Taking Fish Pics - Why Am I So Bad?

[andywg]

In my experience, the biggest problem when shooting fish is a lack of adequate light in the tank causing the camera to go for a longer shutter time. This leads to blurring of images.

I cannot get a good picture at all of my 6x2x2 as it only has one tiny 18W light over it. However, my 5 foot reef tank with over 500W of lighting over it allows me to capture fish while they are swimming around, let alone when stationary.

Also, a higher megapixel amount does not make the camera better. It is more to do with how good the sensor is. I get absolutely fantastic shots with my 6.3 MP Fuji F31 which do not fare too badly when compared to my wife's Nikon D80 digital SLR.

See if you can't get some extra light in the tank from above, or else force the shutter speed to be quicker and then use something like photoshop or GIMP to lighten the image on your computer.

 

[Colin_T]

have the flash ON
set the camera to Macro
If you can set the camera to Manual mode and set the shutter speed to 1/160sec, and the aperture to about F12.
Then take a picture and see how dark it is. If the pic is dark then lower the aperture F number to F8 or F10. Take another pic and see how it is. If it is still dark lower the F number further to F6 or F4.5
If the images are still too dark then set the ISO to 200 or 400 and start again.

 

[Tobigara]

i don't know anything about photography and i still get some really good pics witha 5mp "point and shoot" camera. Just like Colin said; no lights, flash on and in macro mode. done deal with some patience

 

[geo7x]

If you have trouble getting the camera to focus then press the shutter button half-way down to focus it and then all the way down to take the picture.

 

[fergalthefish]

thanks guys (and gals), i shall attempt yet again to get pics with some of your ideas.

 

[andywg]

have the flash ON

I have never got a decent picture of my fish, especially the FW ones, with the flash on. It always washes the colour and produces a silvery reflection.

All my good pics have come with the flash off.

 

[geo7x]

have the flash ON

I have never got a decent picture of my fish, especially the FW ones, with the flash on. It always washes the colour and produces a silvery reflection.

All my good pics have come with the flash off.

Same however with an SLR taking photos of fish without the flash on but retaining the fast shutter speed became more difficult (unless you increase ISO but this increases noise)

However if you take a picture with the flash on then I find turning the shutter speed down manually to about 20 takes the glare off and gives a nicer effect with a fast shutter speed.