Bichirs & Snakeheads
- Thread starter uwe
- Start date
Nice photos! You should submit some to snakeheads.org . I am interested in your photography setup. Obviously you have a flash but is it off camera? Do you bounce or diffuse? I am thinking of 2 off camera flashes, both at 45 degrees to the glass. How far from the tank are you? Do you zoom in from a distance to give the fish room or have the fish gotten accustomed to you being right in front of them?
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
Hello,
my camera set-up for aquaristic photography is:
a PENTAX K20D DSLR camera
with a PENTAX 18-55m II
I've used for the last pics the internal flash with less power (-0,5). The distance between me and the fish is normally ca. 30cm for portrait (with the use of zoom 55mm) or ca. 40cm for the whole fish (with zoom 30mm).
Now it goes a bit denglish (uh, where are the words?) ...
The shutter speed is 1/125 for portraits and 1/90 for the whole fish, the aperture (right word?) is 16-19 due to the situation.
The white balance i'm using is the flash modus, but i'm able to correct with the internal possibilities of the camera. So there's the function to set a white balance point to get the natural colours of the fish WITHOUT the effects done by the tank lightning (the lightning is preferred for aqua-plant-growing an do have a yellowish touch).
I disagree with the point of view of not-using a flash in aquaristic photography in the case of photographing bichirs. They don't like much lightning at all which is necessary for non-flash-aquaristic photography. You may keep the real aquaristic situation with all the colouring effects caused by the tank lightning but you won't get the sharpness when using flash. Non-flash is a good choice in non-planted cichlid tanks (plants + cichlids = salad) where the lightning reaches the fish without loss, but a bichir tank - or snakehead tank - is a completely different thing. The planting situation is an important reason why my bichirs and snakeheads aren't shy and growing fast (Lapradei +7cm in a half year, the Channa pulchra doubled his lenght in only 4 months ... and my new Polypterus ornatipinnis grew up 4cm in only two months ... and so on). A planted tank is also an eye-keeper and reduces cleaning procedures of the tank in a enormous way!
Uh, i forgot: I'm using ISO 200 with an extended dynamic range of 200% to avoid outshining of white parts of the fish.
I hope, i was able to help you a bit!
Greetings
Uwe
my camera set-up for aquaristic photography is:
a PENTAX K20D DSLR camera
with a PENTAX 18-55m II
I've used for the last pics the internal flash with less power (-0,5). The distance between me and the fish is normally ca. 30cm for portrait (with the use of zoom 55mm) or ca. 40cm for the whole fish (with zoom 30mm).
Now it goes a bit denglish (uh, where are the words?) ...
The shutter speed is 1/125 for portraits and 1/90 for the whole fish, the aperture (right word?) is 16-19 due to the situation.
The white balance i'm using is the flash modus, but i'm able to correct with the internal possibilities of the camera. So there's the function to set a white balance point to get the natural colours of the fish WITHOUT the effects done by the tank lightning (the lightning is preferred for aqua-plant-growing an do have a yellowish touch).
I disagree with the point of view of not-using a flash in aquaristic photography in the case of photographing bichirs. They don't like much lightning at all which is necessary for non-flash-aquaristic photography. You may keep the real aquaristic situation with all the colouring effects caused by the tank lightning but you won't get the sharpness when using flash. Non-flash is a good choice in non-planted cichlid tanks (plants + cichlids = salad) where the lightning reaches the fish without loss, but a bichir tank - or snakehead tank - is a completely different thing. The planting situation is an important reason why my bichirs and snakeheads aren't shy and growing fast (Lapradei +7cm in a half year, the Channa pulchra doubled his lenght in only 4 months ... and my new Polypterus ornatipinnis grew up 4cm in only two months ... and so on). A planted tank is also an eye-keeper and reduces cleaning procedures of the tank in a enormous way!
Uh, i forgot: I'm using ISO 200 with an extended dynamic range of 200% to avoid outshining of white parts of the fish.
I hope, i was able to help you a bit!
Greetings
Uwe
Thanks for your informative explanation. I do not use a flash for fish photography but I can easily see why you need to and the great results you are showing have gotten me to re-think my strategies. Very sharp crisp yet retaining lots of colour. I thought the subjects eyes would get washed out but they retain the fishes personality well. It would be easy to make up a platform with 2 externally mounted flashes but it would be nice to be able to diffuse an onboard or internal flash. Maybe a stofen or translucent film canister to cover. You have given me some great starting points to start experimenting with. Do you use a circular polarising filter to reduce glass reflection or just shoot in a dark room at 90 degrees to tank as much as possible?
I have a Konica-Minolta 7D (inbuilt antishake like the Pentax) but the Pentax 20K is very good value and has weather sealing and many advanced features. Are you using aperture priority? I am not too worried about white balence or slight under exposures as I can correct with post processing (photoshop).
Thanks and keep up the inspirational photos. I have just bought some juvenile C. maculata whilst waiting for some rainbow snakeheads (C.bleheri). I will get some practice and hopefully come near some of your results in the next few months.
I have a Konica-Minolta 7D (inbuilt antishake like the Pentax) but the Pentax 20K is very good value and has weather sealing and many advanced features. Are you using aperture priority? I am not too worried about white balence or slight under exposures as I can correct with post processing (photoshop).
Thanks and keep up the inspirational photos. I have just bought some juvenile C. maculata whilst waiting for some rainbow snakeheads (C.bleheri). I will get some practice and hopefully come near some of your results in the next few months.
Hello,
i'm always using a circular pole fiter OR a UV-filter to keep the lense save.
I've forgotten a veryveryvery important point when using the internal flash unit of your camera: The angle of the camera towards the tank glass!!!
Never hold the camera parallel to the tank glass - you will get those blinky spot all the time! I'm photographing in a small angle from above. So you can avoid perspectivic distortion AND the reflection of your flash! If the angle is too big your fish will look a bit anorexic ...
Greetings
Uwe
i'm always using a circular pole fiter OR a UV-filter to keep the lense save.
I've forgotten a veryveryvery important point when using the internal flash unit of your camera: The angle of the camera towards the tank glass!!!
Never hold the camera parallel to the tank glass - you will get those blinky spot all the time! I'm photographing in a small angle from above. So you can avoid perspectivic distortion AND the reflection of your flash! If the angle is too big your fish will look a bit anorexic ...
Greetings
Uwe
Hello,
oh, this new toy ... just another series of pics from my smaller tank ...
Polypterus weeksi, swimming free through the plants (bottom dweller, what??)
Polypterus senegalus at a hiding place
The reason this thread is called "Bichirs & Snakeheads" ...
oh, this new toy ... just another series of pics from my smaller tank ...
Polypterus weeksi, swimming free through the plants (bottom dweller, what??)
Polypterus senegalus at a hiding place
The reason this thread is called "Bichirs & Snakeheads" ...
