Hi, Any advice welcome.

[Beta1]

Hi, all.

Have been trying to photo my tank/fish for some time.

Have had some success - mainly with the whole tank images where I think I have some good results. I am having a lot of problems with the fish though. I have a tank of mixed penguin fish and Tiger barbs. Both of these guys move pretty quickly and constantly and are highly reflective. As a result using no flash results in blurs even with as much light as I can arrange. Using flash results in reflecting fish.

Well heres some examples...

The tank in full : http://www.acolyte.boltblue.com/picture5.jpg

http://www.acolyte.boltblue.com/picture1.jpg

The reflective fish - the only good pictures out of about 100 or so!


http://www.acolyte.boltblue.com/picture6.jpg

http://www.acolyte.boltblue.com/picture4.jpg


I'm using a Finepix2800 digital camera (2.1mill pixels, 6x optical zoom), most of the time with tripod. The camera has a basic exposure controls in that I can over or underexpose up to 2-3x with the EV settings option

For the flash images I find the best results are from about 30 degrees from around 2-3m away using the cameras longer zoom ranges, a tripod and the smallest EV I can set. Otherwise I just get white flashes where the fish should be.

Any suggestions on how to make the flash less bright?

I know the best solution would be a digital SLR but the budget doesnt stretch that far at the moment :)


More pictures at http://www.acolyte.boltblue.com/album.html

I have a great applesnail picture I'll upload later.

[Molino]

Regarding the fish reflecting a lot of the flash back to the camera, I have the same problem with my Rasboras. I can get good pics of all my other fish with the flash on but not with the Rasboras.

I've found I can only get good pictures of them with the flash off. If you have other light sources you can put over your tank, and then open up the aperture as much as possible to allow for faster shutter speeds you may be able to catch some decent shots.

On my tank with the Rasboras (a 20 gal long) it already has 55 watts and I usually add another 20 watts if I'm taking pictures without the flash.

[Beta1]

This tank is 24 Uk gallons and has I think slighlty over 50 Watts totall althought I think the front tube is stronger than the rear one. The only additional light I can add is by openning the hatch and positioning a couple of angle poise lamps over the gap. Adds a bit but not that much.

I found the apple snail shot.

http://www.acolyte.boltblue.com/picture7.jpg

It has this strange habit of jumping off the top of the tank and falling down the inside onto the sand/rocks/plants.

hence the dents and cracks in its shell.

Think I have an adreneline-junky snail.

[CDM]

The last pic (snail) is the best. The 1st tank shot is great, and the 2nd tank shot is a bit underexposed. The 2 closer shots of the penguins and tigers got strong reflection from the body. IMHO, top downward light is the best light, if possible, more tank light could help a lot on this. If not possible, use slave flash light which are located on top of the tank can achieve the same purpose.

[Beta1]

Unfortunately my camera doesnt have a connector for slave flashes. I am going to try taking a few out of the corner of the cameras eye as it were to try and get the flash a bit more off the line of the shot.

I'm also going to try covering the flash with something to reduce the intensity.

And If I get to a DIY shop this weekend I might try and see what other lights I could rig up!

[Finz]

Hi Beta1

You don't need a special hookup on your camera to use a slave flash. You can either buy a flash that has optical slave capability or purchase an opticl slave module. The "optical" part means the slave will sense the on-camera flash and fire at the same time. Here is an example.

http://home.comcast.net/~jimkphoto/fishphotos/opticalslave.htm

A piece of paper taped in front of your on-camera flash will also help tone down the intensity of reflections and soften shadows.

http://home.comcast.net/~jimkphoto/flashdiff.jpg