Lumix g2 please help

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Tmdavies

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Hi everyone heres my problem...
I have a fish tank and i would like to take photo's of my fish. This is easy on paper but not in practice. I have a lumix g2 camera that i have tried and tried to get to grips with but just cant.
When i take a photo its to blurry so i swith to sport mode which is still to blurry. So when i increase the shutter speed the picture comes out black unless i use the flash which ruins the colour of the fish and reflects on the glass.
Please can someone who has used this camera guide me through the steps to get a nice sharp bright image of my fish.
I have researched that i need to adjust aperture? (dont know what it means) etc but i find the menu on this camera hard to find how to customise and adjust anything.
Im pulling my hair out over this camera
any help appreciated thanks everyone
 
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Hello and welcome.

I don't know your camera but the basics of photography do not depend on the camera.

It would be useful if you could post one of your photos here with the exposure details so we can see the problem. However, I'm guessing the blurriness is caused by too low a shutter speed and either the fish have moved during the exposure (which would result in static objects being sharp but the fish blurry) or there has been camera shake (which would result in everything being blurred).

There is a chance that the autofocus is focussing on something other than what you want, eg a mark on the glass and therefore everything else is out of focus.

But seeing a photo, with the details, would help.

However, I think it is most likely to be due to low shutter speed and also a wide aperture(small f number). A wide aperture results in a small depth of field, ie only a relative small part of the whole photo will be acceptable sharp. I'm guessing your fish tank has a lamp in the lid but can you rig up some additional lighting, either more from above or from the sides when you are photographing the fish?

At low light levels you are going to need a wide aperture (to allow more light to the sensor) and a low shutter speed (to allow the relatively low levels of light to hit the sensor for longer), both of which can lead to blurred areas in photos.

There are various solutions -

provide more light, so a higher shutter speed and/or smaller aperture can be used,

support the camera securely so a low shutter speed can be used. This is not a viable option when photographing moving subjects,

increase ISO - this will allow a faster shutter speed but can introduce noise into the photo.

You said that you don't know what aperture means. While using auto modes on cameras will give good results in may situations, to get the best from photography it is useful, if not essential, to understand the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. There are a lot of tutorials on the internet - check out "Photography Technique" in the Tutorials and Guides section of this site.

Dave
 
Have you tried it in Auto mode to rule out any technical issues?

Set the left dial to AFS and the right dial to iA and try that.
 
Tmdavies said:
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When i take a photo its to blurry so i swith to sport mode which is still to blurry. So when i increase the shutter speed the picture comes out black unless i use the flash
Click to expand...

Sounds as simple as the light level is too low. Can you add some extra lighting to the tank? Even a few 100w spot style lamps could give you a workable shutter speed.

If the tank is small enough, you could always carry it outside and photograph in the sunlight.
 
Hia dave thanks for the great reply. My pc is broken at the moment so i cant upload any sorry. I am manually focusing my camera because i find i can focus it better myself than the autofocus.
My fish NEVER hold still lol its frustrating so i dont think i would be able to lower the shutter speed. As to the details of a photo im not sure sorry, im new to cameras.
You mention changing the aperture, shutter speed and iso, i only know how to change the iso and despite spending hours fiddling can't find how to change the aperture or shutter speed.
I just increased the iso and it is grainy like you said but is an improvement on blurriness. Is there a way of removing the grain? Thanks for the help
 
Dave1 said:
Sounds as simple as the light level is too low. Can you add some extra lighting to the tank? Even a few 100w spot style lamps could give you a workable shutter speed.

If the tank is small enough, you could always carry it outside and photograph in the sunlight.
Click to expand...

I will try some extra light but my tank is way to large to carry outside though lol thanks dave1

Danny_Two said:
Have you tried it in Auto mode to rule out any technical issues?

Set the left dial to AFS and the right dial to iA and try that.
Click to expand...

Thanks dan i just tried what you said but its still the same unfortunatly
 
Tmdavies said:
You mention changing the aperture, shutter speed and iso, i only know how to change the iso and despite spending hours fiddling can't find how to change the aperture or shutter speed.
Click to expand...

The dial on the front under the shutter button controls Aperture and shutter speed, pressing it changes from Aperture to shutter speed in the manual mode (M).

You can set the Aperture independently in the Aperture mode (A on the dial).
Set it to A and use the front dial to change the Aperture, you will see the reading change on the display.

You can do with same with the shutter speed by setting the dial to S and use the front dial to alter the speed.

Have an experiment in a lit area/outside to get used to it.
 
Danny_Two said:
The dial on the front under the shutter button controls Aperture and shutter speed, pressing it changes from Aperture to shutter speed in the manual mode (M).

You can set the Aperture independently in the Aperture mode (A on the dial).
Set it to A and use the front dial to change the Aperture, you will see the reading change on the display.

You can do with same with the shutter speed by setting the dial to S and use the front dial to alter the speed.

Have an experiment in a lit area/outside to get used to it.
Click to expand...

That sounds really good just getting my car mot'd at the moment but i will try that as soon as im home cheers ill let you know how it goes
 
Ok just a few more questions about changing the aperture and shutter speed.
Please help explain what this means when i press the dial
Shutter speed b 60" 30" 15" 8" 4" 2" 1" 2 4 8 15 30 60 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 ( also some of this display will be black and some red?)
Aperture 5.6 8 11 16 22
Finally feel like i'm making progress thanks everyone
 
Shutter speed starts at b which is basically the shutter held open, and gets faster until it reaches the maximum speed of the G2 which is 4000. th faster the speed the more likely the picture will be sharp.

The Aperture is controlled by the lens, in your case the biggest is 5.6, the smallest 22, i'm assuming that you have the kit 14-45 lens on.

You're basically always looking to find the best balance between shutter speed and aperture, and when you run out of adjustments you can compensate by upping the ISO, once you understand the relationship between these three setting you'll be on your way.

Without wanting to sound dismissive there are a million and one tutorials and better explanations on the net on the principles of photography.
 
After fiddling about with all three i have a better understanding of how each aspect affects the other. My pictures all ready look 10 times better. I dont think i would have ever figured out how to adjust aperture and shutter speed without your help danny_2. I just wish i could show you the pics but my pc is broken.
Thanks everyone
 
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