big squares are one inch on all sides. I also have a 2.5 gal. tank with the same sort of grid on the bottom glass.

Would you believe that in the 1960s I worked a bellows camera that handled film that was from 4x5 inch to 8x10 Ektachrome slides. I used a tape measure and meter to determine the camera settings and a stopwatch for the exposure times. I loaded slide film sheets into the holders by feel in a darkened bathroom with no windows. I had a cloth hood that went over the camera and my head so I could see things clearlybefore I shot the pic to be sure the camera was pointed accurately. I was working in a private gallery and shooting pictures of their collection of art from India and parts of Asia.

I have forgotten most of what I knew about doing film photography. 50+ years passing can leave holes in one's memory and mine is like Swiss cheese lately........

 

[Innesfan]

You can only be the second worst picture taker because I am #1.

I'm right behind you--and sometimes maybe even ahead by a gill.

 

[GaryE]

I'm the guy who made the joke about the blurry fish. Use my technique. Take 12,345 photos and one will be good.

 

[Magnum Man]

not “the”… only the latest…

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have tried to train my fish over the last 25 years, with no success, to do two simple things. The first thing is to stop moving when I am taking a picture of them. The second thing is for them always to poop next to a filter intake. And this is why we can have schooling but never schoolable fish......

 

[gwand]

Patience is key. A tripod is useful.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have access to a tall tripod and a table top small tripod. All they do is to help make the blurring look clearer.......

 

[Magnum Man]

it appears lack of light, is more detrimental than biofilm ( not algae) on the glass… of course movement creates it’s own issues…

clear glass, shaded tank… slowly swimming fish

bio film on glass, but brightly lit tank… stationary fish

both taken with the camera close to the front glass, and the fish about the same distance from the front glass…

zooming both, the 2nd remain more clear, though items on the glass are more visible…

so it looks like I need to quit posting pictures of my few shaded tanks

 

[CassCats]

If it helps at all, I made a little video a long time ago on how to use your phone to take fish photos




You should not have to feel the need, ever, to apologize for your photos.