Jack Dempsey

I have long been trying to take good pictures of the fish inside my aquarium. I think I finally got a pretty good technique down.

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Come on people, this is a nice shot!

I do not have much aquarium photography expertise. I do know that your dempsey is more colorful than mine. I would try to position the fish somewhere other than the center of the frame. keep em coming.

Nice shot, what is your technique if you don't mind sharing? I find that focus on a reflective surface is very hard and the fact that i my reflection ends up on the glass.

I use a flash with an optical sensor and shoot the flash from above the tank down towards the back. I use my flash bouncing off the ceiling to trigger it. This was there is no glare on the glass.

Also make sure the glass is REALLY clean.

yep, clean glass is a must! I should follow my own advice tho... ahem, anyhoo... photographing at a slight angle to the glass reduces glare, and a hood works great too, especially with macro shots. When using a macro lens it's important to have the camera looking straight at the subject, because trying to take a macro pic through glass at an angle just doesn't work, something with the glass, it's weird. A hood placed flat against the glass makes for great macro shots... which is why I'm still trying to find a hood!

I like the shot myself...colors look sharp...detail is excellant.

Shooting photos of my aquarium species is what got me hooked on photography...I was determined to get the same quality photos that I see other "hobbyists" post.

I am no expert but I can offer this: I don't use a flash when taking aquarium photos. For close up detailed shots like the one you posted I turn off all the surrounding ambiant light and keep my lens perpendicular to the glass...most times I use a tripod and macro mode on my Canon G5...and of course a clean glass is a must.depending on the lighting source on the aquarium I sometimes need to adjust the WB settings especially when shooting aquariums that have lots of high intensity lighting with actinic supplimentation.

Here is an example of one of my decent (or so I think) examples.

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The difficulty of aquarium photography is probably not that obviuos to most people. I have tried a few so I can appreciate that is a nice shot!

I'm not a fishy - just wondering about the thread title? Is that a fighting fish?

Well I wouldnt call it a fighting fish, but it is a cichlid which is a very territorial species of fish.

I believe the Jack Demsey cichlid was actually named after a boxer of that name? Can someone confirm?