I indeed do a great deal of photography of aquarium animals and have been
doing so for several years now. I've done quite a bit of work for the
Seattle Aquarium and have had quite a bit of stuff published in the various
Fish magazines as well. So, I've been through the ringer as to the pitfalls
in shooting through the glass.
I'd be happy to help anyone with any specific problems or challenges so feel
free to contact me on or off the list. I know a lot more about photography
than I do about fish and I thank you all for all the fine information you've
passed along on this list.
The article was an excellent one and touched on many of the most important
points. I might just pound home some of the essentials again here.
Turn out the room lights if possible. Shoot at night if necessary.
Use electronic flash - hopefully a 'dedicated' one. This mean that the
exposure is read off of the film plane. Otherwise you'll have to do
mathematic calculations or extensive testing to determine the amount of
light that's lost through the glass and water at different distances.
Flash must be removed from the camera and used at about a 45 degree angle to
the glass and held away from the camera. Remember the law of reflection
which states that the angle of reflectance is equal to the angle of
incidence. The further away from the front of the tank, the further away
from the camera the flash should be.
Another excellent technique is to place the flash unit above the tank
pointing downwards. As said in the article, use two if possible or use a
flash with a lot of power as the distance from the flash to the subject may
be more in some tanks, especially when shooting subjects that are near the
bottom.
Use a macro lens for small subjects. Use a longer focal length macro to
shoot subjects deep in the tank and a shorter one for critters that are
close to the front. I differ from the author in that I find little problems
in using a longer focal length lens if care is taken to avoid reflections.
When shooting from further away, it becomes necessary to move the flash
further aside from the camera. Always keep in mind exactly where your flash
is pointing as it's easy to drift away from your intended target when your
trying to follow a rapidly moving fish around. Generally, in nature, light
comes from above so keep this in mind when lighting your subjects.
Since most publications prefer slides, that's what I shoot most of the time.
Color negative/print films are much more forgiving of exposure deviations
and color temperature issues. These films may be more suitable for those who
just want photos of their animals. Faster films are of excellent quality
these days and printing of the images can compensate for some problems if a
flash can't be used. I'd recommend using a flash if at all possible though.
The advantage of the flash is that it creates it's own light source which
overcomes the aquarium and ambient light. The flash is balanced for daylight
where as the fluoresces are most often way off from what the film wants for
accurate color. The intensity and rapid duration of the strobe allow for
stopping the action in fast moving animals and allow for using small lens
apertures to increase depth of field which becomes essential when shooting
very small animals at high magnifications.
Shooting entire tanks is much more difficult than shooting individual
animals. That's a HUGE subject in itself.
The article mentioned shooting straight into the glass. This is VERY
important as the image degrades through diffraction as the angle increases.
You can actually watch it happen and I've noticed that it's more pronounced
with longer focal length lenses and thicker tank glasses. Shoot straight on
whenever possible!
I'm currently building a tiny little tank which will allow better control of
lighting, background and physically restrict the motion of the subject fish.
This should really help some current challenges I've been faced in my recent
work.
When trying to shoot fast-small fish, I've found it helpful to set the
magnification and focus to the approximate range needed then to just follow
the fish, moving myself and the camera in and out rather than trying to
follow with the focus.
Wow, I didn't' mean to write a book here.....It's a pretty loaded subject
and I just wanted to pound in the most important issues. Forgive me if it's
repetitive to what's already been said in the article which was kindly
posted.
Sincerely,
Richard
>From: Scott Burner <windburn_at_netscape.net>
>Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
>Subject: Re: [RE: [RE: NANFA-- Aquarium Fish Photos]]
>Date: 24 Nov 99 07:16:34 EST
>
>Good morning folks
>Wanted to weigh in (lightly) on the photography thing. I have a tenent who
>is
>a professional photographer and is experimenting with shooting my fish. She
>has found a pretty good method. We darken the room and leave the shutter
>open
>and touch off a strobe that is set at a 45 degree angle. So far she has
>only
>shot black and white but the results are amazing. The pics are extremely
>sharp
>and the glare problem is eliminated because the strobe is held further away
>from the camera than a mounted flash would be. We should have some good
>pics
>soon of the orange fins that we will donate to the nfc gallery. As we (she)
>perfects the process we will keep you posted.
>salutations,
>Scott
>
>
>
>"Jay DeLong" <thirdwind_at_att.net> wrote:
> > By the way, Jan is pictured twice on page 3 of those scans. He's
> > wearing a nice green dress shirt at the public aquarium, and a
> > tshirt and jeans at home.
>
>Sorry. I am so silly... :-)
>
>I took some photos of my fish once without a flash because I didn't want
>the
>glare on the glass and I don't have an external flash. I used 4
>flourescent
>bulbs at various locations which really lit up the tank, and got so-so
>results. But not nearly as good as Richard Bell from this email list. He
>is good with a camera (but he's too modest to say it himself). He took
>these in his tank:
>
>prickly sculpin
>http://home.att.net/~native_fishes/Psculpin.jpg
>
>tidepool sculpin
>http://home.att.net/~native_fishes/Tsculpin.jpg
>
>piggieback hermit crabs
>http://home.att.net/~native_fishes/piggieback2.jpg
>
>Jay DeLong
>Olympia, WA
>
>
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