Photographing tropical fish

[ol]

Hi,

I've been trying to get some good photos of my tropical fish for ages, and i just can't seem to get it right.
I have a Panasonic FZ8 camera, and have tried loads of different settings to no avail - They all seem to come out blury.

I have reduced the shutter speed, which allows me to get a sharper image, but then there isn't enough light and the photo comes out really dark.

Anyone got any tips or good photos to share?

Thanks in advance

[Scho]

ol said:

Hi,

I've been trying to get some good photos of my tropical fish for ages, and i just can't seem to get it right.
I have a Panasonic FZ8 camera, and have tried loads of different settings to no avail - They all seem to come out blury.

I have reduced the shutter speed, which allows me to get a sharper image, but then there isn't enough light and the photo comes out really dark.

Anyone got any tips or good photos to share?

Thanks in advance

you need more light to freeze your fishies!

never done this BUT if i was having a go i'd:

fire flash in there from above or the side. if you have a flash gun use a hot shoe extension.

if not you could try to put your camera on tripod in front with a long-ish shutter speed 2-3 sec room and tank lights off. get another camera with on board flash and fire that into the tank from above whilst your cameras shutter is still open? (adjust f stop for brightness)

sounds fun!

[Simpo Two]

If you reduce (by which I think you mean increase, or make faster) your shutter speed then you need to open the aperture wider to compensate. If it's already as wide as it'll go, then you need to increase ISO or use flash.

It may be a job for a DLSR.

[furtive]

I took some pics of fish when I was in Hong Kong recently with my Ricoh compact camera and they came out ok. The camera was in Auto mode with the flash turned off







More: http://www.flickr.com/photos/furtives/sets/7215760...

[Famous Graham]

Manual Focus.

Anything Auto will focus on the glass, despite there being no visible reflection.

[CVP]

I've been told you go about it by

1) Black paper behind your tank
2) Light from one end of your tank
3) Another light from above your tank
4) Always shoot at 90 degrees to the tank so that you do not get any reflections in your image

Make sure the glass you are shooting through is very very clean.

The problem you may have is depth of field / focussing depending upon how fast your fish move. Some folk get around this by restricting the back to front depth of the tank in front of the lens using extra glass in the tank but if the fish don't move too fast this may not be an issue.

HTH

Chris

[ol]

Thanks for the tips, i'll try taking some more this weekend.
I dont have an external flash, but i'll see what i can do and share the results with you all!

Thanks again, much apreciated

[Carolineccb1]

Ol - If you have a food clip, try putting an algae wafer or similar in and then fasten it at the front of the tank. I found that was the only way to get the little blighters to stay in the place where I had set up the light.

I just used a desk lamp focused on the food clip.

They all want to get to the food so it's like shooting fish in a barrel (I'll get my coat...)

[ol]

Thats a really nice clear shot! When i try it, the neons especially are so fast they just blur. What shutter speed was that take at?
Thanks again

[Carolineccb1]

This is where I really show my ignorance! I have no idea - I just fiddled until I liked what I got

These are the settings from the metadata though;

Exp: 1/200 s at f/3.2
Shutter Priority
ISO Rating 200
Focal Length 12.1mm
No Flash
Auto WB

Taken with a Sony DSC-H1

There's some more here;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carolineccb/sets/7215...

[ol]

There are some great ones in that album, thanks!

but, ARGH!! I just cant do it. For the last hour i've had a desk light focussed in the tank, and have tried a million different settings on the camera, but they all come out blurry. I just dont know what i'm doing wrong.

I put my camera on the same settings as you say above, and they come nout REALLY dark; you cant even see the fish. Maybe the camera just isn't up to the job...

Edited by ol on Monday 12th May 12:58

[Carolineccb1]

It took me ages with many Tourette's style outbursts, Ol - keep persevering! I'm really useless with the technical side of photography, so I'm not sure I can be of much assistance. I did exactly what you're doing and just kept trying different settings and light. Would more light help perhaps? The lamp I used was a halogen one, and really bright. I think the thing that really helped was the food in the clip. It kept the fish in one place and relatively still.

You'll crack it!

[ol]

Haha thanks for the encouragment! It was quite a small desk light i was using, so i'll try a bigger halogen type light later on today and let you know if it worked.
Thanks for the tips though

[cirks]

one issue is that if you want a fast shutter speed you tend to need a wide aperature which of course reduces the DoF and makes focussing even more difficult as the fish tend not to swim in a straigh line to maintain focus! Don't use flash as all you'll do is get reflection but more importantly you'll scare the fish. Try to use a lens very close to the glass using a rubber lens hood so that you can go right up against the glass even at a slight angle. You'll need to boost the ISO to get the required speeds and be prepared to take loads of shots to end up with a few decent ones.
The recommended approach is also to,as some one else has said, either put black paper one side of the tank but also shoot in a dark room to get rid of all other reflections (tank lights on!)
Keep trying as it ain't easy

p.s or cheat and use and HD camcorder and then freeze a frame from it....

[Reidy10_0]

Good luck mate.
I have tried this before but the buggers kept moving.

[ol]

Right, I've had enought of this.
I've spent hours over the last few days shining different lights into the tank, from desk lights to halogen uplighters, and i still can't get any good photos.
I thought my camera was pretty good, but i'm starting to think it's not (or that i can't use it!!) It's a Panasonic FZ8.

Anyway, here are the best ones (from literally thousands of shots)























The light made the tank look a bit yellow..



and LOADS came out like this, really bad quality but i dont know where i went wrong:



...and no matter what i did, i can get the faster moving ones like guppys, clown loaches and neons...



And more advice? or should i just give up!

[Carolineccb1]

<laughing> Ol, I feel your pain. For what it's worth, I think you've got some cracking pictures there. I love the one where the fish face almost fills the screen. There's couple with the angel fish that are really nice too, their scales gleam. You can get the smaller, faster fish as well - you've proved that with the danio's. I never came close to getting a clear pic of them in my tank.

The cat watching the tank is a nice one too.

If it helps, I took a huge amount of shots and ended up with about 10 that were any good.

Don't give up!

[ol]

Hi Caroline, and thanks for the encouraging comments.

I tried again last night and got a couple that i like, Its much easier taking photos of the big fish cause they dont move as much!

[Scho]

nice fish!

the read tail and the oscar are beasts.

nice shot of the cory too.

[ol]

Thansk mate,
Yeah i'm getting rid of the Oscar and Red Tail Catfish soon, i'm rearranging the tanks and could do with the space for other fish. It'll be a shame though as i really like them both