Today in the Fishroom ~ Cincelichthys pearsei
- Thread starter Aquamojo
- Start date
At least not without cranking the ISOs up. I can’t figure out how to get good lighting for he sensor but not causing glare at the same time!!!Aquamojo what are some tips on shooting smaller faster fish. My Haitiensis is In The 4” range and I can never get a good enough shutter speed to get good crisp pics of him like yours
Awesome pics. They are certainly one of my favorite species. Do you still have this fish, how old is he? I'm going on 5 years with my pair.
It's really a simple answer and a complicated explanation. The bottom line is that you need to add MORE light. The amount of light available allows you to choose a lower ISO, which will reduce noise, a higher aperture (f stop), which will increase your depth of field increasing the amount of the image that will be in focus, and the shutter speed which will stop action. The latter isn't as critical if you are using flash units, but definitely a plus if you are shooting available light.
Short answer is to use a flash. It gives you the ability to add a lot of light in a controlled area. Put a bell diffuser on the flash and position it over the tank. If you don't have a diffuser, get a small styro container, place the flash underneath pointed upward. It will spread the light evenly into the tank. Most cameras will snyc with the flash up to 1/125th of a second. An ISO of @400 - 600 will have a minimum amount of noise...depending on the camera. If you can shoot in RAW, the plug in does a great job in reducing the amount of noise.
Rather than chase the fish around trying to focus and shoot, set the camera, and lights, on an area that the fish frequent, pre-focus on that area, and with till they come into the area. That "sweet spot" can vary in size. If you try and have it too close with a small area...several inches...it will be more difficult to stop action and have the DOF deep enough to have critical focus. Pull back and...again, depending on the size of the fish... give extra room all around. You can always crop the photo in the computer. In a pinch, a TINY bit of food dropped into that area will help coax them in place.
When it comes to light...I use flash units. Sometimes as many as five on a tank. MO light MO better. If you have several tanks, collect all of the tank lights and put them ALL on the tank you are shooting. Critically important is the aperture and the shutter speed.
Hope that helps.
Mo
I just saved this in my notes!!!!! Thanks a ton!!!!what focal length lens are you shooting with?
Your best bet is to use some kind of a telephoto macro lens. Nothing major. I shoot 90% of my aquatic photos with a 105mm lens. The reason the focal length is better is because of the depth of field. The main element, other than the aperture setting, that affect depth of field is distance. More specifically, the distance from the camera to the subject. As you move closer to your subject, the area of the image that is in focus gets smaller. So if you have to get on top of a tank to get a photo with a 50mm lens the DOF will be relative. A telephoto macro shooting farther from the tank will have the same DOF...but over a larger area. Distance from camera to subject affects the area of in focus, but distance of foreground and background elements affects the areas out of focus.
Sounds a little more complicated than it actually is. Use a longer lens and step back from the tank.
THANKS!!!!!!!!Your best bet is to use some kind of a telephoto macro lens. Nothing major. I shoot 90% of my aquatic photos with a 105mm lens. The reason the focal length is better is because of the depth of field. The main element, other than the aperture setting, that affect depth of field is distance. More specifically, the distance from the camera to the subject. As you move closer to your subject, the area of the image that is in focus gets smaller. So if you have to get on top of a tank to get a photo with a 50mm lens the DOF will be relative. A telephoto macro shooting farther from the tank will have the same DOF...but over a larger area. Distance from camera to subject affects the area of in focus, but distance of foreground and background elements affects the areas out of focus.
Sounds a little more complicated than it actually is. Use a longer lens and step back from the tank.
