Is photographing clownfish hard?

[kimberbee]

Any thoughts on glass quality?

 

I do clean my glass and wait for things to settle before sitting down for a photo session. I mess around with settings, lights in the tank and in the room, but it really seems that with my BioCube I have to take pictures straight on for them to come out.

 

I use a Cannon T4i with either the kit lens or a macro (I dont know what one off the top of my head). But if I'm near the rounded corners (2-3 inches out even) or at any angle to the subject, even when using a tripod, it comes out fuzzy.

 

Beyond frustrating...

[farkwar]

Any thoughts on glass quality?

I do clean my glass and wait for things to settle before sitting down for a photo session. I mess around with settings, lights in the tank and in the room, but it really seems that with my BioCube I have to take pictures straight on for them to come out.

I use a Cannon T4i with either the kit lens or a macro (I dont know what one off the top of my head). But if I'm near the rounded corners (2-3 inches out even) or at any angle to the subject, even when using a tripod, it comes out fuzzy.

Beyond frustrating...

All of those are expected.

 

The macro is going to have a shallow depth of field/focus. The macro is most likely, even third party, superior to the kit lens. Try and master that.

 

Definitely use a tripod. Stay away from the corners. Take straight on.

 

Use a fast shutter speed. You may want to just pre focus on a nice compositional area. Sit down with a drink and popcorn, use remote trigger, when your animal is in that sweet spot, click it.

 

Now that I think about it, doesnt Canon have that focus trigger function, where when something moves into focus it automatically fires the shutter?

[KurtS]

I tried these settings, but they come out very dark. However, my fish all hang out in a back corner so I guess it's just dark there.

 

I suggested those to the OP based on the settings he used in the original photos, to allow him a faster shutter speed while keeping the same exposure.

They are pretty useless to most everyone else I'm afraid as camera settings really depend on the situation.

[PaulBuxton]

Make sure that there is no light other than the tank light to cut down on reflections.

The closer you are to the subject the shallower your depth of field, so you could try keeping a bit of distance and cropping the photo, rather than trying to fill the frame with clownfish.

If your camera also shoots video try that instead, with fish moving about constantly it can be difficult to push the button at just the right time, so taking a video means you can pick the moment when the fish was positioned nicely, rather than trying to react quickly.

 

On a side note, the face detect on my phones camera picks up my Clowns face :-)

[Alexraptor]

Hah, looking over my raw photos I actually came accross a pretty good one I had taken before creating this thread, dunno how i missed it lol.

 

Clownfish Closeup

[Withers]

I've found a trick that might help too. If you get low enough and shoot up at the fish, you can get some direct light to hit the sensor, allowing for a much faster shutter speed. You just have to watch for distortion from the glass.

[mblackburn]

Hypnotize them.

[Mr. Microscope]

These are all with a flash: