What’s your technique to photo your fish?

No matter what I do it takes 50 photos to get one acceptable one. Some of your guys pictures look like you are in the tank swimming around with them they look so good.

Do you use your cell phone?
Do you use an actual camera?

I prefer an actual digital camera for taking fish pictures. You normally have a better lens and more options than a phone does. Although some of the more expensive phones are pretty good too.

Clean the glass inside and out the day before you take pictures or at least a few hours before taking them.
Do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate the day before you take pictures.
Clean the filter the day before you take pictures.
These 3 things give you a clean tank and glass and are the starting point.

If you use a digital camera (not a phone) try to set it to shutter priority. You want a shutter speed of around 1/150-1/200 of a second. You want the flash on.
Some cameras and phones will slow the shutter speed down to 1/60 of a second (or less) when using the flash and that screws up the pictures due to camera shake (you get blurry pictures). Having the faster shutter speed (1/200 second) will give you clear pictures unless you are moving your hand while taking them.

If you can set the ISO, have it on 64 or 100, maybe 200 but no higher. The higher the ISO number, the less light the camera needs but the grainier the picture is and the worse it looks. Cameras and phones regularly set the ISO to 400 or more when using a flash and that is bad.

Don't try to get the fish to fill up the entire image. Just make sure the fish is central in the picture and you can crop it down if you need to.

Don't zoom in too much either. Digital cameras and mobile phones have two types of zoom (besides the actual lens that might be able to move in and out a bit). I can't remember what both types of zoom are called by one is digital and the other is whatever. But if you zoom out a lot, the camera simply crops the image and the more you zoom out, the higher the ISO number goes (unless it's set by you). Zooming out also increases camera shake (blurry pictures) and you need faster shutter speeds to compensate for that. However, the faster the shutter speed, the less light getting onto the sensor in the camera.

Have lights on above the tank and open the curtains and turn the room lights on. The brighter the area that is being photographed, the better the picture. Cameras need lots of light to take decent pictures.

Don't wear light coloured clothes when taking fish pictures because they often reflect off the glass and appear as shadows in the picture. Dark clothes are better or stand further back from the tank.

Have the came angled slightly downward and aim at the head of the fish. You want the fish swimming towards the camera and focus on the head and front half of the body. The scales on fish reflect light best and show the best colour when the light is hitting them from the front or side, not from behind.

Most professional photographers take 100s of pictures and keep a few for printing. Digital cameras are great for taking pictures because you can literally take hundreds of images and check them on your computer, keep what you like and delete the rest, then take more. All you need to do is format the memory card after each use and recharge the batteries. It's a lot cheaper and quicker than the old days of film. Then practice, practice, practice.

Connershawzz said:

No matter what I do it takes 50 photos to get one acceptable one

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I use both an iPhone 12 and a DSLR and take usually 200-300 pics just to get the right one. My DSLR is just under 12 years old now so the quality isn't the best, but it still takes pictures with a much better quality than my iPhone does. I mainly use the iPhone for filming as it can do 4K 30fps-60fps.

I have a Canon DSLR that's about 5 years old and takes good shots. I don't, but it does. Recently though, my longtime phone died and I had to replace it. I have a new Galaxy/android, and the photo quality is a surprise to me. They seem to have improved radically, and I've been using it a lot more.

The tech is important, but the photographer more so. What @CassCats does here with her phone is really something. I'm not there yet. You need a bit of an artist's eye. Combine it with glass clean on both sides, good lighting, a good background and patience, and it's a start. I take a dozen digital shots to get one that's okay, and probably 500 to get one that's really good.

I've just changed some settings on my DSLR to what Colin suggested and have actually captured better-quality photos of my fry than what I had taken previously. Thanks @Colin_T

I use both my phone and DSLR camera. I do make better photos with my DSLR camera than with my Iphone.

I use my phone.



But yes, we do not discuss how many photos it can take to get a few good shots. My poor phone storage is perpetually challenged. I have to do a lot of camera dumps.

Several times a year this is me dumping my phone camera storage.

I use a phone because i'm too lazy to find my dslr that i haven't used in 6 years and 3 moves prior. However i hate the phone because i can never get it to set the shutter or focus correctly so i keep telling myself one of these days i'll dig out my dslr - test the lenses i have for focal length and then maybe get a new body.

One thing i hate about dslr is with the phone i can just mail the images to me for cropping (i use email since with wifi i have my own mail server and there is no real network traffic); but with the dslr i have i have to dig out my usb to whatever media the camera has to transfer the images - pop the sd out of the camera or use a usb cable tot he camera to transfer the image - much more painful. I've heard newer dslr have wifi but when i looked into them they didn't work well. Worse one of the two systems i have is dead (olympus) and fuji is the other but only a couple of lenses. I think if i got a new body i'd go with sony but their lens selection isn't that great which is why i need to test things with my old camera to see what focal length works well. Worse nothing is going to work well with the 500/600 since the glass on those aquariums distort images too much though the smaller aquariums i can still get decent clarity. I should have gone with a different vendor on the 500/600 and gotten saphire glass but the cost .... oh the cost would have been more than the new car i never got.

My new £10 Fisheye & Macro Lens finally arrived today 6 days late.. It seems they were worth the money and wait in the end. Managed to capture some decent pics

Developing egg

Younger fry (2-4 weeks)


One of the oldest fry (3-5 weeks)

Two recently hatched fry

Hum. I also have fishes with eyes but i don't know how much their eyes cost - i think they came with the fish.

anewbie said:

Hum. I also have fishes with eyes but i don't know how much their eyes cost - i think they came with the fish.

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In the Philippines you can buy fish eye soup for a couple of dollars.

Colin_T said:

In the Philippines you can buy fish eye soup for a couple of dollars.

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But does it come with the fish ?

anewbie said:

But does it come with the fish ?

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You can get the entire fish with head and eyes but that is normally served on a platter. The fish eye soup can have the head or no head.

Colin_T said:

You can get the entire fish with head and eyes but that is normally served on a platter. The fish eye soup can have the head or no head.

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So i had a conversation with my fishes on this matter and what i understand is they want to keep both their eyes and their heads so no fish eyes or eyeless fish heads for me.