Aquarium Exhibition

[amc072]

Dear all,

next weekend i shall be attending to an aquarium exhibition. The aquariums shall be set both inside the exhibition premises and on the outside in the garden.

I would like some help on the settings/composition I should try on my Canon 40D in view of taking shots of fish (through the aquarium glass) both inside and outside with my kit lens 18-55mm.

Thanks to all

[Japaslavian]

First of all NO FLASH.
They most likely will get angry at you, and you will get nasty reflections off the glass. When composing your shots, try to angle your lens as flush against the glass as possible to avoid any weird distortions. Inside, the lighting will be sparse, so you'll have to compensate with your aperture and probably have to bump your ISO up. Assuming you're not taking a tripod inside, you won't want to make your shutter speed any lower than about 1/20th of a second, otherwise you will get blur. Even then, make sure you hold the camera as still as humanly possible.
Just experiment with different setups and see what works best. And don't pull 100% faith in the LCD. It might look sharp, but it might not be. So zoom in and make sure.

[wulf]

Reflectons will be a big challenge. I suspect a polarising filter would help with that. If you don't want to buy any more equipment for the day, perhaps you could jury rig a lens hood so that you can cut out the light reflecting on the glass; this will help you make the most of the illumination in the tanks.

If your pictures do suffer from glare, don't give up - a bit of post processing can often pull out dramatic results. I haven't got the before version available for the shot below but it looked pretty dull straight out of camera:



Remember to post back with how you get on.

Wulf

ps. take lots of pictures... fish are often moving and it can take a lot of shots before you get a composition you are happy with, like the strong diagonal above.

[colinpuddephatt]

i photographed aquariums at Bournemouth oceanium, birdworld and blue reef at Southsea my main problem as said was reflection and blurr but also wb as different tanks have different lighting pending on their use depth in rivers/sea.
i found very often shots i thought were good weren't but got quite a few extra ones that werent..very hit or miss.

[BobC]

I know this event is likley over. I'm a newbie so take this for what it is worth. If you got some shots can you direct me to them? Depending on the aquarium you are shooting will determine if you even need a flash. My aquarium is only 4ft long but has over 700wats of light. My issue tends to be more white balance because of the spectrum of light. Best if you have a tripod. Assuming the tank already has sufficient light ,make sure your shooting directly at the tank and the camera is perpindicular to the glass or you will get a lot of distortion. For fish you will want a fast shutter speed.