Picture of my Clown Killifish taken with Canon D60

[benny]

http://arofanatics.com/members/benny/fishes/image01.jpg

Hi Guys!

This is a pix taken a few days ago with my new camera. Thanks to Dovii for his detailed advice on this camera as well as tips on using flash. I am very happy with the pictures taken with this camera.

Thanks for the recommendation Dovii!!

[CDM]

http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

I think your investment is worth it. Great performance. Don't know whether you are skillful for photography or not. From the pics, I think those are PRO's works.

[Dovii]

Benny:

Wow...That was fast ! I just spoke to you only a couple of days back and you have mastered macro photography !

What equipment did you used to take these pics? MP-E 65mm macro lens or EF 100mm macro? Macro flash or 550EX? Wireless flash ? Or did you use flash in the first place? If you did, it is not obvious at all. Good job !

[benny]

Thanks for the compliments.

I used flash for all the pictures. If you look carefully, you will see shadows. For example. the killifishes were lit from the left side, slightly lower than the fishes. In the other few pictures in my gallery, the flash usage is much more obvious. Actually, I trashed a lot of the other pictures already as they are no good. Good thing about being able to instantly see the results. Dovii, you are right about having to manually adjust the flash till it works. A bit of a hassle, but the fishes are not going anywhere anyway.

Therefore, I caught the fishes and put them in a small tank. It's much easier to photograph them this way.

One word of advice, the MP-E 65mm and the Macro Flash MT-24EX is NOT good for aquarium photography. You can't get close enough even if you put the fish in a small tank. At best, only a close up of the mouth of an SAE or OTO if they come up to the glass. Got a picture of the inside of my Oto's throat with this lens. Otherwise, it's useless.

http://arofanatics.com/members/benny/fishes/image02.jpg

[Dovii]

Using a smaller 'studio' tank is a good idea. That is about the only way to get an external flash to light up the fishes from the sides which makes for very natural lighting as evident in your pics. I'm sure Canon's wireless flash mode would be a boon in such a setup. Hope to see more of your great pics.

[benny]

Thanks Dovii! Still got a lot to learn from you!

[CDM]

hehe, for your be loved fish's sake, maybe you don't want to disturb them too much (take out and put to another smaller tank for taking pics). It's not a healthy way. Since you use digital camera, why not just take shots and delete those failed ones. That's pros of a digital camera, very convenient and cost effective.

[Dovii]

I don't see the harm in doing this as long as we are careful to ensure that the water condition in the 2 tanks are not too different and are not doing this every day for the same fish. I would do it more often to get better pics of my fishes if I were not so lazy :D
There are techniques that we can use in a small tank that we can't in a 5' tank and no amount of luck and equipment can help us achieve those kind of shots no matter how many times we try to take them if the lighting condition is not set up properly.

[benny]

Actually, we should use a separate photo tanks for small fishes only (like killifish or small tetras) as they dart around too much in a big tank. Definitely no needed for fishes like Arowana.

As for the small tank, there should be gravel and plants to calm the fish down and also provide a bit of backdrop. Water is from the main tank so the fishes will not be stressed out by the change in water chemistry. A good size is between 10 to 15 cm cube tank for tiny fishes and up to 20 cm for slightly larger fishes. Some photographer have customised tank with half the depth of the width for even better results.

To objective is basically to get the fish within a preset focusing distance so that it will come out sharp and clear. As well as ability to control the amount of light reaching the fish. Therefore it is practically impossible to shoot tetras in a 5 ft tank and get good pictures.

Above info is actually from a book by Dick Mills called "You and your aquarium".:)