A basic guide to Fish Photography...

**HorrorShowRot** · 06-09-2009, 07:52 PM

thanks for the tips brook

**Aeonflame** · 08-18-2009, 08:49 PM

Nice.... as easy as shooting fish in a barrel ;)

**plamski** · 09-12-2009, 04:12 AM

Hello.I thing that one of the most important thing is CIRCULAR POLARIZER FILTER .You will skip glass light reflection.Here is one pics made for 10 sec.

**Bristley** · 01-21-2010, 03:04 PM

I think this is an excellent sticky. Really gave me a lot of useful info. Now hopefully I can put it in practice and get some better shots.

**xasuma** · 02-09-2010, 06:10 PM

Good information!
I ll try and take some decent pic, lol

**wooferkitty1** · 08-20-2011, 01:41 AM

great tips I will start using them right away!

**mrpillow** · 10-19-2011, 11:36 PM

Just wanted to point out a few things of note as this sticky and some of the information in it seems a bit outdated relative to the common photo equipment available today. Keep in mind, I am mainly addressing common point and shoot type cameras. Advanced-handheld and SLR type cameras obviously have a whole different set of things to consider.

First off, ISO 100/200 is not the only viable option anymore, and the statement that a lower ISO 'lets more light into the picture' is incorrect. The ISO setting can be thought of as the 'volume' knob on a stereo. It turns up the gain of the digital sensor, making it more sensitive to incoming light. A higher ISO setting (higher meaning a bigger number) lets more light into the picture in than a lower ISO at the same exposure time (shutter speed). A side effect of this, is producing more noise (grain, splotchiness, etc) in the photograph. With the sensors being produced today, even most every day point-and-shoot type cameras produce fine image quality up to about ISO 800. Using a higher ISO setting will allow a faster shutter speed for the same exposure level, which is helpful in pictures in low-light situations, or fast moving fish common in aquariums. A higher ISO will only make pictures sharper in the sense that the higher shutter speed produces less noticable overall blur. Key factors in sharpness will not be ISO, but shutter speed, proper exposure, and aperture choice. A larger aperture (a smaller number, f/2.8 is a larger opening than f/8.0

Secondly,
Very few, if any, modern digital cameras use digital zoom functions for the primary zoom range. In fact, if the lens has a listed focal zoom range (i.e 18-55mm, etc.) it does not use digital zoom for any of that range. In this case, zooming in does not degrade image quality as long as you are using flash/aperture settings to yield a proper shutter speed (anything over roughly 1/50th of a second with flash is fine). Cropping an image however, greatly reduces image quality as it is limited by the resolution of the senor and removes many useable pixels. It will yield better results to use optical zoom along with appropriate exposure settings than attempting to crop an image down. Most cameras these days also incorporate some sort of image stabilization unit which lets you obtain sharp images using a slow shutter speed than days past. In most point and shoots, these functions are limited to about 1/2 stop of useful effectiveness. While they do work, they don't work to a great extent so you shouldn't rely on them to make up for an improperly low shutter speed.

As another user stated, using a polarizing filter can greatly help eliminate glare off the glass surface of the tank. While a good idea if your camera is capable, one must keep in mind that a polarizing filter will generally cut your useable light down a stop or so (cut your shutter speed roughly in half when all other settings are kept the same). To accommodate this, you usually will have to increase the ISO setting, or if possible, use a larger aperture to increase sensitivity to light in order to offset the effects of the filter.

Just a few things to keep in mind. Other than that, great write up.

Cheers!