stupid fish!

funkychunkymonkey

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May 28, 2009
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So ive got a plastic two gallon tank lit with a nightlight bulb. Well Im having issues getitng a decent picture of the fish. Ive tried turning the camera to prevent glare (See, I do read photogrpahy books! LOL) but its just not working. I will post some initial shots soon but how do I take fish photos
DSC00471.jpg

Hes not gold, at all :(
 
So ive got a plastic two gallon tank lit with a nightlight bulb. Well Im having issues getitng a decent picture of the fish. Ive tried turning the camera to prevent glare (See, I do read photogrpahy books! LOL) but its just not working. I will post some initial shots soon but how do I take fish photos
DSC00471.jpg

Hes not gold, at all :(

Just looks like you're not getting focus. Make sure you select your focus point(ideally the middle one).
 
Just looks like you're not getting focus. Make sure you select your focus point(ideally the middle one).

It looked clear and focused when I took the photo. I even had my glasses on for once.
DSC00471.jpg

Heres my second try. I was going to post it with the first one but my computer is being icky
 
How close are you to the goldfish? According to Amazon.com (link), the minimum focusing distance for your lens is 0.25 meters = about 10 inches. If you're closer than 10 inches to your goldfish, then that might be the reason why your goldfish doesn't want his/her picture taken.

Being angled to prevent glare is a good idea if you're using flash. If you're not using flash, then you might not necessarily need to worry about angling your camera.

Taking photos of fish in a fishbowl or aquarium is one of the most difficult things to do because of all the distortion from both the fishbowl and the water.

Try stepping back a little bit and re-taking the photo again. See if that works.
 

If you didn't, you may have to use a flash. From my perspective it doesn't appear that there is enough light to obtain good focus. The picture is very noisy like the ISO is high. I would try tweaking down the ISO and using a flash. Be careful of flash reflection. You may have to also use a CP, but that will slow your shutter speed down and cause some blur. You'll have to experiment. Below are couple from The Seas that I took with the flash. There has been no PP on either of these, they are right out of the camera.

4573391879_1914e2aa1c_b.jpg


4573391109_d60cf72156_b.jpg
 
The shot you've got needs a lot more light. Be it ambient or concentrated, you need more.
 
Maybe try a manual focus too???? :confused3

I remember trying to take a picture of framed poster. It sort of seemed clear enough with auto focus; but manual focus really did the trick.
 
The first thing to do is get the exposure correct. Work with the lighting then zoom factor. As soon as you can see the inside of the tank correctly then work on focusing on the fish, depth of field, etc.
 
Here's my best guess. There are a number of things going on here.
First, as others pointed out, your focus is probably off. Someone mentioned minimum focusing distance. You may be too close for your camera to focus. Also, camera's autofocus systems have difficulty in low light, so you might want to increase light in the scene (while avoid glare) and/or use manual focus.

Color: You said that your fish is not that gold. I believe two things are contributing to that. First, your white balance may be off. Also, the image looks underexposed. Underexposure sometimes appears to saturate and deepen color. Increasing exposure might make the fish look less bronze.

Motion: Even if you fix the above, you may still be presented with the problem of motion...motion of the fish and motion of the camera (if you're hand-holding). You should find a time when the fish doesn't move much. For example, if he/she gets active around meal time, avoid shooting that that time. Some animals react to light (flashlight), etc.., so consider what you can do to get the fish to stand still. If the fish moves you're going to need a shutter speed that will freeze his motion. That will require more light, and/or a higher ISO, and/or a wider aperture (which could make focusing difficult because of shallow depth of field). If the fish is reasonably stationary within the tank, you could stabilize the camera on a tripod (or be creative and use some other means to stabilizing it). Finally, you may just need to be patient. Instead of chasing the fish around the tank, set up your tripod and your focus and wait for the fish to return to this zone. With this method you may need to use a narrower aperture to get a little more depth of field so that you have a larger area of focus.

Good luck!
 
I believe its on autofocus (which is what I was trying to do). Im trying again latter. Im using the 18-55 lens that came with my camera. OK I managed to snap a few pictures before my fishy freind went belly up
DSC00513.jpg

RIP Copper
 

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