Photo taking of Fish in the Aquarium
Author: Brian Haslam There are a few problems, which seem quite common with taking photos of fish
in tanks. I will try and deal with the most common ones, which I get asked a
lot. The very first thing you should do before taking photos is to clean the
glass. This has NOT been done on most of the following photos so you can see
how the camera picks up the marks etc.
1. Flash residue
2. Out of focus
3. Reflections
4. Cant get the fish to come out or keep still
5. How to get a close up
6. What camera is best
Flash Residue
To use flash or not is of personal preference-I nearly always do but I am
aware of lots that don?t. The biggest problem is the flash being evident as in
the photo as below.
To stop this there are several things to try. The most common fix is to stand
say at 45 degrees to the tank and not straight on. Try and point the camera up
or down slightly or even increase the light into the tank from another light
source say through the top of the tank. Below is same subject taken at 45
degrees with flash. The same principle applies whether it?s a fish or whole
tank.
Out of Focus
The most common fault is the camera focusing on the glass rather than in the
tank. Cameras with Auto and Manual focus facilities should go on to MANUAL
focus, which will solve this problem. The use of a tripod for those stationary
photos also helps and stops any camera shake.
Photo below shows how the camera is tending to focus on the glass. As all
behind the glass front is out of focus.
For cameras without manual focus (a lot of Digital Cameras don?t have this
option) there are several ways to help solve the problem.
Firstly always stand at an angle to the tank; this helps as light is reflected
off the glass ?away from the lens of your camera.
If your camera has the facility to half press and hold the shutter button down
try the following. Focus in the normal way on the subject in the tank, press
the shutter button down half way and hold it there. This keeps the focus
distance from the camera to the focus point as a fixed distance. Then take say
half a step forward or move the camera forward. This will move the focus
distance forward and into your tank. Fully press the shutter button all the
way down (which you have been holding half way down) and take photo.
The use of Macro settings on most Digital cameras is a great help in getting
past the glass.
Another common problem with focus is the shots of fish moving around quite
fast and not being able to get them in focus. To help try the following it
does work. Find a subject within the tank say a rock or plant, which is
relatively easy to focus on. When you are happy with the object being in focus
then all just in front of it and just behind it will be in focus. When your
required fish passes in front of the rock take your photo. What you are doing
is taking photo of the rock the fish just happened to be passing.
If the fish is a fast mover then move the camera in the same direction as the
fish is going at the same time you take the photo (takes a bit of practice but
worth it).
Below is photo of Dwarf Red where I had focused on the base of a rock aware
that he liked to rest there. Camera on tripod just wait for him and take
photo.
Photo of female neon moving left to right and top to bottom at the same time.
I focused on a tree root and moved the camera in the same direction, as the
fish was moving. Not a perfect photo but to show it can be done with a bit of
practice. Flash on, standing at roughly 30degrees to the tank just holding
camera in hands.
Reflections
These mainly happen with the camera picking up reflections from other articles
in the room. In the next photo you can see a pair of steps, which were to the
right of the tank.
Removal of the steps will cure this one. So removed steps turned the camera a
bit more to the right to get more of the tank in and picked up a reflection of
a radiator cover (bottom right in the next photo.)
Removing the object or changing the angle of shot or even covering the object
with a cover can rectify reflections from external sources. Best of all take
the picture at night with no lights on (this is covered in The Fish Never
Comes Out.) Internal reflections are put right by removing the object or
putting something between the object and the glass.
In the next photo the only way to get rid of the reflection is to remove the
heater or put say a piece of black plastic between the heater and the glass.
Bow fronted tanks and hexagon tanks bring further problems because of the
shape/sides of the tank. This results in trial and error with angles to get
the required results.
Cant Get The Fish To Come Out Or Keep Still
Your fish are never there when you want to take a photo or the shy one just
wont stay still when he does.
This is easy to solve but takes a bit of time. Put yourself in the fishes
place for a moment. There you are going around the tank minding your own
business when this blinding flash appears so your natural instinct is to get
to safety as fast as you can. One way around this is what I call
bang/food/flash. Each time you feed the fish bang the lid down (not to hard)
enough to make a knocking noise. Have camera ready with flash on, when the
fish come out to feed just point the camera generally towards the tank and
take photo so the flash works. Your fish will most probably hide away, that?s
ok they will come out again to feed.
After a couple of weeks doing this each time you feed them you will find the
fish will associate the bang of tank lid with the flash from the camera gives
them food. They quickly realise that the flash don?t harm them and if they
want to eat they must put up with the flash. It soon becomes evident that the
not so shy fish hear the lid bang and don?t even bother about the flash and
just come out to feed. Leaving you to take photos as you wish.
With the more shy fish another tactic can be used (which also tends to get rid
of most reflections) it is also the best way to see fish acting normally.
Take photos in the evening, close any curtains/blinds, close any doors, turn
all lights off except those in the fish tank (any other tanks in the same room
turn there lights off as well.) Your room should now be in total darkness
except for the light in the tank you want to photograph. Stand in front of the
tank; you should see a light patch on the floor where the light coming out of
the tank hits the floor. Stand on the edge of that patch and just watch your
fish. After a short time you should notice the fish acting quite normally as
if you are not there. This is because you are outside their field of vision
(you can see them but they cant see you) as they can only see as far as the
light coming out of the tank goes. To further help in this dress in black or
dark clothing from head to foot even to the point of wearing black gloves and
using a black camera.
All these point?s help greatly in making the fish feel safe. Which in turn
will give them the confidence to come out more giving you more photo
opportunities. A lot of specialist photos are taken with the fish put into
show type tanks, which have a small amount of water in with no obstacles or
hiding places for the fish.
How To Get A Close Up
With the macro features on most Digital Cameras this has made close up photos
a lot more common as although you are a distance away from the subject the
photo automatically gives a zoom in effect to the photo as shown in following
photo of clown loach.
With a reasonable photo-editing program you can crop and enlarge. First photo
below general view. Second photo a fish selected from that photo with cropping
and enlargement of fish done with software.
Which Camera Is Best
This is a matter of personal preference and money available. In practice
the more you spend the better the camera. Having said that a small Digital
Camera with macro facility will get you some great photos. All the photos in
this article were taken with a hand held point and shoot inexpensive digital
camera with macro facility.
This article is not for the professional photo taker but as a help topic for
those trying to get those first decent photos. Don?t be disappointed when you
only get four out of twenty photos that are any good that?s normal. Just
practice - practice ? practice.
Take care Brian"
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