Taking digital pix of your fish

[myriam]

I have been going crazy trying to take some nice pix of my tank to put in my gallery. I have a Canon Powershot G2, which has a pretty good macro feature, but I can't seem to get it to focus fast enough. My fish swim away before it can focus and my pic ends up being a blur.

Any advice or helpful hints?

[reefrunner69]

Moving to show off/photography forum.

[Madame_X]

I have a Canon G1 and had a tough time getting decent fish pictures with that, too. However, I also have a Fuji S602 with the ability to manually adjust settings and manually focus. I have found it much easier to take pictures using the manual settings. The autofocus on most digital cameras just can't focus fast enough to catch the fish unless you happen to catch them slow moving or stationary.

Put the camera in manual mode and adjust the shutter speed as fast as it can go and work down from their.. Odds are when you put the shutter speed fast your pictures will improve..


HTH,
JAmes

[Guppyman]

Hi.

I can't seem to get it to focus fast enough.

This is THE problem. First - you need TONS of light. I use a strip reflector at the front of the top of the tank. I use as much ambient room light as possible AND I use a pair of video lights on both sides, being careful not to get any refection by setting them above the water line - aimed downwards. Be sure to set your white balance. AVOID using your camera's built-in flash. All you'll get is a shot of the flash going off. The last step is an inordinate amount of patience. It is not unusual for me to have to take 200 or more pics to get just one useable image. Sometimes it takes twice that. BTW - I shoot the majority of my pics in "macro" mode and usually the fish is out of the frame by the time the shutter goes off. It's sort of like shooting at a clay pigeon. You have to guess where the fish is going to be a second or two ahead of time. It's not easy - but the reward of a great pic makes it all worthwhile. Keep trying. You'll get the hang of it. - Guppyman

[reefrunner69]

AVOID using your camera's built-in flash. All you'll get is a shot of the flash going off.

This was taken in macro mode, using the flash...


I think the focus fast enough has more to do with the slowness of the lens, as has been noted with practice you will get much better results with the manual focus.

[justDIY]

I've found on my nikon cp5700 that focus speed has to do with available light.

it takes a LONG time to focus in low light conditions (those that would require a flash)

however, when suplemented with a couple 100 extra watts of light, the focus is predictably fast

a lot of times when I've set my mind to "getting the shot", I take off my diffuse and rather lack-luster fluorescent lighting and go with halogen lights instead ... the ability to bring the light to exactly where you want it is most valuable.

[myriam]

Wow, a ton of very helpful info. I will try the manual focus then, and also add a lot more light and turn off the auto flash. I'll post if I get some pix good enough to put in my Gallery.

Thanks!

BTW, reefrunner, that is an awesome pic!