How To Take Quality Photos Of Your Fish.

[mark.w.jones]

I have spent a lot of time on TFF and have found a few pinned articles on taking and posting photos but nothing that seems that thorough or which covers everything all in one single post, so here is my attempt.

Why take photos in the first place?

You’ll be surprised at how much the layout and formation of your tank changes over the course of a few years. Mine resembles nothing like the rather poor effort I produced back at the beginning of my tropical fish keeping career. So from a sentimental point of view it’s nice to be able to look back and see where you came from. You can also look back at plants, rock / wood formations that maybe worked well before but you have moved and now forgotten how to put them back.

Laying out where things are to go in your tank, for me, is the most exciting aspect of fishkeeping followed by the fish themselves. Getting things laid out with a good balance and flow from one aspect to the next is actually quite an art and doing it well is difficult. So by posting your tank layouts in the members photos forum you can get good constructive criticism. Look to the AGA aquascaping contest here for inspiration and ideas:

http/showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2006...me=mark.w.jones

Japanese photographer and designer Takashi Amano is also a master at the art of aquascaping, his tanks are huge!! and look amazing. Well worth looking at for inspiration.

http/www.aquatic-gardeners.org/driftwood...030-04_ava1.jpg

http/www.aquapassion.com/articles/img/am...%20finalbis.JPG

Finally, a picture always speaks a thousand words. If there is a fish, plant, type of algae you want to identify or a disease to diagnose, it’s always easier doing it from a picture.

How do you take good photos to post online?

This is difficult to comment on as it depends hugely on your digital camera and photo editing software, but there are a number of commonalities. In a nutshell, the basic quality of digital photos is measured in terms of their resolution. Essentially the number of tiny coloured pin prick sized dots that make up the photo. The more you have the more detailed and closer to the original the picture can be. Resolution is either quoted as 2 numbers which tell you the number of pixels across by the number from top to bottom. e.g 1024 x 768 = 786, 432 pixels. Or this same picture size can be quoted as 0.7 mega pixels.

Digital cameras today take photos with as many as 10 million pixels or more (10 mega pixels) compared to about 3 only a few years ago. So the greater the number of pixels the better the picture then? Er no, not really. Things like the quality of the lens, size of the sensor the image is recorder on etc. also play a major part in the final image quality. That’s why a 3 mega pixel camera can take better quality picture than a 5 mega pixel camera.

Easy Tips

1. With photographing fish one of the most important things I would say is to take as many shots as possible. Out of 50 shots I usually get 1 or 2 I’m happy with if I’m lucky.

2. Turn the flash off or to its lowest output if you know how, to prevent glare off of the glass.

3. Clean off smears and water marks from the glass before you start, you’ll be amazed at how much they show up in your photos otherwise.

4. Move thermometers and other bits to the side of your tank before beginning, they look unsightly in photos.

5. If you want to photograph your whole tank then do just that. Fill the whole frame with just the tank if possible. Usually, people aren’t that interested in seeing the bookshelf it’s sitting on.

6. Always take photos at the highest resolution and lowest compression possible on your camera. You can then always reduce the size of the photo or crop to a certain area without too much quality loss using a photo editing program at a later date. Whereas if you take it at a low resolution and high compression to begin with there is no way of upping the detail later.

Close ups

These are more tricky but very satisfying if you get them right.

1. Put your macro setting on to allow for a tighter focus.

2. Don’t be tempted to zoom in too much as you’ll often miss things or end up with a blurry shot if you do. I go for no zoom but lens right up to the glass.

3. Start with your slow moving or sedentary fish first (the ones that sit still). These are usually much easier to capture. Look out for interesting shots though, where they sit somewhere strange, do something unexpected or have some interesting background material behind them.

4. For faster moving fish you really need to go for manual settings. Aim for a low ISO 50 to 100, shutter speed around 1 / 125 or a little faster and an aperture (f value) of around 4. If things look really washed out without much colour try increasing the f value, this reduces the size of the aperture and hence less light can get in. If the photo looks really dark and lacking in colour then try reducing your f value. A low level flash can often bring out colours. Just tweak things around these settings and experiment to see what works best on your camera.

5. To capture faster fish you need to pre focus your camera. Pick something at a middle distance in your tank. Half hold your shutter button down to focus in on it then wait. If you watch your fish closely they will usually have a set movement pattern they follow. Just wait for them to return to where you are focusing and fully depress your button. I find this leads to better + less blurry shots than following them all over the tank.

