How to take good fish pictures?

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JeffNebraska

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jun 16, 2003
Messages
64
Location
Berkeley, CA
If one has an auto-focus digital camera without too many bells and whistles, is there a secret to getting it to focus on your fish and not on your glass? I feel like I'm batting about .500 at this point.

Thanks.
 
with a digital camera if you have 1 good pic in every 2 then that seems like a good ratio to me.

Really alot of us take LOTS of pics and only keep a small handful of the 'gems'. This is one of teh wonders of a digital camera.

One thing to make sure you observe is the min focual lenght of your camera. Some are as distant as 6" and others are as close as 1" or less. This minimum lenght is how far away the camera must be from the object to properly focus. Getting to close will always turn out in a bad photo.

You can get more helpful hints in our Show Off forum.

P,s, please share some of your good photos we love to look at peoples tanks.
 
The glass must be immaculate. Anything on it at all will ruin the focus, so scrub the inside with a sponge (always first) and wipe the outside with glass cleaner. Then try to reduce any outside light, any reflections will also ruin the pic. I wait until nighttime to take my pics. If you use a flash, take the picture at an angle to avoid seeing the reflection in your pic. Other than that, remember digital pics don't cost anything to take, so take as many as you want!
 
Check your camera manual for the camera specifications for the focus distance.

e.g. My Kodak DC215
Wide: 1.6ft (0.5m) to infinity
Telephoto: 3.28ft (1.0m) to infinity
Macro or Close-up: 8 inched (0.2m)

Also, try to stay around the tank practicing angles etc and the fish will get used to you being around (try not to make any sudden movements).

Once you have a few photos, choose the best one and crop it (take out unwanted areas).

Louise
 
My camera has a burst mode. So often I set it to such a mode and just press the shutter release button and go. One of those pictures has t turn out.
 
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