capturing fish in my tank is a headache arghhhhhhhh

[Momoko]

Is this impossible or what?? ive even tried with my 35mm prime with the aperture wide open..

even with the lights on in the tank, and having to crank the iso as its still not light enough.. you cant get the shutter speed high enough to capture them, or focus in time before they've swam off AGAIN .. whats the secret?? lol

some attempts at photographing some of my fish.. as you can see ended in disaster :-(

 

[MiFleur]

Are you able to set up some light boxes around them? on the side and behind
Do you set your camera to Continuous focus mode?

PS: I would not call this a disaster, I can see these beautiful vibrant colors and understand what you are trying to do, you have to work on the focus a bit
but what you are showing here has a lot of appeal already.

 

[Momoko]

Hmm thats a idea.. I dont have any light boxes, but I have a few lamps I could use I suppose.. continuos focus mode, ive not seen that on my D3100 menu :-/

 

[KmH]

You are shooting through glass that is not lens optical quality, plus water. Both the glass and the water eat some light.

For D3100 focus options consult pages 55 - 63 of the user's manual (complete) that is on the software disc that came with the camera.

Your D3100 does indeed have AF-C (continuous focus).

 

[Tony S]

.. and you are shooting at such an open aperture that your dof is next to nothing. Get more light, close down to increase the dof, set up on a tripod, clean the tank glass, and finally prefocus and wait for them to swim into the shot since auto focus isn't cutting it.


Shooting fish in a barrel ain't so easy.

 

[pixmedic]

having trouble capturing fish in your tank? have you tried a scoop net?

 

[ph0enix]

having trouble capturing fish in your tank? have you tried a scoop net?

I use a fork

 

[tirediron]

Lighting is key! Multiple lights are almost a necessity for this sort of work. While not fish, this image I shot the other day requires basically the same sort of set-up. This is the set-up. I used a single speedlight overhead in a large SB and one bare, camera left. If possible, set up one light at each end of the tank and one overhead. Raise your ISO to give you a minimum 1/125 SS and use an aperture which will give you a DoF sufficient for the depth of the tank.

 

[joshua_]

Keep us informed, I'm interested in where you get with this.

Have fun!

 

[Mully]

Shoot manual.... AF is a PIA for something like this. You can put dark tape on the glass so that it frames what your camera see that way whatever swims into the clear center of what you taped off is in your frame and you don't have to look through the camera half blind

 

[Buckster]

You are shooting through glass that is not lens optical quality, plus water.

That really doesn't matter as much as some folks seem to think. These were shot in the cheapest Walmart 10 gallon aquarium I could find, with regular tap water:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-gallery/226082-pepper-drop.html

As already mentioned earlier in the thread, it's all about lighting it properly.

 

[fokker]

This thread has given me some inspiration to shoot the fish at my girlfriends house for an upcoming contest in a local magazine with the theme of pets. I was going to just send in a cat or dog picture, but a well lit fish shot could be just the ticket for something slightly different.

Advice for the OP; read Buckster's thread and take some inspiration, though I think for what you're trying to do his setup might be overkill. Certainly a couple of speedlights set up by the tank will help you no end though. Failing that it would have to be high(ish) ISO and a few decently powerful continuous lights.

 

[Buckster]

This thread has given me some inspiration to shoot the fish at my girlfriends house for an upcoming contest in a local magazine with the theme of pets. I was going to just send in a cat or dog picture, but a well lit fish shot could be just the ticket for something slightly different.

Advice for the OP; read Buckster's thread and take some inspiration, though I think for what you're trying to do his setup might be overkill. Certainly a couple of speedlights set up by the tank will help you no end though. Failing that it would have to be high(ish) ISO and a few decently powerful continuous lights.

Yeah, he wouldn't need the background, background light, barn doors, gel, flags, or splash guard at all, for sure. A light or two and something to diffuse it/them should work out very well for his needs. And he might have to deal with reflections from the tank glass, but that's about it.

 

[reaper7534]

Don't mean to tread on your thread, but the main reason I got back into photograph is for my aquarium. What I found to best setting to avoid blurriness in fish is you must use flash and post process. I'm sure the seasoned veterans have some other tricks, here is some pictures I took recently.

Shot with Canso XSI and Tamron 90mm macro

F-stop f/2.8
Exposure 1/200 sec.
ISO Speed 800
Focal Length 90mm
Metering Center Weighted Average
Flash Mode Compulsory

Canon XSI with 18-55mm kit lens, no IS

F-stop f/5.6
Exposure 1/125 sec
ISO 800
Focal 55mm
Metering Pattern
Flash Flash, compulsory

 

[Momoko]

ok so had another go how about these?



no flash btw