Photography

Since it seems I'm not the only one who has a digital camera and yet I still
can't take good pictures... I was helped by someone who had the same camera
and gave me a suggestion, but I must admit, I'm still clueless to how to
accomplish what said person told me... totally my fault....

Here are some tips to help you take better pictures of your tank and it's
creatures
(please add your own)
Take pics at night, with no other room lights on
Use extra light if possible from top only
Turning on flash, but covering it can speed up shutter and get crisper pics
Hold camera at an angle so there's no glare, even with no flash, JIC

Using these basics can get you some decent pics, but nothing special....
hopefully others can add some...

Also, there's a reef group who has some photo experts running around in
it... you can ask them since we're all a bit fishy anyway....marc levenson
is a great photographer and has great ideas on pics... www.melevsreef.com is
his website... check it out...

--
RedForeman ©®

On Tue, 13 Jan 2004 12:52:39 -0500, RedForeman ©® wrote:
Here are some tips to help you take better pictures of your tank and it's
creatures
(please add your own)
Take pics at night, with no other room lights on
Use extra light if possible from top only
Turning on flash, but covering it can speed up shutter and get crisper pics
Hold camera at an angle so there's no glare, even with no flash, JIC

I'd agree with those. I'd also say
- by day, draw the curtains so there are no reflections
- if you turn off the flash, shorten shutter speed the most possible
(fool the camera by telling it it's a bright day or something) -
usually still comes out blurry though or far too bright...
- if you use flash be prepared for the actual detail to be quite
dark and to have to do some processing on your PC
- put the camera onto the biggest file size and best resolution
you never know you might find some interesting detail like a fish
hiding that you weren't expecting and want to zoom up
- buy a large memory card so you can take several pictures at a
time - I take 50 to 100 - and then be prepared to spend ages
trawling through to find one or two really good ones. Try from
all angles and settings etc until you have success.

At least if it's a digicam it costs you nothing to delete the
photos you dont want to use!


--
Flash Wilson
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"I'm an advocate of sex before marriage.
Otherwise I wouldn't have had any at all."

"RedForeman ©®" wrote:

Here are some tips to help you take better pictures of your tank and it's
creatures
(please add your own)
Take pics at night, with no other room lights on
Use extra light if possible from top only

I've seen the suggestion to put the flash in a plastic bag and
actually submerse it the water several times, though I've never tried
it myself. It would certainly get rid of the problem where much of the
light bounces off the water surface and never reaches the fish.

Turning on flash, but covering it can speed up shutter and get crisper pics

To take this a bit further, if your camera has a manual mode, you can
simply set a fast shutter speed. The problem is that not as much light
will then reach the film or CCD, so your picture may come out
under-exposed.

To compensate, you need to use a larger aperture - the hole size that
the light comes through. Aperture is measured in f stops, and a
smaller number means a larger aperture.

Setting the smallest number/largest aperture you can will reduce your
depth of field - things in front of and behind your focus area will be
fuzzy. This is not a bad thing, and in aquarium photography will have
an especially nice effect - your subject (fish, plant, whatever) will
be in good focus while the background will be indistinct. The downside
is that with such a shallow focus area, it's even harder to get the
subject in proper focus.

An example of this effect is on my site:
www.ericschreiber.com/aquarium/fish-sae.html


Hold camera at an angle so there's no glare, even with no flash, JIC

If you want to further eliminate glare and don't mind a bit of
fussing, you can work under a dark drape. Have it cover you, the
camera, and the part of the tank you're shooting through. If you're
using a flash and can put it on a cord, set it up *outside* the draped
area.

Using these basics can get you some decent pics, but nothing special...
hopefully others can add some...

Taking photos of fish, who don't have the good sense to sit still when
you want them to, requires a little luck and a lot of patience.

Also, there's a reef group who has some photo experts running around in
it... you can ask them since we're all a bit fishy anyway.

Reef tank photos are a bit easier, since most of the subjects sit nice
and still, and the lighting is very bright. One of the first tank
pictures I ever took was of a friends reef tank, and I got a decent
shot of it: http://www.ericschreiber.com/photogr...toolcoral.html



--
www.ericschreiber.com

Eric

Very nice photos.

Jim

Eric Schreiber wrote in message
...
"RedForeman ©®" wrote:

Here are some tips to help you take better pictures of your tank and it's
creatures
(please add your own)
Take pics at night, with no other room lights on
Use extra light if possible from top only

I've seen the suggestion to put the flash in a plastic bag and
actually submerse it the water several times, though I've never tried
it myself. It would certainly get rid of the problem where much of the
light bounces off the water surface and never reaches the fish.

Turning on flash, but covering it can speed up shutter and get crisper
pics

To take this a bit further, if your camera has a manual mode, you can
simply set a fast shutter speed. The problem is that not as much light
will then reach the film or CCD, so your picture may come out
under-exposed.

To compensate, you need to use a larger aperture - the hole size that
the light comes through. Aperture is measured in f stops, and a
smaller number means a larger aperture.

Setting the smallest number/largest aperture you can will reduce your
depth of field - things in front of and behind your focus area will be
fuzzy. This is not a bad thing, and in aquarium photography will have
an especially nice effect - your subject (fish, plant, whatever) will
be in good focus while the background will be indistinct. The downside
is that with such a shallow focus area, it's even harder to get the
subject in proper focus.

An example of this effect is on my site:
www.ericschreiber.com/aquarium/fish-sae.html


Hold camera at an angle so there's no glare, even with no flash, JIC

If you want to further eliminate glare and don't mind a bit of
fussing, you can work under a dark drape. Have it cover you, the
camera, and the part of the tank you're shooting through. If you're
using a flash and can put it on a cord, set it up *outside* the draped
area.

Using these basics can get you some decent pics, but nothing special...
hopefully others can add some...

Taking photos of fish, who don't have the good sense to sit still when
you want them to, requires a little luck and a lot of patience.

Also, there's a reef group who has some photo experts running around in
it... you can ask them since we're all a bit fishy anyway.

Reef tank photos are a bit easier, since most of the subjects sit nice
and still, and the lighting is very bright. One of the first tank
pictures I ever took was of a friends reef tank, and I got a decent
shot of it: http://www.ericschreiber.com/photogr...toolcoral.html



--
www.ericschreiber.com

Thanks to each of you for the photo-tips. I have only a low-end type of
digital camera, but I've saved your suggestions and at my next good
opportunity, I intend to practice, practice, practice. Hopefully someday
I'll get a camera with more features/functions. This sounds like excellent
information and I hadn't run across "fish-photo-tips" anyplace else in all
my reading. Big Thanks.
----------------------------------------------
"RedForeman ©®" wrote in message
...
Since it seems I'm not the only one who has a digital camera and yet I
still
can't take good pictures... I was helped by someone

"Jim Morcombe" wrote:

Eric

Very nice photos.

Thank you!


--
www.ericschreiber.com