How to go about taking aquarium pics?

[dmm26]

I have a canon a630 as my camera and I have a planted 75 gallon community tank I want to take pictures of. I've been trying to get some good pics of the aquarium and my fish but I just can't seem to get a picture that I think is good. I've tried all of the shooting modes and have yet to find one that I think gives a really good shot.

Anyone have experience with this?

[Shoreliner11]

I have some experience with taking shots in saltwater tanks. A few things to start off:
1. clean the glass really well (be careful as overspray of glass cleaner can cause some issues in tanks)
2. Turn off the pumps: less water movement will help with plants moving and the fish usually are more curious as to what is now going on
3. A tripod definitely helps
4. Try not to use the onboard flash if possible. Sometimes you can get this to work without flaring on the tank glass, but you have to get angles really perfect. It also illuminates any streaks on the glass.

Shooting in RAW helps as white balance can sometimes be an issue, though I'm not sure you're camera can shoot in RAW. If not, I'd try to get a custom whitebalance from inside the tank (try placing a white tupperware lid inside and using that to base your wb off of)

Other than that its a lot of luck to be honest. With taking pictures of fish, 1 in 20 or some come out to my liking.

Hope this helps. Good luck

[Simply Ravishing]

Lots of good info here

http://www.aquatic-photography.com


Taking photos of fish is tough, but do-able. The most important part is going to be the lighting. If you don't have bright lights, a flash pointing down into the tank will defintely help. Using your camera flash straight into the glass will cause you more problems than its worth. You will need a shutter speed of at least 1/100 of a second to really stop the movement of the fish, so either getting more light or cranking up the ISO are your best options. The tips above are helpful also. Check out that forum, tons of useful information and very helpful people post there.

[Simply Ravishing]

I also forgot that it is important that you make the room as dark as possible, so shooting at night, with all of the room lights will give you the best results. These are two of my "better" shots that I have taken. As you will see, taking pictures of larger fish is much easier and generally creates better results. These were taken with just the standard 24" lights on a 55 gallon tank, with an ISO of 800 or so, I don't really remember. In the first picture my glass is pretty dirty, and as you can see it really shows up.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/3157987667_a98d401677_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2575303233_5a074711f3_o.jpg

[FishPix]

I shoot my husband's freshwater fish (basement full of tanks with West African cichlids). Extra clean glass, dark room, tripod and a remote are a necessity. For shots of small 1 inch fish, you will need close up lenses or a macro lens.

Then do 'prep work': Place your camera and the Tripod in front of the tank, so the fish can get used to the strange object in front of the tank. Most of our fish are curious, but stay away from the camera. Sprinkle some sinking food right on the floor where you want the fish and have patience. It's like dog training.

Usually after 2 days, they start to get more trusting. I use high ISO and don't like flash since that makes the fish look more colorfull then they really are (light bouncing off their scales). At the moment I'm experimenting with an extra lighting strip on top of the aquarium. Still, out of 40 to 50 pictures I might get 2 to 3 good ones. Lots of patience needed.

Good luck!

[dmm26]

Thanks for all the replies! I guess patience is key.

[joyfuldesigns]

Those are some amazing fish photos! I didn't realize it could take fish up to 2 days to feel comfortable with a camera/strange object in front.

[FishPix]

That was my greatest frustration. I tried to find a nice background and usually the fish were there all the time. I set up my camera up and all the fish swam to the opposite side of the tank watching suspiciously. Some, like this guy, don't come out at all. But I guess that depends what fish you have. Other species might be more trusting.

[AssassinJN]

2nd the dark room tip, the best way I've found to get photos is to make the room as pitch black as possible, then if you have one (or want to get one) I find something along the lines of a tube, led task light placed to give light from over top of the water, as close to the front of the tank as possible and tilted to aim the light slightly backward into the tank to give the best results. I also prefer to leave the pumps running as it creates some movement to the plants and to the surface of the water, which will give you some of those movie-esqe light rays through aquarium. One last thing to think about is background, depending on where the aquarium is, put a piece of light blue cardboard behind to reflect light back in from the back, and to give a clean background for your photos.