Help!!! Any advice on photographing fish in a tank

[Kiwi]

Hiya guys,

Hope you all had a good christmas. I purchased a fish tank and subsequently fish with some money I got for Christmas and am thinking it would be nice to send home made thank you cards with pictures of the fish on . . . have hit a wall though (or rather a pane of glass) as im having difficulty getting anything half decent. Have tried using flash / not using flash (obv don't want to scare the fish too much), turning light off in the tank etc. Have to say I havent used the lens hood yet . . .will this make a big difference?

Any advice would be greatfully received.

[LYNDZEE]

I've always had a hard time with my fish tank too, and then finally after thinking of a way forever...I figured it out. I've pasted a picture and my camera info below, so if you reproduce it exactly...it should look the same. There are other differences in our fish tanks that will make the outcome less the same, such as lighting. I've got my fish under a 175watt metal halide. Anyhow, hope this has helped a little. If you've got any questions, leave me a message on my profile page.






Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D

Date/Time: 2008:09:30 08:30:12

Flash Used: No

Focal Length: 35.0mm (35mm equivalent: 36mm...

Exposure Time1/125)

Aperture: f/2.5

ISO Equiv.: 1600

Whitebalance: Auto

[fletch]

Try using a circular polarising filter to reduce the glare from the glass.

[oldwolf]

Another trick Cuchulainn told me about was to get the flash off camera and to the side of the fish tank. So if you're camera is at the front of the tank then the flash is to the left or right of the tank at a 90 degree angle to the lens. That might help cut glare a from the front of the tank and if you tinker with it you should be able to get a nicely exposed picture.

[Kiwi]

Hi guys

Sorry to to respond sooner . . thank you for all of the advise, I am going to spend time tomorrow (with the house to myself), having a play and hopefully will be able to post a half decent picture . . .Unfortunately Im unable to take the flash off of my camera, but I may be able to light the side of the tank so experiments will be the order of the day.


Thanks again your hellp is appreciated x

[BobC]

What type of tank do you have? Make sure you keep the glass clean and try to shoot perpendicular to the glass. Finally got a good shot of my fish only to realize the glass was not perfectly clean. As you can see there are specs of dirt in the picture. Don't know when i'll get a picture of him smiling again.

[Jim Poor]

The patch or spot removal tool in any number of software solutions would get rid of those spots really quickly.

[ttosifa]

Originally Posted by BobC

What type of tank do you have? Make sure you keep the glass clean and try to shoot perpendicular to the glass. Finally got a good shot of my fish only to realize the glass was not perfectly clean. As you can see there are specs of dirt in the picture. Don't know when i'll get a picture of him smiling again.

Dude! I don't know what your fish looks like in person, but you have a serious green bias in your white balance. Try this.

EDIT: Otherwise, a really cool picture!

[Kiwi]

Thanks Bob,

I have Mollys, Cardinal Tetra and a couple of Panda Catfish. Have had to wait for a while as I had to take out a dead plant and give my gravel a bit of a sort . . . . .Its all nice and clean now and I shall try again today once I have found some batteries for my camera . .I know they are here somewhere

[BobC]

ttosifa

I never seem to get the white balance right. Difficult with 250 watt 14k metal halide bulbs and 220watt blue actinics. The blues send the camera bonkers. Thought when i took that i had done a custom white balance? Yours is way better. Thanks

Brings up another question. When you take photos do you keep a journel on settings and any post processing. I seem to forget what i did to what photos. Maybe its just me.