6. Consider getting a small tripod, as this really helps to steady your camera for good shots, especially with certain manual camera settings.

7. Once you upload your photos on to your computer immediately get rid of any that are out of focus. Then look to see if there are any that just need cropping to improve the composition, you’ll be surprised at what you can save with a good crop.

For photo editing I use a combination of:

Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Good for cropping and basic brightness + contrast stuff. Also great for resizing pictures to specific sizes in order to post online.

Paint.NET A free photo editor with some powerful effects you’d expect only in a more expensive package.

Irfanview Excellent little freeware program for batch conversion of names, resolutions, photos effects and more.

Preparing photos to post online

1. Resize them.

Photos to post online do not need anywhere near the detail or size you need to print off for home use. Reduce pictures to a maximum size of 640 x 480 (ideally 320 x 240) if you want to post them within a forum or website. Otherwise people will have to scroll across miles just to see your whole photo. Just to give you an idea, an 800 x 600 photo will completely fill most people’s monitors when viewed online.

2. Save as a JPEG

When preparing photos to post online, save them in the .jpeg format, not as a bitmap, TIF or RAW file. The jpeg format compresses the original photo with some loss of quality but is not noticeable when posting a photo online.

3. How do I post photos in a forum?

Some forums at TFF, like the planted tanks one, allow you to upload 100k of photos directly. This is about the size of two 640 x 480 jpegs. Otherwise:

1. Go to a photo hosting website like www.imageshack.us
2. Browse for your edited photo on your computer.
3. Upload it.
4. Copy and paste the link in the section called "Hotlink for forums 1" into your post.
5. Preview to make sure it's there.
6. Voila!

I hope this article helps you to take better photos of your fish and I look forward to seeing more of them in the members tanks and photos section.

Mark

 

[tmack]

I've found with my digital camera, with limited exposure control, that I can get pretty good closeups of my fish by putting one or two layers of tissue (kleenex type) over the flash to get the benefits of the flash stopping the motion of the fish, but avoid that washed out look. I also get the lens right up close to the tank (using the macro option), The tissue has really helped a lot. And I agree - take a ton of pics and you may get one or more that are really good.

 

[Jozlyn]

all of my pictures come out grainy, so I gather I've got something set wrong, which setting would that be?

 

[mark.w.jones]

all of my pictures come out grainy, so I gather I've got something set wrong, which setting would that be?

I'm not an expert but grainy is usually due to a lack of light. Obviously your lights in your tank are not lighting things up enough to get a decent photo. You can try setting up an extra angle poise lamps pointing in from the side of you tank to increase light levels.

You will also do better with a bit of flash. Not full flash though as you'll then get glare off of your glass and terrify your fish On most cameras you can adjust the amount of flash in your manual settings (usually labelled as M on you camera). Adjust it down to it's lowest level to begin with and see what shots you get. If it's too low then try increasing the flash. Put your camera lense on the glass with the macro setting on and snap away.

Finally, ISO (sensitivity to light) comes into things. The higher this is the more sensitive the sensor is to the light that's available and usually the more grainy the pictures become. Try 100 to begin with then 50.

 

[raptorrex]

I've found with my digital camera, with limited exposure control, that I can get pretty good closeups of my fish by putting one or two layers of tissue (kleenex type) over the flash to get the benefits of the flash stopping the motion of the fish, but avoid that washed out look. I also get the lens right up close to the tank (using the macro option), The tissue has really helped a lot. And I agree - take a ton of pics and you may get one or more that are really good.

this is a really good idea, the tissue really diffuses the flash, giving less harsh contrast. its a very old pro photographers trick.
but simply angling you camera will avoid most cases of flash back. i have to say IMO flash and none flash pictures, are both good ways to get fine pics

all of my pictures come out grainy, so I gather I've got something set wrong, which setting would that be?

as stated above, your grain is most likely down to incorrect exposure! modern cameras have multi mega pixel ccds but not too good of an exposure system, with shutter speeds of not much less than 60 th of a second.

do not try using the zoom when in macro mode, as you will find you just have to move the camera back to regain focus, leaving you with the same size image. its complicated but in zoom mode, the image will remain the same size whatever the zoom setting, as the minimum focusing distance increases as you zoom.

 

[tmack]

Hi Boboboy. I wasn't using tissue to avoid flashback in the pictures. I've found that simply angling the camera will still caused washed out fish pics due to the intensity of the flash, especially with fish that aren't darkly colored and have a lot of reflective silver scales. The tissue (as you agreed) will cut down on the flash intensity and diffuse the light and allow the colors of the fish to show up much better. I guess you might say I'm trying to avoid the flashback from the fish themselves, not from the tank surface.

