# Photo Tips



## kweenshaker (Mar 11, 2006)

No one has posted here yet, so I thought I'd do it. Some of you have posted such beautiful photos of your tanks and fish. Whenever I try to do it, I either get a flashy pane of glass, my own reflection, or a big (or little) blur lol

So.....photographers out there - share some tips!!


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

What kind of camera are you using?


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## chompy (Mar 24, 2006)

here is a tip that I have, that might be good for some. If your tank is relatively close to a window, use mirrors to deflect the natural sunlight on your fish. if you then take a picture when the fish is perpendicular to the rays of sun the picture should be a keeper. Tis way you don't need a flash can see the natural colours to its full extent. Too bad I don't have any mirrors that arn't already attached to the wall. This is a tip from a noob, take it for what it's worth .


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## ranmasatome (Mar 14, 2006)

1) use a tripod!!
2) keep away from windows.. there is no light stonger than sunlight.. no flash can beat it. so you'll always get reflection
3) if near a window.. cover it up to prevent light from entering in. what happens is the light hits you and bounces off to the tank glass acting like a mirror.. so you dont want that.
4) light containtment is essential.. for reason like reflection on glass, image blur, weird colour changes in the background to name a few.
5) If you're taking a planted tank.. you DONT want it to be pearling..

just a few tips.. to get a start.


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## kweenshaker (Mar 11, 2006)

Brian said:


> What kind of camera are you using?


a digital elph


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Hhmmmm....i dont think i am worthy of giving tips but i am pretty good at taking shots of things that dont move.. lol 

Keep in mind with the photo of the composition.. Try to not have the thing your photo graphing directly in the middle.. Try slightly down and off to the side. This is called the rule of three 3'rds in art i think..i dunno if it applies to photography however.
There is a great example of what i mean in the photography contest... The discus are not quite center and there was a great control for focus... Picking the first as a main subject and blurring out the 2nd ..

When you think you will get a refection from the glass, angle your cam down slightly and it should decrease the change of the flash comming right back at yas.

And as ran mentioned... Tripods are awesome.. Its so hard to get a macro shot and not have it come out slightly burry cause you took a breath in or pushed the cam down a bit when taking the shot..  

Hope those tips help!


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## ranmasatome (Mar 14, 2006)

Ciddian said:


> And as ran mentioned... Tripods are awesome.. Its so hard to get a macro shot and not have it come out slightly burry cause you took a breath in or pushed the cam down a bit when taking the shot..
> 
> Hope those tips help!


Other tip.. if you're not using tripod.. dont breathe when you're taking the shot.. hold your breath. Try to find something to brace your hands against so its mroe stable...Its just like shooting a gun...just that nothing comes out of this one.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

LOL thats what i have to do ...


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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

I bought myself a Canan Powershop A620 last fall so I could take photos of my "babies". After a slow and painful start (thank goodness for digital! no wasted development fees) I found a site that deals mostly in aquarium photography. (if the mods have no objections I'll post a link to it later)

Here's what I've learned so far about fish photography:

1. Start with the tank: make sure the water is crystal clear and that both the inside and outside of the glass is clean, to lessen bubbles in the water turn off all filtration/airstones about an hour before you want to do your photo session. (and don't forget to turn your filtration system/airstones back on afterwards eep!)

2. I take pics at night time only so there's absolutely no sun coming thru the windows to bounce off the glass. I bought a special photography light to place on top of the tank but you can always experiment with other types of lighting. (some fish photographers setup special photo shoot tanks)

3. To avoid getting a reflection of the camera itself in the pictures I usually stand at an angle.


Since I started using those methods my pics have gone from "it's so dark, are you sure there's a fish in that pic?" lol to "hey, not bad"


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

If you don't want to post the site, maybe you can PM me the link to the site. I am looking for a good site to pick up some tips.
Oh and that is an excellent camera you have there. One of my co-worker brought it in and I took a few picks with it. It's almost as good as a digital SLR.

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## Thistle (Jun 4, 2006)

I'm ashamed to say how long it had been since I used a camera so when I decided to finally get one I asked a friend to recommend something that would be good for a beginner but would "last" me for a few years. He actually recommended the Canon Powershot A510 but when I went shopping I saw that the most recent one was the A620 so I bought it. After all, my "babies" deserve the best don't they?


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