# taking pictures of fish



## blcknwitecuban (Apr 17, 2006)

i was wondering if theres any good tips for taking good pictures of my tank. im working witha canon rebel t2i and all advice is welcomed 

should i feed them while taking the picture? tap the glass? hmm


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## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

Tapping on the glass is always bad for fish, I don't know why you would even ask that question. I don't mean to be too harsh [ cut ]
The only tip I have for taking photos is to make sure you don't see a reflection in the glass, so angle your camera to the glass so you don't see your reflection or that of the flash. Also, make sure lights in the room don't cause a reflection, I usually turn off all lamps before I photograph.
Feeding them? Why? That would make them all excited and swimming around quickly, poor time for a photo unless you want blurry photos.
First thing in the morning they tend to move a bit more slowly, that's when I'd shoot for.
[ cut ]

Okay, now see? That was harsh. The stuff I cut out, that is. Kinda uncalled-for, even if a bit deserved.


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## Lanette001 (Apr 7, 2011)

When I want to take pictures of my fish I get the camera ready and just wait for them. It may take several tries to get a really good picture, but eventually you will get something! You can try pointing at one place with the camera and waiting until a fish swims by there. I have heard that it is a good idea to turn off all lights in the room except the tank light when it is dark, but personally I think that it doesn't matter that much. I have tried flash and no flash as well. If you are going to do flash then you should angle the camera so that you don't catch that reflection off the glass. Patience and perseverance are always good 

At feeding time it is more fun to take video


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## fante&bukowski (Apr 12, 2011)

what do you mean never buy fishes from petsmart or petco i am new to this so feel free to speak to me as if im a 10 year old little girl..i just bought 3 frogs & a betta there...the petsmart that i was at all the fishes were happy in gorgeous clean big tanks. cant say the same for the bettas in the cups :/


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

He means that most petco & petsmart stores are run by imbeciles who have no idea what they are doing and have no business being in the fish business, and it shows in the poor quality of their livestock and the care it gets. Even worse, the presence of these stores in an area forces out the competent stores which would have otherwise survived there, so shopping at these places only costs you access to anything worth having.

As for photographing your tank, All I can advise is to try several different shots under different conditions and see what works best.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Taking pictures is tough. I've tried literally every setting on my camera but I don't exactly have the best camera for taking pictures. Try everything you can. I do avoid using flash though and I take pictures at night. Sometimes I'll take 400+ pictures and not be happy with any of them. Just takes patience really :]


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## Bettawhisperer (Oct 1, 2010)

Snyder is right do not use a flash. You will end up with a terrible glare from it. Lights on in the room is OK but the most important lighting should come from above as in tank lights. Also never try getting to close when trying to take close up pictures. You can get your picture then in a Photoshop you can crop it so you get it up closer. Here are some picture I have taken using this method. All of these pictures where taken 8-10" away from the fish.


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## Unknown10101 (Mar 5, 2011)

bettawhisperer said:


> snyder is right do not use a flash. You will end up with a terrible glare from it. Lights on in the room is ok but the most important lighting should come from above as in tank lights. Also never try getting to close when trying to take close up pictures. You can get your picture then in a photoshop you can crop it so you get it up closer. Here are some picture i have taken using this method. All of these pictures where taken 8-10" away from the fish.


wow that red one is amazing!! It's fins are hhhhhhuuuuuuuggggggeeeee!!!!!!!!!


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## Bettawhisperer (Oct 1, 2010)

Thanks. He was beautiful. Unfortunately he got them all torn up during a breeding. The female really ripped into him. LOL. He did manage to get the job done though. LOL


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## blcknwitecuban (Apr 17, 2006)

> Tapping on the glass is always bad for fish, I don't know why you would even ask that question. I don't mean to be too harsh [ cut ]
> The only tip I have for taking photos is to make sure you don't see a reflection in the glass, so angle your camera to the glass so you don't see your reflection or that of the flash. Also, make sure lights in the room don't cause a reflection, I usually turn off all lamps before I photograph.
> Feeding them? Why? That would make them all excited and swimming around quickly, poor time for a photo unless you want blurry photos.
> First thing in the morning they tend to move a bit more slowly, that's when I'd shoot for.
> [ cut ]


thanks for sharing your grumpy old man opinions. seeing as i was just asking questions as i was unsure of things, you dont need to be rude. next time instead of saying "all advice is welcomed", i'll make sure to say "leave out any a$&^*!! remarks".


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

You don't take them up close? Hmm.. I don't have any sophisticated photoshop but I also take my pictures up close. I'll have to try that though if I get a good program.


