[Goomie]

Well, as the title says, this is the first time I've taken photos with a professional grade camera... at least for a while... Don't be too harsh :nerd:

 

[R|M|D Photography]

Not too bad for your first shot! Just need to work on your focus and lighting a bit. Try switching it over to manual focus, I find I can control it a lot easier to get a moving fish in it versus the auto focus hunting back and forth as the fish moves in and out of plants. Go check out the one's I just posted of JT's tank. Trust me, there were several that had to be thrown out due to bad focus! lol

 

[Goomie]

D'oh of course, I completely spaced on manual focus *facepalm*.

Well my laptop charger LITERALLY just shot craps so I'll have to practice while I wait for a new charger lol.

I'll play with the camera I have access to

 

[Nordic]

The larger the aperture (lower the F stop number of the lense) the shorter exposure it needs (i.e. less blur and shaking) Conversely, as the aperture gets larger the field of depth narrows, i.e. things in front of and behind the focus zone will be out of focus. With old film based cameras, it was easy, anything physically smaller than the aperture hole in the lense, was blurred out of focus. a bit like the catfish photo, notice how the moss just behind it is blurred.

 

[Goomie]

Ah that makes a lot of sense! Of course I was shooting on auto being completely inexperienced. But I can practice and learn! Soon I'll have beautiful photos of my tank that shows it off the way it should be

 

[gregorylampron]

Fish look happy and very colorful. Nice natural looking tank

Please keep hands off glass.

 

[Goomie]

Why thank you I like to think they're happy.

 

[mot]

Jason Baliban's website was a big help to me when I was starting out. Have a look Planted Aquarium Tank Articles - Planted Aquarium Photography with a Point and Shoot Camera - Project Aquarium

 

[Goomie]

WOW VERY informative! I want to snap up my boyfriends camera and start playing with all the settings now lol! I think he's sick of my obsession with my tank but I am quite proud of what I've produced and the amount of time and effort I've put into it. And I'd love to get accurate, high quality pictures to show off my tank great guide, thank you for sharing.

 

[Goomie]

OK apparently I need A LOT more practice because most of my pictures came out super dark lol. This camera has 1000 buttons and I don't know how to change some of the settings even in manual mode, not to mention the LCD screen makes everything look blurry and I have no laptop for picture review.

I took one semester of photography in high school many years ago so my knowledge of cameras is pretty well gone by now lol...

 

[houseofcards]

It's easier to take Full Tank Shots because you can simply put the camera on a tripod or other surface and slow the shutter speed until the picture is properly exposed. Even shut off the filter so everything is still. Some blurry fish from a distance won't really make much of a difference.

For individual fish pics you have no choice but to throw more light on the tank since the fish is moving and it requires a minimum shutter speed even with the aperture wide open. A fast lens (low F-number like 2.8 or lower) helps but you still need the light. If you want to get clear pictures of your fish without buying extra stuff just grab any light you can shop lights, whatever and try to put them over the tank somehow.

 

[Goomie]

Hmmmm we do have several shop lights around here, I even had the overhead light on too. It really would help if my background was black too, instead of what it is now. Unfortunately my tank is a bow front and taking full front pictures never turns out how i want (reference my tank journal in my signature). I'll just have to keep playing with it and learning

 

[houseofcards]

Some people have very powerful aquarium lights so with that you have more flexibility, otherwise you must add light or use a off camera flash for fish shots.

You should also take the shots at night with all the other lights off in the room and as much light above the tank.

 

[Goomie]

Ah, that makes sense. I've been debating a stronger light but without a CO2 setup and already having algae growing... I wasn't sure I wanted to take the plunge (pun totally intended).

My first round of pictures was no lights but the tank light and some with and some without flash. A few did come out great but most didn't and I ended up trashing them lol. Well, maybe next time I'll shine in the LED shop light and see if that helps make differences. The camera is a Nikon something or another. Tons of buttons and settings. Definitely not just "point and shoot" unless it's in auto mode. And unfortunately the owner of said camera doesn't even know how to use it because he takes pictures of stationary show cars! Haha. Once my laptop is back up and running I'll have more pictures to share... Unless he lets me use his Mac

 

[kinzo]

Might want to put a black background to the back of your tank to make your fishes/plants "pop" more as well. Love the red cherry barbs tho, my personal fave!

 

[Goomie]

Yes I think I might get a piece of black fleece and attach it to my tank, I really don't want to paint it haha.

And thank you! My barbs are so happy. I thought I originally had 3 males and added 3 females. Come to find out when my females darkened up that, in fact, i had 2 males and 1 female the whole time! Now the ladies outnumber the gentlemen haha.

 

[DW Sites]

Looks good to me.

 

[Nordic]

You want to invest in a small tripod to help combat motion induced blur, and hopefully the camera has some kind of remote shutter activation, or for plants you can use the timer function.

 

[Goomie]

I think that my boyfriend already has a tripod for this camera.

 

[Nordic]

Bug him, you will see the results...