Camera setting

[loneguppy]

I've been learning more and more about photography and my digital camera.
What are your favourite settings for capturing your fish?

Here is my latest effort.

http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/1/2/8/8/137-3785_IMG_thumb.jpg (http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=2713)

[phishphorphun]

To answer your question first. My favorite settings are Manual Mode, 1/200 shutter speed and f/14 aperature. Using a remote flash above the tank.

As for your camera settings, it depends somewhat on whether you are shooting with onboard flash, remote flash or no flash. If you are not using flash at all, make sure you have a lot of light above your fish.

Start out shooting in Shutter Priorty Mode at about 1/100 s and see what happens. If you don't have enough light, and are not shooting with the flash, slow the shutter speed down. You will find out that the more light you can provide, the faster shutter speed and sharper your images will be.

Shooting with flash is another whole story. To be continued...

[loneguppy]

OK. I am not using a flash. At Manual Mode, this is what will give me similar results.

Aperture value F8.0 (smallest lens aperture), shutter speeds: 1/4 to 1".
Shutter speed 1/15, aperture value F2.0 to F5.0.

This next image was taken with F2.0 and 1/15.
http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/files/1/2/8/8/138-3848_IMG_thumb.jpg (http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=2733)

What do you think?

[pingpong]

Hey loneguppy, I use an off camera flash whenever I can and shoot manually at f2.8 and 1/1000 sec or faster because my flash will only fire at full power. If I can't use a flash I'll use a tripod and raise my ISO up to 400 and manually shoot at f2.8 and around 1/10 sec. If you're not using a flash I might suggest getting a brighter light bulb for your tank to use when taking pictures. It just takes the fish a while to get used to it. Sometimes I'll take the hood off my tank and use a bright lamp above the tank for light. You just hafta experiment.

Chris.

[stan chung]

wow that's a really fast flash sync speed...
more light is good...i've found there is a limit though when the fish becomes very shy...and then flash becomes necessary evil...

[alanhill]

More light makes it easier to take photos and makes the photos better too. It's always useful to provide extra light for photography - but sooner or later you'll want to try flash and I'll bet you'll be amazed at the difference it makes.

Alan