Dave Learns How to Take Photos

[Chaitika]

The use of light in the aquarium will allow you to use higher shutter speeds and freeze uncooperative fish. Shooting with ISO only is fine for developing an understanding of how the camera works, but having lots of light makes a huge difference.

I use 2-3 speedlights in my 8x3x2 tank. I use one speedlight in tanks smaller than ten gallons. Depending on the fish I'm shooting, and at what depth they are, I use the speedlights at about 1/4-1/8th strength, and all my settings are set manually.

 

[joecoulson]

J, shooting the monolights along with ambient can be tricky, the speedlights can fill easily wheras the monolights put out so much they usually make a well lit room look like its dark as night in the background. This is something that will take some getting used to. I really can't use them for shooting fish, just to much light, but for people they are so flexible. PM me if I can answer any more questions, I apologize for hijacking this thread.

 

[DaveB]

I personally enjoy the hijacking. It's over my head but it has me thinking more about things it may have taken forever to discover otherwise.

 

[peewee]

lovely pics!

 

[JK47]

The shots are great Dave! the orange heads are looking great!

 

[3dees]

ah, the beauty of digital. you can shoot and shoot and shoot. took me a long time to give up film cause I'm a dimwit with a computer but I'm glad I did. wish I had the money I spent on film and developing while learning all those years.

 

[Sonny503]

love the red/orange head tapajos. great images. I myself will be focusing more on photography in 2011.

 

[DaveB]

Playing with the depth of field a bit. Still a really high ISO. Still me the unskilled photographer.

Mostly just wanted to post these cause when I swapped the parenting pair (successfully caught and moved them without losing the brood) for the one that refused to get it on downstairs, everyone colored way up to re-sort the pecking order. There's all sorts of fun sexual tension in there now and the orangeheads are unnaturally bright. More colorful than ever before. Also, I like the mid-yawn photo.

 

[DaveB]

OK, no element of skill here. Just wanted to take two quick shots while the lights were off because I was dying to see how the wilds blended with the existing stock... the blue striations really do blend perfectly with my blue fish and the orangeheads. These didn't compress all that nicely.

Now to work on aquascaping... and my drip setup.

 

[finman57]

Nice tanks