How Difficult!!

[Tank]

Well I finally managed to borrow a digital camera from a friend. I had no idea how difficult it is to take good pictures of your fish. I must have taken about 40 pics and they were terrible, I have posted the best 3 in my gallery. It seemed that no matter how slow the fish were moving I would always get a blurred image. How do you get rid of the blur?

Cheers

Tank:) :) :)

[CDM]

By seeing your pics, the rock is clear, the catfish is clear, the 3rd pic is clear, so the prob is less on your camera. I think the prob is the none-matching moving speed between camera and fish. Practice more then you'll find some good pics out of a lot garbage. I got my new digital camera 1 month ago, since then I had taken ~3000 pics, and there're only ~100 pics can be uploaded, what do think!!! So, cheer up, keep working.
What's the camera you are using? And, what were the settings of the camera for those pics? Sometimes the settings can affect the result in certain extent.
Btw, your silver is great, the color seems toward a whitter side, I like it.

[ocean]

Hi,

I got my first digi camera the other day too. I've been practicing on my small silver. Poor thing... I bet it now has nightmares of cameras chasing it... :D

http://arofanatics.com/members/ocean/silver1/


My questions...

ISO... is higher or lower ISO better for taking pic of fish under florescent lighting?

How do you hold the camera... any technique?... hold still or do you follow the moving fish with camera?

Thanks.

[CDM]

hi Ocean, the larger ISO no. is for lower light condition, it's nothing to do with a fluorecent or normal light. It's depending on the tank light (bright or dark).

And, for me, my camera always is moved along with the aro. How's yours? Your pics are great. But, what cause the greenish color?

[Exo Flammer]

Anyway, the fluorecent lights do give a greenish glow due to their light temperature. You can either correct it by fitting a colour filter or by digital means, reduce the green colour.

As for your picture blur, it might also be due to hand shake. Try putting it on a tripod or stand.

[CDM]

Originally posted by Exo Flammer
Anyway, the fluorecent lights do give a greenish glow due to their light temperature. You can either correct it by fitting a colour filter or by digital means, reduce the green colour.

As for your picture blur, it might also be due to hand shake. Try putting it on a tripod or stand.

Maybe you can teach us some tips on taking photos of aros by putting the digital camera on a tripod or stand. I encountered some prob. on that.

[Exo Flammer]

Wah..... With Digital.... I'm more of a film based guy. I'm not very sure but does the digital camera come with a poloriser? (A dark fiter that you can rotate on your lens to control the amount of lights entering your lens. Thus cutting away those reflections on the tank.)

Most of the time I take my photos in the night when there's no other light source that would reflect on the tank glass. With the tank lights on, and by setting a slightly higher ISO about 400 and above, it should enable a shutter speed that's not too slow.

Having the tripod aids your framing of the fish. Imagine having to hold the camera and moving around to find a nice angle. What I do is is just stick to the best angle I can find and wait.... (The best things are worth waiting for....)

[CDM]

Originally posted by Exo Flammer
Wah..... With Digital.... I'm more of a film based guy. I'm not very sure but does the digital camera come with a poloriser? (A dark fiter that you can rotate on your lens to control the amount of lights entering your lens. Thus cutting away those reflections on the tank.)

Most of the time I take my photos in the night when there's no other light source that would reflect on the tank glass. With the tank lights on, and by setting a slightly higher ISO about 400 and above, it should enable a shutter speed that's not too slow.

Having the tripod aids your framing of the fish. Imagine having to hold the camera and moving around to find a nice angle. What I do is is just stick to the best angle I can find and wait.... (The best things are worth waiting for....)

I think normal consumer level digital camera don't come with a polarizer. Maybe a very expansive PRO one has polarizer. And, agree that taking photos during can eliminate the light reflections from outdoor.
Taking aro's photo with a tripod or a stand is hard, because the aro is moving transverse to the camera, that means the distance between aro and camera. Also, the auto-focus of a digital camera is slower than a film camera, hence it's difficult to get the accurate focus when the digital camera is stand on a spot. That's my problem.
Anyway, eager to see your photos for your fish and tank.
Regards

[ocean]

Thanks CDM and Exo,

I'm not sure what greenish color you are refering to(?) Do you mean on the fish?

I have tried taking pic by following the fish. Using this technique I can get a sharper shot of the fish (if I follow the fish at just the right speed) but the background gets a bit blurred. If I keep camera still it's hard to get a sharp shot of the fish... only if it's still or moving very slow.

btw... my cam only came with a 8mb card and I want to get a bigger 128mb card. Is there much difference between branded (maxell etc) and cheaper non-branded compact flash cards? branded cards almost twice the price... will they be faster?

Thanks guys.

[Dovii]

There is no difference between branded and non-branded memory cards. You are just paying more for the brand name, that's all. Anyway, most of these brands don't manufacture their own memory cards themselves. They just put their names onto OEM cards from companies such as Sandisk, etc that do manufacture memory cards.

The green colour is mostly the colour cast caused by fluorescent light. Some cameras do also have their own intrinsic colour cast problems too. As in normal film photography, it is quite difficult to correct such colour cast problems even with a filter like FLD or FLW. You would have to correct the problem digitally using a photo editing program. A good and cheap software is Photobrush from Mediachance. They also have some very useful and FREE software available for digital camera users at their web site www.mediachance.com