 

[Ava_Banana]

Good topic.......

.....I use a small piece of 80gsm white paper over the flash to diffuse it........


.....However.....I am waiting for my new camera to arrive....any day now!!!!!

 

[mark.w.jones]

Good topic.......
.....I use a small piece of 80gsm white paper over the flash to diffuse it........

All I can say is that all your digital cameras must be ancient or not very good My 3 year old canon lets you adjust the intensity of the flash right down to a point where you avoid the glare and white wash out you get from full flash. Although I suppose sticking a bit of bog roll over your flash does the same job, just make sure it's not used of course.

 

[beesnees]

i have a bow fronted tank, is there a method to take good photos. i always get a reflection even when taking photos from an angle

 

[raptorrex]

Hi Boboboy. I wasn't using tissue to avoid flashback in the pictures. I've found that simply angling the camera will still caused washed out fish pics due to the intensity of the flash, especially with fish that aren't darkly colored and have a lot of reflective silver scales. The tissue (as you agreed) will cut down on the flash intensity and diffuse the light and allow the colors of the fish to show up much better. I guess you might say I'm trying to avoid the flashback from the fish themselves, not from the tank surface.

lol yep i got that, as i said it diffused the light, making it less harsh.

Good topic.......
.....I use a small piece of 80gsm white paper over the flash to diffuse it........

All I can say is that all your digital cameras must be ancient or not very good My 3 year old canon lets you adjust the intensity of the flash right down to a point where you avoid the glare and white wash out you get from full flash. Although I suppose sticking a bit of bog roll over your flash does the same job, just make sure it's not used of course.

you are missing the point, its not only the amount of flash, that the paper changes, its the type and quality of the light
and as a matter of interest the fix is still used by both fleet st and most pro photographers. my guess is their equipment is of higher standard and newer than most of us will have.
lol you dont need new or expensive cameras to shoot fish

with flash

no flash

i have a bow fronted tank, is there a method to take good photos. i always get a reflection even when taking photos from an angle

you would need to make a softlight box for this, essentially a white tent that the flash(es) are placed outside of. needs several flashes and a good ttl flash system.

 

[beesnees]

i have a bow fronted tank, is there a method to take good photos. i always get a reflection even when taking photos from an angle

you would need to make a softlight box for this, essentially a white tent that the flash(es) are placed outside of. needs several flashes and a good ttl flash system.

thanx, might give it a miss. i only have a cheap £90 diggi cam. flash not that good

 

[tmack]

Hi. Still getting the hang of the fish picture taking & haven't done a lot of it, but here are 2 pics I took last week of some young Bolivian Rams, showing the difference that one thickness of kleenex made:

No tissue - really washed out:

Same tank, different fish, but same age ram - one thickness of kleenex type tissue:

Still more experimentation to do, when I get the time. It's spring here & the south and my wife has me tilling. planting stuff, putting mulch down, etc., besides the flippin grass now needing to be cut every 4 - 5 days. I'm lucky I can walk around, let alone try to crouch down by the tank & shoot 30 more pics to get a decent one!

 

[mark.w.jones]

I was just kidding about the bog roll thing of course. I'm actually quite impressed with the results of a softer, less harsh flash. Will go away and give it a try. Will post results soon. Thanks for adding to my original article guys. Hope it's been useful.

 

[tmack]

I was just kidding about the bog roll thing of course. I'm actually quite impressed with the results of a softer, less harsh flash. Will go away and give it a try. Will post results soon. Thanks for adding to my original article guys. Hope it's been useful.

Hahahahaha! I was correct in assuming "bog roll" is what we refer to in the states as toilet paper, or TP for short, and I knew you were kidding. One or more thicknesses of "bog roll" would work as well as kleenex type tissue. And yes unused bog roll (or kleenex for that matter) is a must!

 

[raptorrex]

got stacks of little tricks like that, to help your pictures. you can get cheap flashes, that have a slave trigger, you effectivly block the camera flash with loo roll or, kleenex, so only enough gets out to trigger the slave, this lets you put the flash anywhere. you will need to work out its output, but its not too difficalt. or a small bit of tin foil, below the flash to deflect the flash up and a larger bit of white paper to reflect the flash back down at an angle, give real nice look to portraits, and also helps avoid, flashback. all cost next to nowt, and with a little thought, can transform a otherwise average camera.