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## Bettawhisperer (Oct 1, 2010)

My digital camera has a photoshop that uploaded with it.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Ohh, ok. I need to get a new camera.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Here's some tips:

1) Macro needs to be on.
2) Make sure flash is off.
3) Use a camera with the highest MP as possible. Anything over 10 should yield good results.
4) Hold your camera steady. A tripod is always best.


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## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

TheOldSalt said:


> He means that most petco & petsmart stores are run by imbeciles who have no idea what they are doing and have no business being in the fish business, and it shows in the poor quality of their livestock and the care it gets. Even worse, the presence of these stores in an area forces out the competent stores which would have otherwise survived there, so shopping at these places only costs you access to anything worth having.
> 
> Thanks, OldSalt, but I'm capable of answering questions directed at me.
> PetSmart and PetCo don't care about fish. The employees don't know anything and don't care. They'll sell you an oscar and a guppy and send you home, not even aware that those two fish cannot be kept together. Furthermore, their fish husbandry practices are awful, and doing business with them, as opposed to a local fish store (LFS) hurts the LFS. They keep salt in all their tanks which is wrong for freshwater fish, and stresses them when you put them in your tank without salt. They sell "Glo Fish" and "Painted Glass Perch" which are bad for the fish, another poor fish husbandry practice.
> ...


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I missed what???


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## Lanette001 (Apr 7, 2011)

funlad3, you missed a lot heehee

Buuuut lemme catch you up to speed, the first guy asked a question, then the second guy responded rudely and hurtfully to the first guy which was unnecessary. The second guy was angered at the other posts of the first guy that seemed to have silly questions in them and instead of leaving those feelings in the other threads, he brought all those feelings here to an innocent question.

Stay tuned!


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I was able to insinuate the basics of this... It was the boiling water thing I was talking about. :shock:

AvacadoPuffDude isn't a bad guy! You just can't interpret tone on the computer. True, he did say some directly "hurtful" things, but it wasn't meant to be interpreted as, "You idiot. Everyone knows that!"

I have a friend that speaks in a similar way. If you didn't know him, he'd either anger or depress you.

Anyways, can we please not argue? It makes us no better than the other forums. ;-)


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## blcknwitecuban (Apr 17, 2006)

> And, Old Salt, thanks for the edit, but read that guys' posts and tell me he isn't just yanking everyone here around with his imbecile questions......he thinks I'm just grumpy, but ignorance in such great amounts is what I have a problem with. Anyone that ignorant shouldn't be allowed to even keep fish, IMHO. Like the one last week that added boiling water to his tank and killed all his fish.....uh, hello....?????


im an imbecile for not knowing how to take pictures of my fish? lol the one i see with large amounts of ignorance is you. as for the adding boiling water to a tank thing, i have no idea what your talking about or why your rudeness has to be directed at me. im not in this forum to argue have to deal with people like you. im here to take better care of my fish and learn as much as i can about my fish. 

i dont think i need to interpret tone when being called an imbecile.


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## blcknwitecuban (Apr 17, 2006)

> Here's some tips:
> 
> 1) Macro needs to be on.
> 2) Make sure flash is off.
> ...


thanks. though when i wasnt using flash it seeming to make the picture look more yellow. i probably just need to mess around with the white balance though


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## blcknwitecuban (Apr 17, 2006)

and if your talking about this post http://www.fishforums.com/forum/general-freshwater/31908-boiling-driftwood.html then no where did i say anything about adding boiling water to a tank, or ANY of my fish dying. but im sure your talking about something else.


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## Lanette001 (Apr 7, 2011)

funlad3 said:


> I was able to insinuate the basics of this... It was the boiling water thing I was talking about. :shock:
> 
> AvacadoPuffDude isn't a bad guy! You just can't interpret tone on the computer. True, he did say some directly "hurtful" things, but it wasn't meant to be interpreted as, "You idiot. Everyone knows that!"
> 
> ...


Absolutely 

Thanks for clearing that up!


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Read the manual and practice. You definitely don't need a new camera. Cameras are usually limited by two things, the photographer and the presets. 

