looking for photography tips.

As we are on the cusp of getting the photo/video competition back, is there anyone one out there that will give me a few tips on aquarium photography.Nothing to technical just some basic stuff to prevent everything i photo from looking like a big round blur.

Cheers Stuart

Here are some simple things I try to think about when taking photographs of single fish:

1. Clean the glass, nothing as irritating as finally having gotten a clear shot and there’s dried water on the glass.

2. Stability, this could be a tripod, table or a pile of books. Especially important when not using the flash.

3. Lighting, turn off all other lights in the room and take the shot during the evening. Prevents annoying reflexion in the glass.

4. Flash, normally I tend not to use the flash as it is tricky to get an angle from which there is no reflection of the flash in the glass (and it might disturb the fish) but with fast moving fish it can be very useful.

5. Background, try to take shots of the fish when they are in front of something nice like plants or wood rather than the pump or heater.

6. Use crop when editing to get rid of that pump or heater

7. Practice on using the macro setting on the camera.

8. Try to focus on the eye or at least head of the target.

9. Take some time to try different settings on the camera, you don’t have to do this the manual way the pre-programmed settings will take you far. When you found one you like remember it! The photo conditions will not change as long as you don’t change for instance the lights and you can always come back to the one setting you know works well for one tank.

Good luck!

Melander

Thanks Melander, i had a look at your blog some beautiful set ups and a very well put together blog congrat's.

Stuart.

I think Melander has just about covered everything
totally agree with Him on all the tips mentioned
taking the photographs in the evening in a dark room with just the aquarium light on is definitely the way to go.
cropping the photo to have all the attention on the subject makes a big difference to the finished photo.
focusing on the eye, totally agree with that, sometimes with Macro You can get an interesting result as the head/eye will be sharp and the tail colours blur into the background...

the best of luck Stuart

look forward to seeing some of Your Photographs

Des

OK Geniuses..... how do you achieve total depth of Field? I have adep on my Camera but I'm $@@*ed if I can use it properly.

Kev.

Which camera do you have Stetnik?

You need to calculate the acceptable circles of confusion for your camera at different focal lengths.
But what you really need to do is to work out the hyperfocal length.

There are problems with many compact cameras in the the given f-numbers ate not always true f-numbers after a certain value. eg if the camera says f22 then the chances are that it is not f22 but something like f8.

....really nerdy stuff.

Ian

Thanks Ian,

This is the Camera with a 100 mm Macro.

www.canon.ie/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cam...igital_SLR/EOS_600D/

www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Cano...cro-Lens-Review.aspx

Kev.

That's a nice camera Kev!

This is quite complicated stuff, I have no idea how to calculate the acceptable circles of confusion but I find it’s possible to get it somewhat right by trial and error.

I am not used to the English terminology when it comes to photography but here we go.

For a large depth of field you want to use a small aperture, to get a small aperture use a high “aperture number” or f-number, on a compact camera the easiest is probably to use the landscape setting, on a SLR camera this can be set manually.

A high f-number also means that the shutter speed becomes slower which can be a problem. A tripod or some type of stability will compensate for any movement on your part but It could also be an idea to increase the amount of light and/or use a flash to get a faster shutter speed.

In the end a high f-number = larger depth of field & a slower/longer shutter speed.

Saying all this I find it very hard to get sharp close-ups with a large depth of field as the longer shutter speed pics up any movement from the fish and the picture becomes blurry.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Melander

Melander wrote:

Here are some simple things I try to think about when taking photographs of single fish:

1. Clean the glass, nothing as irritating as finally having gotten a clear shot and there’s dried water on the glass.

2. Stability, this could be a tripod, table or a pile of books. Especially important when not using the flash.

3. Lighting, turn off all other lights in the room and take the shot during the evening. Prevents annoying reflexion in the glass.

4. Flash, normally I tend not to use the flash as it is tricky to get an angle from which there is no reflection of the flash in the glass (and it might disturb the fish) but with fast moving fish it can be very useful.

5. Background, try to take shots of the fish when they are in front of something nice like plants or wood rather than the pump or heater.

6. Use crop when editing to get rid of that pump or heater

7. Practice on using the macro setting on the camera.

8. Try to focus on the eye or at least head of the target.

9. Take some time to try different settings on the camera, you don’t have to do this the manual way the pre-programmed settings will take you far. When you found one you like remember it! The photo conditions will not change as long as you don’t change for instance the lights and you can always come back to the one setting you know works well for one tank.

Good luck!

Melander

Thanks very much mate i for one are very bad at photography and most off the time just use my phone cam but the girlfriend has a compact camera and i think ill try it with some off these tips and see how i get on im sure will still be the same has the camera is really not the best at all

thanks

Sean

Melander wrote:

That's a nice camera Kev!

This is quite complicated stuff, I have no idea how to calculate the acceptable circles of confusion but I find it’s possible to get it somewhat right by trial and error.

I am not used to the English terminology when it comes to photography but here we go.

For a large depth of field you want to use a small aperture, to get a small aperture use a high “aperture number” or f-number, on a compact camera the easiest is probably to use the landscape setting, on a SLR camera this can be set manually.

A high f-number also means that the shutter speed becomes slower which can be a problem. A tripod or some type of stability will compensate for any movement on your part but It could also be an idea to increase the amount of light and/or use a flash to get a faster shutter speed.

In the end a high f-number = larger depth of field & a slower/longer shutter speed.

Saying all this I find it very hard to get sharp close-ups with a large depth of field as the longer shutter speed pics up any movement from the fish and the picture becomes blurry.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Melander

Thanks a lot for that, I'll give it a go.

Kev.

Melanders has pretty much ticked all the boxes!

