Advice for photography at the aquarium?

[vigilante]

This is a somewhat difficult situation but I'm sure many of you have dealt with it so I'm looking for some simple advice.

At an aquarium you have a handful of challenges:

1) Sometimes tight hallways, can't stand back too far, many people around. Other tight spaces.
2) Reflective glass tanks!
3) Typically low ambient lighting to allow lights within tanks to look nicer and show off the fish.
4) Sometimes shooting through glass, sometimes shooting over the top of water etc.
5) Flash not always allowed, if at all really.
6) To oppose all that, there are usually outdoor, full sun, larger tanks and ponds to shoot as well.


Overcoming some challenges, I'm guessing some things like:
- Possible lens filters to fight light artifacts off tanks, glare etc
- Monopod or some tiny tripod to help with slower shutter for some shots (not all shots can be slow as creatures are moving too)
- Some modicum of flash, perhaps on lowest power or with filters?
- Wide angle lens for tight shots, low aperture

Ideas?

 

[Braineack]

CPL will work for glare.

this is through glass:


Maymont Park Nature Center - Snapping Turtle by The Braineack, on Flickr

my magic? increasing shadows and blacks in post. SOC, the shots typically look bad, but when you add contrast and black saturation black in they usually keep up VERY well.

If I remember when I'm back home, I'll post the before/after of that and a few others from the day.

flash would most likely only make things worse.

 

[vigilante]

So what was your aperture and exposure? What was the ambient light like? I'm guessing F/1.8 or 2 something, seems pretty tight. Tripod?

 

[W.Y.Photo]

The only photo I still have of my one time shooting in an aquarium..

In a lot of cases the lighting is to your advantage.. the light inside the tanks is usually tuned for a great exposure and the lights outside the tanks are aimed to minimize glare so that people aren't looking at reflections of themselves instead of the animals.


Wide angle lenses will work to your advantage in some cases but you'll also want some longer lenses as tight crops are great for shots of individual sea creatures.


Aquariums seem to be one of those cases where you should bring whatever equipment you can bear to have with you and sort of wing it.... different conditions will call for different methods and you'll most likely want to have a range of focal lengths as well as fast lenses for those times with low light.

 

[Dave442]

I agree having a CPL, may come in handy. I push the lens hood right against the glass to reduce chance of reflection (using a thread-on rubber lens hood). Don't use flash. Need a shutter speed to stop movement of the fish, probably at least 1/125. Need some DOF so don't shoot wide open. Will need to raise ISO up over 1000. Tighter shots of individual fish will probably look better, but good to include wide shots if there are some schools of fish and to also set the scene (showing the aquarium with some people to put to scale). I like my 60mm micro, handles fish near the glass and the lens length does not change while focusing so it is easy to keep against the glass.

 

[Braineack]

So what was your aperture and exposure? What was the ambient light like? I'm guessing F/1.8 or 2 something, seems pretty tight. Tripod?

I walked in with my 70-200. Set it to A, put it on 2.8 with auto-iso and just didn't think at all about anything else but snapping shots (unitl I was panning an otter).

Here's a before after with just a little post:

Work hard on reducing glare/reflections as much as possible in the frame before the shot.

 

[Derrel]

If you don't have a rubber lens hood, like Dave mentioned, you can use a scarf or small hand towel or a T-shirt to wrap around the lens front and keep the light and consequent reflections out of your pictures, while still being able to "angle" the camera and lens a little bit, to be able to follow action so that you can compose freely.

 

[CygnusStudios]

I agree with the others that a CPL will make a huge difference. I personally like a little more depth of field when shooting aquariums, like 5.0 to 6.3, so I bump up the iso a bit. Smaller fish move quickly so you'll need to keep the shutter speed up.. We did a shoot for a large aquarium here in California a few years back. Of course we didn't have to fight the crowds, but reflections and lack of flash were still a constant.

 

[Torus34]

The lens hood against the glass works just as well for exhibits behind glass in museums and zoos. In museums you usually have some freedom as to where you position the camera so a metal lens hood works just fine. Also, museum exhibits are noted for lack of motion so long exposure time's no problem which, in turn, allows for smaller apertures and greater DOF.

 

[pixmedic]

if the aquarium your going to is anything like the Tampa aquarium, you will have several problems to contend with.
1: almost no light except for the tank lights.
2: the few lights that are in the hallways are colored lights..blue, purple, orange...
3: a slightly misplaced or overpowered flash causes glare in the tanks.
I bounced a flash with a rouge flashbender, but bounced the light backwards to minimize reflections in the tank.
not only did the flash light up an otherwise near black hallway, but it overrode the colored lights and kept them from casting a colored hue on the people, and especially the white dress.
absolutely dreadful conditions.

wedding by pixmedic, on Flickr

DSC_0209 by pixmedic, on Flickr