In short my recommendations for aquarium photography:
1. no flash
2. stand back
3. high MP
4. All room lights off, blinds closed
5. clean glass
6 don't feed and stay still so fish ignore you. 
7. You have a DSLR, manual controls are your friend;-)
8. lowest ISO possible, depending on what light you have to work with
9. Use lowest F-stop available. If you zoom out too far you will lose lower F-stops. Don't be afraid to zoom though.
10. Use faster shutter speed. I prefer 1/20 second or faster. 
11. Balance # 8-10 to the best of your abilities. Lower ISO will bring your shutter speed down with it. Too high of ISO and you will get a lot of noise in the image.
12. macro would be helpful if your camera has it, any macro abilites though are going to be limited mainly by what lens you are using
13. The more light you have over your tank the easier it is...
14. Be patient
15. Tripod may help, but depends on the individual. I have mine, but don't use if for aquariums. 

Avacodo, I think you fail to realize there are petsmart employees that are common users of this site. Stereotyping is pointless. Also there is nothing wrong with glofish! Also LFS can survive just fine if they are good. I personally refuse to step FOOT in my LFS and would opt for walmart over them. Most all my fish come from local breeders though I rarely step in stores to start with. I've yet to see any dyed fish at petsmart, my LFS will happily sell you 4 different kinds though. There are really nice shops about 40 minuets away. They are true fish stores that deal in only fish. The TRULY competent stores have no risk from the chains. Chains carry cheap, easy fish most people want. A shop that knows what its doing will have everything under the sun. Be aware that buying from any large chain hurts local private stores, that goes for any product. 

As far as tapping on the glass. Jeez its not a big deal. I tap on the glass, fish can't hear you so that's the best way to get their attention. I keep my largest tank in a daycare. All the tapping and noise in the world doesn't stop those fish from spawning.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

just watch the fish for a while until the fish is in the perfect position.


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## blcknwitecuban (Apr 17, 2006)

oh thanks



> As far as tapping on the glass. Jeez its not a big deal. I tap on the glass, fish can't hear you so that's the best way to get their attention. I keep my largest tank in a daycare. All the tapping and noise in the world doesn't stop those fish from spawning.


yeah when i said tapping on the glass i more specifically meant to get my dwarf gourami to display, and that worked!

i just took some more pictures with the flash on and they actually came out pretty good, as long as i angled the flash right. there was still a glare from my windows so i guess i'll have better luck at night.


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## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

Good luck with the pictures. Out of thirty pictures, I'll be lucky to have five okay pictures and one awesome one.

Other times, you can just get lucky with the camera:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_z5H72IAze...HA/AL3g-Mm5smE/s1600/Arapaima+for+contest.png


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## humdedum (Feb 18, 2009)

blcknwitecuban said:


> yeah when i said tapping on the glass i more specifically meant to get my dwarf gourami to display, and that worked!


I'm not sure if tapping the glass is the best way to get a fish's attention. My fish naturally recognize my face when I come to the tank, so I guess it's not a huge issue for me personally. 

All fish have a lateral line along each side which picks up vibrations, etc. Wonder why blind fish can swim around without bumping into anything? Because their lateral line can sense where they are and where obstacles are in relation to them.  

A fish's reaction to a tank-tap is being startled. Imagine if someone kept knocking on your windows all day! Sure, you won't die, but the stress of someone continually doing that could lead to other problems: being so frazzled you forget to turn off the oven, etc. 

To sum up my ramblings (I hope I didn't sound like a prat  ), tapping is not the best way to catch your fish's attention. Work with your fish until they perform the desired behaviour (in this case, displaying) by command, like pressing a finger against the glass or waving something brightly coloured (they can distinguish colours, so something hot neon pink would be good) and then rewarding them with bits of food. 

And yes, fish can indeed be trained.  I taught my male betta to push a little floating ball across his tank and swim through a hoop (made out of spare airline tubing).


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Try training some to commands with up to 8 children running around the tank 7-5. Drive plastic cars on glass. Drive large toy cars really fast across tile(its REALLY loud). Play with the instruments(I won't be down there for that). Fish adjust quite well IMO. I've had angels, emperor tetras, GBR, and rainbows spawn in those conditions. I kept touchy things like rummy nosed tetras very happy too. Those were the only fish though I ever had go into shock. It would be over the most randomist of things, such as the stand's cabinet door snapping shut after business hours. They have heard that sound 100s of times! 10 out of 11 tetras would be fine, one though would go into shock. He goes supersonic around the tank and only stops because he is hyperventilating and can't even swim anymore. Its fairly easy to recover a fish that does this, they mainly just need a cup and a lot of O2. Its specific fish IMO, same one or two freak out. Out of like 15 tetras, I had for 2 years, had only 2 fish that would do this. Eventually both died from their freakouts. Tapping on the tank never triggered any of them. It was always the most normal of things, like the door or the gravel vac. 

