I Need Help With Taking Pictures Of My Fish.

[rrfreak]

Does anybody have any tips of how to take pis of my fish in the tank. Mine always turn out all blurry no matter how hard I try.
If you want to see my bad pics of fish, my topics are:

Is my guppy pregnant
How long untill she gives birth
and,
Is my guppy sick

 

[OldMan47]

It is best to step back a bit and zoom in if you can. By getting some distance, the focal length becomes a bit less critical and you can always crop out the parts that you don't want. That way it seems like you are close but in reality you are far enough away to get things in focus easier. Shooting at a bit of an angle to the glass will also keep the flash from being a big white spot in the picture.

 

[raptorrex]

Does anybody have any tips of how to take pis of my fish in the tank. Mine always turn out all blurry no matter how hard I try.
If you want to see my bad pics of fish, my topics are:

Is my guppy pregnant
How long untill she gives birth
and,
Is my guppy sick

kinda depends on your camera. but, setting the camera to macro setting (if it has one) will help. if not, try to avoid zooming, as the "focal length" of the lens increases, the amount of light it transmits is, greatly, reduced. this often forces the use of flash.it also will not end up with a bigger image. zoom lenses have a minimum focus distance. unless you have a expensive SLR zoom lens, as you zoom the minimum distance from the subject increases, keeping the image the same size. and never use zoom in Macro mode.

get a cheap tripod (a small one can be bought from any £1 shop).
unless your tank is by a window, try to avoid reflections, by closing the curtains. also switch off the house lights.
check the "minimum" focusing distance, or set the camera to macro.
add any "extra" lighting you can, but make sure it is shining from the top.
most importantly. Practice, take loads of shots. have a look at them and see if you can improve them next time.
Let us know what camera model you have. it would make advice more relevent.

 

[Bobtastic]

Does anybody have any tips of how to take pis of my fish in the tank. Mine always turn out all blurry no matter how hard I try.
If you want to see my bad pics of fish, my topics are:

Is my guppy pregnant
How long untill she gives birth
and,
Is my guppy sick

If you have a happy snappy camera you're probably be off on a sports setting to capture the movement. The problem you face is getting enough light into the tank so that you can have a fast enough shutter speed to get a crisp static image of the fish. On camera flash is pretty useless in this situation as you'll just bounce it off the front of the glace.

The idea setup would probably be a D/SLR camera with off camera flash on a lighting stand with a remote trigger. You could then play with the different angles of light and appature vs shutter speed to get the right exposer.

Tripods can be used for general tank shots (like the one in my sig) but they ae pretty useless when the fish are moving around.

 

[waterdrop]

But.. I think a pretty common technique is to use a tripod patiently, waiting for the fish to swim into the desired scene.

 

[Bobtastic]

That didn't work for me as the pesky little devils never wanted to sit still! *shakes fist*

 

[raptorrex]

Does anybody have any tips of how to take pis of my fish in the tank. Mine always turn out all blurry no matter how hard I try.
If you want to see my bad pics of fish, my topics are:

Is my guppy pregnant
How long untill she gives birth
and,
Is my guppy sick

If you have a happy snappy camera you're probably be off on a sports setting to capture the movement. The problem you face is getting enough light into the tank so that you can have a fast enough shutter speed to get a crisp static image of the fish. On camera flash is pretty useless in this situation as you'll just bounce it off the front of the glace.

The idea setup would probably be a D/SLR camera with off camera flash on a lighting stand with a remote trigger. You could then play with the different angles of light and appature vs shutter speed to get the right exposer.

Tripods can be used for general tank shots (like the one in my sig) but they ae pretty useless when the fish are moving around.

That didn't work for me as the pesky little devils never wanted to sit still! *shakes fist*

humm, perhaps its your technique, not the tripod at fault. i use both full sized and mini tripods. and most of my pictures are taken with flash. they are all over the forum, also they were all taken on a "cheap" compact camera. using none of the above has caused problems. but the most important thing is practice.

 

[Bobtastic]

Probably is, tho my pictures are with a DSLR.

 

[raptorrex]

Probably is, tho my pictures are with a DSLR.

lol. DSLR means you spent a bit. unfortunately that does not, always, translate into good pictures. lol, ask David Baily. He He

 

[Bobtastic]

Never said it did, tho it does mean that you have better control over the different elements inovled in photography. Photographing fish in a tank is a new challenge to me. Once I have more (interesting fishies) I'll be trying to get some more photos.

 

[gaz gun man]

lower the aperture and increase the ISO until you get a useable shutter speed, I managed to get this shot following that technique

 

[OldMan47]

I stand by my approach of using some distance to the subject and then cropping to improve the aparent size of the image. It lets me get pictures like this one.

Or this one

or this pygmy cory

I can even get pictures of very small fish from a few feet away but I start to lose the crispness due to graininess like in this one. The fish was less than 3/4 inch total length.

or this fish the same size from several feet away

Larger fish come out quite nice from a distance like this small group.

 

[waterdrop]

So now are you using a typical point&shoot digital camera there OM47, or another of those with a digital single lens reflex? I joke with MW all the time that I never get around to pushing a shutter button but I do intend someday to haul out my little digital point&shoot and practice with in on our tank. My friend has promised to lend me his big DLSR that has a macro lens too if I want to try it.

WD

 

[OldMan47]

I have a nice SLR camera WD. I got this picture of a Brachyrhaphis roseni today. It took almost 5 minutes to get the picture and a half hour going through the shots to find one that I liked. I was using manual focus so not all shots were well focused. The darned fish kept moving just as I squeezed the shutter release.

BTW that fish is less than 2 inches long.

 

[raptorrex]

As with fishkeeping, there are many ways to achieve any given result. but upping the ISO, will only lead to lower quality pictures. addressing the light, in the tank, is a much better way of dealing with the problem.
keeping the ISO low, will allow you to crop pictures, like below, and still keep good quality.

just occasionally there is no problem using flash, though it helps if you are used to Photoshop or the like. as in the past. its often the work done after the shot is taken that makes the picture.

even low shutter speeds can allow some good pictures. but a real understanding of how "photography, actually works helps. it is still true to say, no matter how much you spent on your DSLR. it can do nothing, except autofocus, that cameras from 40 years ago could. and DSLR's are still to achieve, even close to the outright quality, of those same 40 year old cameras.

in the end, whatever camera you have, practice and practice. when you finally, fully, understand the one you have, its time to change. spending money on DSLR's is fun, but not an answer to improving your pictures. that only comes when you understand how photography works. and no amount of "digital" help, can do that.