Shooting an oddly lit aquarium through thick glass with autofocus - suggestions?

[JeremyMcG]

This photo was a problem and still turned out like ****e.
That was shot a few months back at the Baltimore Aquarium. I was pleased with nearly everything I took there, except the jellyfish - I couldn't shoot them to save my life.
My issues were that the glass was thick and not necessarily clean and the fact that the jellyfish actually move faster than you think kept me from ever getting a good shot.
Because the light in the tanks was VERY low, I had to keep the lens wide open which killed the depth of field - so if a jelly fish was horizontal, part would be in focus and part would be out, should I be even lucky enough to get any of it in focus through the dirty glass.

Does anyone have any suggestions for that kind of shoot? I'm getting a chance to go back in 3 weeks and would like to make the best of it.

 

[Msteelio91]

Close the aperture more and crank the ISO. Don't be afraid to up the ISO when you need to. The colors are great and I wouldn't say that you "missed" the focus here, just not enough DOF.

 

[robbins.photo]

Get your lens hood pretty much right up against the glass or as close to it as you possibly can, and then be prepared to do a lot of postwork. Shooting in large aquariums is always a pain, the lighting is usually terrible, the glass is never clean and pexiglass doesn't reflect light like normal glass does, it actually reflects it on multiple levels.

 

[JeremyMcG]

Just out of curiosity, would a shot like this have been possible with a 35mm and film? I mean, with the necessity of heavy post editing in lightroom or photoshop - noise reduction, color correction, etc.... ?

 

[Msteelio91]

Not easily. If you're speaking pre-computers then it would have been super hard. But nowadays you can scan and edit a shot from film as well.

Robbins is right about the plexi too, it's hard to get right.

I still think you did a good job, just work on that DOF and I think you'll be pleased with the results.

 

[CameraClicker]

Sometimes a rubber lens hood helps. Many jellyfish tanks have strange lighting, lots of different colours. My last ones were at f/3.5 through 24 mm at ISO 3200.