Some of my fish can recognize me, but only cuz I feed them;-). Some like my caecilians are blind. I also keep very densely planted tanks. Fish can easily miss out of food time no matter how much a wave a colored cloth around. Tapping works for me. Never had a problem. If caecilians are asleep or if fish are foraging amongst the masses of plants they will hear or be waked by it and respond. I specifically tap on the tops of the tank or the top plastic frame. Mainly because lots of random tapping is done to the sides of the tank. Tapping on top gives a different sound. The sound is specifically a cue that I am feeding or and working on the tank. My blind caecilians actually freak out more if I surprise them with unusual noises from moving decor or vacuuming if I don't first tap out my presence first.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

You get sharper pictures of moving fish with flash. But its tricky not to get the reflection of the flash in the shot. Aiming upward and sideways sometimes works. And an off camera flash aimed down into the tank through the glass lid works really well. Putting extra strip lights on top of a tank also helps. 

Manually focus on an object (like a plant) in the tank and hope the fish swims close to it. 

Anyone can improve fish pictures with practice, but camera does make a difference. My best pics with my little point and shoot are not as good as my sister's deletes on her DSLR.

There are whole forums devoted to fish photography. Look at Mo Devlin's pics. http://www.aquamojo.com/pics.html


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

one tip pee in the tank this will stun the fish and cause them to not move around as much hahahaha


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

I have seen the "pros" do photos at our fish shows. They have the big fancy DSLRs, external flash, then photographer throws a black sheet over tank camera and their head to block out any external lights reflecting. You can definitely see the difference. One thing is you can always tell when a on-camera flash is used with fish. Even if you get no reflection, the way the fish shadows lacks the natural appearance from a external flash or light casting down on the fish. 

DSLRs are very nice, but also don't underestimate the good point and shoot. There are a lot of bad ones out there, but there are good ones too. I have no DSLR, though one would be nice its certainly not necessary for decent fish pictures. A good camera is certainly helpful. Best I can recommend to anyone is to avoid the super compacts as a lot of things are sacrificed for size. 

I use a Panasonic FZ-28, which is my only camera and I find it great at taking pictures of just about anything. I will have a DSLR someday, but till then this is as expensive as I go. I take my camera out on my kayak regularly. It has a $40 water tight/crush proof box that has saved it many times. Mine is getting old, its gone up $200 on amazon which makes me think they stopped making it. The FZ-35 is a new version for what mine use to cost.

Getting a aquarium shot is probably one of the harder things with cameras. The reason "auto" normally doesn't get the right results is it is simply guessing what you want. To capture fast fish you need fast shutter speed which needs more light. The main thing is getting a fast enough shutter speed without adding too much noise to the image. I can get good pictures of fish and stuff, but as you say practicing definitely makes a difference. Very few aquarium shots I take are anywhere near the quality of pictures I get outside. Amusingly half of my "very best" were taken in retail tanks....


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Mikaila31 said:


> I have seen the "pros" do photos at our fish shows. They have the big fancy DSLRs, external flash, then photographer throws a black sheet over tank camera and their head to block out any external lights reflecting. You can definitely see the difference. One thing is you can always tell when a on-camera flash is used with fish. Even if you get no reflection, the way the fish shadows lacks the natural appearance from a external flash or light casting down on the fish.
> 
> DSLRs are very nice, but also don't underestimate the good point and shoot. There are a lot of bad ones out there, but there are good ones too. I have no DSLR, though one would be nice its certainly not necessary for decent fish pictures. A good camera is certainly helpful. Best I can recommend to anyone is to avoid the super compacts as a lot of things are sacrificed for size.
> 
> ...


I have a Nikon D3100 DSLR and it takes perfect pictures of everything. I do need to buy a long range lens for it though. It's technically my wife's, but she lets me use it too. I think we paid $800 for it and it's 14.1 MPs.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

you can try feeding them while taking pictures. At first they will not eat and hide from the camera, but if you keep it up, they may learn to look for food when they see the camera. then you will get pictures of them looking up.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

MP has little bearing unless you need to blow the image up to page or poster size. I don't think I could take a $800 camera with me out on the water... I've been soaking wet, standing on a river bank staring at my kayak suck a foot underwater up against a log with the current pouring around it and my box and camera being inside it along with a lot of other crap.

I have 18X optical zoom it is quite handy ;-). I am very slowly starting to buy a few filters for my camera. Can't wait to try them out this summer.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

macro filters are pretty cheap, but limit your depth of field. I think they are helpful for tiny fish.


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