Digital Pictures?

[ksfishguy]

I have a Kodak 5.0 Easyshare camera (V550). Does anyone have any "settings" advice for taking great shots of my fish? I have messed with about every setting and just can't get that perfect shot.
Thanks,
David

 

[src]

Usually, Macro mode is used for taking close-up pictures, otherwise just the normal "auto" mode for the full tank shots. The most important things you can do is make sure there is a LOT of room light, but no reflections of the light off of the tank. Also, a steady hand is required to keep the picture from bluring.

I've found that flashes don't give you better pictures. Finally - every brand of camera is different, and you will probably have to keep playing around until you find a method that works for yours. The good news is that it's cheap to experiment.

 

[theatrus]

All depends on the amount of light in the aquarium. I.e., in reef tanks with plenty of light, its best to turn off all room lights to get rid of glass reflections.

Best bets are a tripod (almost a must), good lighting, macro mode and get close, as well as putting your camera into the most sensitive mode you can (check to see if you can bump up its ISO setting, if you can, put it as high as possible. You'll get rather grainy pictures, but you can postprocess a lot of the noise out with a tool like www.neatimage.com )

 

[JustOneMore20]

I have a Kodak Easyshare (4.0 i think). I use the Macro mode (flower symbol) and turn off the room lights. That way the pictures are nice and lit with the tank lights (planted tanks). I have to try to be really still. I'm thinking about getting a tripod because most of my pictures turn out really blurry.

I've taken some ok pictures with it. Most have to be adjusted a little though. The close up pictures tend to be blurry...but its probably just my hand shaking.

Here is an example....

 

[ksfishguy]

I will try all of the advice this evening, sounds great! Thanks!

 

[An t-iasg]

Moved to the Show Off/Photography forum.

I have discovered that when I use the macro mode in my camera, I have to set the zoom all the way to wide. But then I can almost touch the lens right on the aquarium and the picture is usually in focus. I get my best pictures in the afternoon when sunlight illuminates the room well (the tanks are behind a pass-through so no sunlight shines right on the tanks). I usually take pics without a flash also.

 

[ksfishguy]

Thanks An t-iasg!

 

[push350z]

One thing that may help you with getting some better quality tank shots. If you found light is low have someone come in and hold a flashlight on the subject your a taking a photo of. This adds a little more light to the aquarium and should allow you to bump up the exposure time a little which should help reduce the blurryness of photos due to handshake. Also I would bump up the ISO and if you can adjust aperture make it as large as you can. I toyed around with my tank last night and was able to take shots at 1/60th of a second (minimum recommended speed for no tripod) at ISO 400.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Another way I found is at night with no lights. My camera has a feature where there's another light on it that it uses to focus on what you want to take the picture of. If you don't have a feature like this, use a flashlight. Shine it on the fish, push the button part way to auto-focus, once focused turn flashlight off and snap the shot. Works pretty well. That's how I shoot my eel pics that I posted. In pitch black. And a tripod helps in keeping the distance the same, as you will be using macro feature when doing this.

 

[ksfishguy]

Great advice, now I just need to take time and take a ton of pics, will post soon.