Help a newbie with aquarium shots

Hey guys - we're hitting the National Aquarium in Balto tomorrow, are there any tips or traps to look out for when trying to shoot in there? I assume it will be dark in most of the place (never been) but if it's like most aquaria the tanks will be fairly brightly lit. Other than wiping the little kiddies finger prints off the glass before I try a shot, what else should I know? Is Auto mode best, or do I want to program things? I'm not looking for 'artistic' photos, just REAListic. Thanks in advance...

Jim

Maybe take a tripod, and circular polarizer...and check to make sure the aquarium allows such things...maybe a flash is in order, though, I don't see what good it will do against glass.

Have fun, don't panic, check the histogram, and shoot to the 'right' of it, without clipping. Good luck.

make sure you bring a cloth, and put the camera on AV or M, depending on how comfortable you are with judging exposure (M recommended when shooting fish that have reflective scales). if you have a hood for a lens, or for a lens larger than the one you are using, go for that. it'll prevent stray light from causing glare on the glass. if you can, shoot as wide open as the shot you want will let you, it'll minimize imperfections in the glass (scratches, discoloration, etc). if they allow you to use a flash, don't use the popup one, if you have a real flash and a sync cord place the flash flush against the glass some distance from the camera. most aquariums do have rules against flash usage though, so check first.

- bring a cloth (microfiber works good) to wipe the glass (not the same one to cleans lenses/filter)
- tripod or IS lens if possible
- adjust you ISO accordingly.....a noisy, sharp shot is better than a blurry shot w/ less noise
- avoid flash at all time (kind of obvious)

Thanks for the tips - too bad dummy me forgot to check back before we left yesterday AM ... But I did get some good shots. The Nat Aquarium DOES allow flash in many places- I noticed only a few tanks or displays where they had noticably forbidden it. It was rather crowded, so using a tripod would have been out of the question. I used a combination of flash on some, no flash on others, sometimes on AUTO, sometimes programmed. The one thing I probably could have learned had I read the thread answers was to take a cloth - had to shoot around the little 8-year old fingerprints on a regular basis.. Anywho, here are a couple of the better ones. The lionfish sat there 5 inches from my camera and seemed to POSE for me. He just sat there for at least a minute while I snapped away...finally got bored and slowly swam off.

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a trick i learned is to get a rubber lense hood on your lense and seal it against the glass. Then you can use a flash without glare. It works really well.

hmm... massive vignetting.. and you stood way too far from the glass.. and definitely didn't shoot wide open with a fast lens... get a 50 1.8, rubber hood, for a price of less than 100, and you'll be much happier with the results.

Nice shots!

I grew up outside of Annapolis, but now live in the midwest. 10 year anniversary is coming up in May and the wife and I will be heading that way and be taking a trip to the Aquarium as well.

Would be interested in hearing what you learned for certain areas, as I am learning the whole process. Will probably be using the Omaha Zoo Aquarium for learning practice for the trip.

also you can check out www.reefcentral.com they have a section on taking photo's of aquariums, many good tips there with examples.

here is a direct link

http://www.reefcentral​.com …isplay.php?s=&f​orumid=118

Check the POTN Member Activities section; the MD/DC/VA people have been there a couple of times, both in 2006, IIRC.