My top three tips are:

Using camera in aperture mode, (not everyone will have a DSLR, and this can be done on most basic point & shoot compacts) Going with a low numbered f stop to get focus on the fish and blur out the background giving nice depth of field.

Secondly I recommend not using a flash, it washes out the color of the fish, and can give relfection from glass. With the tank lights on in a dark room, even in auto mode, you will get quick enough shutter speed to get a focused image.

Thirdly, if you have burst mode, you can blast off several shots in random succession, usually one will be good, as our fishy friends are quick movers!

Agree with most said but want to clarify that shutter speed and fstop are not the same.

F/stop is apeture which is how wide your lense opens to let in more light and scenery.

Shutter speed is just to catch fast moving things sharp and if this is set for too long an opening things blur.

So you want your F/stop as low a number as possible your ISO you want low because if needing to crop things will become.

Shutter speed fast as possible use your screen on your camera as this will give you an accurate ability for light

Focus manually keep as straight with the subject as the angles in glass can ruin it.

A good photography site is photographyireland.net

Thanks for the clarification Jambomac and cheers Stuart for the comments bout the blog!

Ok i have been taking photos now for about an hour and trying various settings, I'm gonna do a "before melanders advice" and after just to show what a differance it made.Photos to follow soon.

Stuart.

Before,



After


Now this is my first time posting a picture so it could all go horribly wrong .

Cheers Stuart.

No, went wonderfully right !!

Kev.

nice it did work , as i now have a clear picture i can ask the age old question of weather this is a male or female.I'm thinking female.I have 3 kribs and this one is the boss of the tank.It's defending a food pellet in the pic hence the flared fins and big red belly.

Stuart.

All females have a big red Belly, didn't you know??? lol.

Kev.

yup sure is a female

the tips worked well done ill have to see if the GF camera has any off these options

Sean

@Stuart: Good stuff, it’s a massive improvement and the fish exhibits great colour too.

Glad I could help, I'm usually the one taking advice from others here

Melander

ok lads i need some help haha

as i know nothing and i mean nothin about cameras i dont know wat i am doing

i went out and treated my self to a new s2980

i have gone through the comments that where posted and i had a look at all the settins on the camera but still not sure wat i am doing

has anyone used this camera befor and wat is the best settin on it as in can i put them in and save them or anything like that

it has the duel dial on it and the settins on that are

P = automatic mode with programed settings

S = automatic mode with user settings and shutter speed

A = automatic mode with user settings and aperture

M = manual mode with shutter speed and aperture

C = shooting mode with user settings

PANDRAMA i know wat this is and i dont think it is any use to me is it?

SP = retains nstural ambience without flash

SR AUTO = selects optimum camera settings for certain modes

wat is the best way to go about this i would really like if i could set it up and store it so if i want to take photos off the tank i know just to go to the one setting

i will do all the other tips as in take photos in the evening with only tank lights on and no flash

also i dont know if this camera has a burst mode as i cant seem to find it

would be great if someone has this camera and knows how to use it

thanks lads

Sean

crap it seems like we have serious camera buff's here i'll be goosed when it comes to competing with some of ye, i'm a point and shoot and hope for the best kinda guy... i guess i'll just have to r.t.f.m. (read the #*$^ing manual)

@Sean: How is the new camera working out for you? I am not familiar with it but I doubt that you can save different settings. My Olympus even resets everytime I turn it off so it's just a matter of trying to remember and keeeping notes on what works.

Melander

As we were talking about future photo competitions awhile back, could it be an idea to divide entries that are using compact cameras and those that use DSLR?

Melander

Melander wrote:

As we were talking about future photo competitions awhile back, could it be an idea to divide entries that are using compact cameras and those that use DSLR?

Melander

I'm not too sure that would work smoothly......i would mean that whoever is receiving the photos would have to check the exif data (if the camera or software writes it....which it does on most modern compacts), and then where do some of the higher end compacts come in at in the classification.

Many compacts are as good as a DSLR.....and when it comes to the final entry, even a DSLR shot in RAW will need to be compressed to 8-bit jpeg (which is about the same depth as a compact.........and the compression software may even remove the exif data identifying the camera).

ian

@Ian: When you put it like that i realised that it's not really doable; or rather that it might not serve a purpose anyway.

I was mainly thinking of a way of getting more people interested in the competition by making it fair for people with different levels of experience and equipment.

At the end of the day i suppose the competition is about good fun, showing of fish and seeing other peoples fish more so than winning anyway.

Melander

Melander wrote:

@Ian: When you put it like that i realised that it's not really doable; or rather that it might not serve a purpose anyway.

I was mainly thinking of a way of getting more people interested in the competition by making it fair for people with different levels of experience and equipment.

At the end of the day i suppose the competition is about good fun, showing of fish and seeing other peoples fish more so than winning anyway.

Melander

I saw your point.....it is a good point as many people are put off by the prospect of competing against the 'big cameras'.

I used to teach photography part time many years (not fish, but fashion photography), and there was the same problem with film cameras......so I used to show my students some of my favourite photographs ever taken......very impressive photos indeed (eg by Bill Brandt)........
........and then said these were not taken with a Hassleblad but using a pin-hole camera using any old cardboard box.
That proved an important point.

So.....maybe another way to tempt people who shun their own camera into not shunning their own camera is to arrange a Gallery of Compact Shots to show that you can get really great pics with a compact.

Ian

Is there no end to your talents Ian??

Stuart.

It's all part of the tapestry of life.......and also being an old codger.

That's like saying those who have great set-ups with loads spent on corals or plants should have a different
section.

it tends to be the subject that makes a great photo and not the camera and as its voted
for by everybody on the forum there preferences tend to take over in voting.