Taking Photos of the Fish/Tank

brikeibur

brikeibur

Member
This may have been addressed already on another thread, if so I'm sorry please just point me in the right direction. Anyways, I was curious on pointers some of you may have on taking pics of your tank and the fish and stuff. I have taken some pics that aren't bad, but when I look in the photo gallery there are some great pics there that make me really jealous!! LOL...anyways, I have a Canon digital Rebel XTi. I have taken some pics with a flash, but I don't really like how they look, others seem to be too dark or bright in spots and it causes you to lose the color. How do you capture the bright colors without being too bright or overdoing it? Just pointers would be great....like do I leave on the halide light, or just the LED's....anything you can give I would appreciate. THANKS!! :wave:
 
Woodstock

Woodstock

The Wand Geek was here. ;)
RS STAFF
Use a tripod (or an VR lens) and use the Program mode. Practice, practice, practice! For every one pic I post, I have deleted 99 others :D
 
brikeibur

brikeibur

Member
I take photos a lot....It's a big hobby of mine, but I am by NO means a pro or even close. LOL....I have messed around with the different white balance settings, but didn't find one that actually looked good. I will have to go in and set it in my custom settings for aquarium lighting. Thanks for the link on that too.
As far as the tripod, no I didn't use one. I simply set my iso to a higher setting so that I could take the indoor photos at lower light conditions without it being blurry and what not. I know this causes graininess the higher the iso, especially in darker areas of the photo, but I am just trying to get my coloration better, then I'll go to the tripod to increase actual sharpness and image quality.
Again, thanks so much guys for the input.....thank you both....I just love how everyone on here is so friendly and willing to help and offer good advice. Thanks guys...I always appreciate ANY helpful tips anyone can give!!
 
JT101

JT101

Member
I haven't taken many, but I think the two biggest challenges are 1) use of the flash and 2) getting the best focus. If you close the aperture a lot (to get the best field of depth) and use flash then you risk getting flashback from the tank itself. However, if you open up the lens wide open so you get more light in (in an attempt to do away with flash) then you automatically reduce your depth of field so if you focus on a snail, for example, everything in front of it and behind it is out of focus. Also, when you use autofocus it tends to focus on the glass.

I have found the best way is to use the wider aperture and live with the reduced DOF, and use manual focus. I take several pictures of something in the tank and pick the one that looks like it's the sharpest. Also, I set my white balance to sunlight as the tank lights mimic it.
 
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