Aquarium photo advice

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monkeytennis

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Hi,since getting my d3100 on yesterday I've been playing around with trying to get a good picture of one of our fish tanks.was wondering if anyone had any tips?I only have a.18-55 kit lens so trying to catch the fish with it is proving to be a challenge!!Cheers Ed
 
I've got a rubber lens hood I always use when I'm in an aquarium. By sealing it against the glass it gets rid of the reflections from the glass.

Picked it up off ebay for a few £££

There are some aquarium shots on my Flickr page
 
Fab!hadn't thought of that!!think other issue is the light from the light tube in the tank.might have to fiddle with the post processing to change.colour slightly I guess!
 
what i do is knock the room lights off , knock off the pumps and leave for 10 to settle down , custom white balance take a pic of a white thing in front of tank and use that , if possible use a tripod for corals

hope this helps
 
I used to find it helps if you take the shots in a darkened room with all of the aquarium lights on, other than that lots of patience!
 
  • General tank clean
  • Clean the glass, clean it again (inside and out)
  • Run a tank hoover for 20-30 mins (powerhead with a wad of filter floss rubber-banded around the intake)
  • Pumps off for 10 minutes (as many as you dare, minimum circulation)
  • Camera on tripod, check you minimum focussing distance for the lens - getting too close is a very common error
  • If you're going to use flash use it off-camera from above the tank coming downwards, never from the front or you'll just get bounceback
  • Room lights off, curtains drawn

Take your shots, chimp your exposure, check for unwanted reflections. Rather than use a lens hood I used to peg a sheet to the aquarium glass at the front and then put the camera under that - if you think about the old-fashioned cameras where the photographer ducked under a sheet you're on the right lines. The sheet method lets you get a bit further back for a FTS, although you may need to support the sheet to prevent it sagging. It also helps deal with the light the aquarium is throwing out that will cause reflections of you, the camera, the lens, etc.

If you want to get imaginative, koi grid can do some interesting things at directing your tank lighting and a creating moodier atmosphere. Personally, I prefer off-camera flash from above.

There's a lot of advice on this sort of thing on UR. 7DS has an aquarium specific lens hood for dealing with reflections, I'm not sure how effective it is.
 
My preferred set-up.. pulled back from the FTS to show the overhead flash..



I usually block direct light from the flash towards the camera with a couple of pieces of card, I've removed them for clarity.
 
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