Taking pictures at Sealife (Bham)

Jayesh

Jayesh

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Jayesh Mistry
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Hi everyone,

Im off to birmingham with missus tomorrow, going to few places around birmingham and stay over. Missus want to go to Sealife so i thought i bring my camera (she not happy with that :LOL:)

Take 400D with 50mm 1.8 (maybe 18-55), but what the best setting to use? Is Sealife allowed people bring the camera? Bear in mind, i never take pics of fishs, shark inside etc before.

Cheers :D
 
If it's anything like the sealife centre in South Queensferry you'll be glad of the 1.8! I was there on Tuesday with my 28mm 2.8 and it struggled with the light - if you use flash it will most likely bounce back of the glass and kill the picture.
 
personal experience from last year

NO Flash with certain species i think it was starfish and jelly fish the rest are fine with flash and they will allow you to use it , so do what they ask and you will be fine

i took a a few cant find them but will post one up for you laterz
 
you can take pics, there are areas you canot use flash even if you wanted to, as it can upset/damage the fish (some of the deeper diving fish that are not used to bright light etc)

a circular polariser to remove reflections from the glass would be good, and the light is ... well ... not bright in there, so good iso or nice F stop lens is a must

Hope that helps
Phil
 
Hi Jayesh,
The National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth has a no flash policy, there is a Flickr group which shows what you can still achieve;
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1164645@N21/

Can’t find any info for Birmingham flash policy, either ask them or my rule of thumb is; coral-reef fish are used to bright light, Cuttlefish, octopi etc it’s a no-no.
Wear dark clothing to avoid reflections (gloves and peaked hat if fanatical), watch out for reflections from emergency exits as I’ve got several pictures of what looks like an octopus in a disco! If you can use flash stand at a slight angle to the glass so it doesn’t reflect back (don’t stand at too much of an angle as the acrylic tanks distort the view beyond a certain point).
Take a cloth or wet-wipes as there’ll be lots of sticky finger prints everywhere.

Most of the creatures don’t move too quickly so you can use a slowish shutter speed and boost your ISO, my f4 lens was ok to autofocus.

Different tanks have different lighting so shoot RAW.

Try and do a silhouette of your nearest and dearest against one of the large tanks as a momento ;-)

QS
 
here you go , photobucket and for obviosu reasons ie shrinking it has lost alot of quality

not sure on the exact settings but it was with flash this one ,

IMG_0317.jpg
 
Last edited:
wegotitugetit said:
personal experience from last year

NO Flash with certain species i think it was starfish and jelly fish the rest are fine with flash and they will allow you to use it , so do what they ask and you will be fine

i took a a few cant find them but will post one up for you laterz
Click to expand...

I'm guessing they'll have a no flash policy. Even if they don't you'll have issues with it bouncing back off the glass & anything suspended in the water.

Try and work with your lens as close to the glass as possible, ideally with your lens hood touching
 
Clearly I'm not reading things right today... I read that as:

"Taking pictures at Sellafield" and thought...oooh this could end up as a messy thread about policing and terrorism!

However, where fish are concerned I did the following a few weeks ago at the National Aquarium in Plymouth:

Manual Focus, RAW, up the ISO to get a shutter speed fast enough to handhold - I had it at 1/60 and f/4 aperture (just to correct in inaccuracies of focusing).

The RAW will allow you to adjust the colour, as it WILL need it afterwards. I was getting as close as possible to the glass as well...made me look a bit odd according to the girlfriend!
 
boyfalldown said:
I'm guessing they'll have a no flash policy.
Click to expand...
As previously stated they don't apart from in certain areas.
It would be a bit hypocritical if they did as they have an employee complete with Nikon and big flash in the shark tunnel getting shots of the punters to buy as you leave :LOL:
 
I was there today, there are various 'no flash' signs dotted around but not many. I didn't want to use flash anyway, it would just bounce back off the glass/plastic. I took my 28-75 f/2.8 and was glad of the 2.8 on several occasions, some exhibits don't have the best light. To be honest I would have been better off with my 50mm 1.8 as I was near the long end of the zoom most of the time anyway and the wide end didn't get much use at all. A word of advice - if you go into the 4D cinema make sure your camera is covered up! When they handed us the 3D glasses with drops of water on them the camera couldn't get in the bag quick enough!
 
wegotitugetit said:
here you go , photobucket and for obviosu reasons ie shrinking it has lost alot of quality

not sure on the exact settings but it was with no flash this one ,

IMG_0317.jpg
Click to expand...

Make = Canon
Model = Canon EOS 30D
Exposure Time = 1/30"
F Number = F5.6
ISO Speed Ratings = 1250
Flash = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode?
 
jpw said:
I was there today, there are various 'no flash' signs dotted around but not many. I didn't want to use flash anyway, it would just bounce back off the glass/plastic. I took my 28-75 f/2.8 and was glad of the 2.8 on several occasions, some exhibits don't have the best light. To be honest I would have been better off with my 50mm 1.8 as I was near the long end of the zoom most of the time anyway and the wide end didn't get much use at all. A word of advice - if you go into the 4D cinema make sure your camera is covered up! When they handed us the 3D glasses with drops of water on them the camera couldn't get in the bag quick enough!
Click to expand...

Mint, thanks :) what setting you on?



Thank you everyone for great answers :)
 
Jayesh said:
Mint, thanks :) what setting you on?



Thank you everyone for great answers :)
Click to expand...

Aperture priority, usually f/2.8-4. I had Auto-ISO on to bump up the ISO whenever the shutter speed fell below 1/100s. Was above ISO 3200 quite a lot!
 
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