11-13-2008, 07:07 PM
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#5 |
| | I have the same problem with my point and shoot Cannon, I have found a few things help
Problem #1 the camera wants to focus on the glass.
I have found it helps if you turn the aquarium light on, turn the room light off, and turn the flash off.
You can increase the depth of field by moving the camera away from the aquarium and zooming in all the way. Do not use the digital zoom it will not help for this.
Or
You may try to fool the focus. Turn the face detection off if applicable. If the object being photographed is 6 inches from the glass move the camera 6 inches away from the opposite side of the glass press and hold the button half way allowing the camera to focus, then move the camera all the way up to the glass and press the button the rest of the way.
once you have mastered the focus...
Problem #2 there may not be enough light causing slow shutter speed and blurry images.
Since a tripod won’t help as the fish are mostly what is moving you will need to keep the shutter speed faster than 1/30th of a second, a bit faster is better. Rather than increase the aperture which will reduce your depth of field, which isn’t even an option on many point and shoot cameras anyway. Most point and shoots do have an adjustable exposure. most are factory set at 200 or 400 but will go all the way up to 1600 on some (this is like film speed) above 1000 may look grainy so start there and you may want to move up if you still can’t capture enough light, or if you find you have plenty of light at 1000 move down as you will get a more pleasing image with lower (this will vary by camera). If this doesn’t work and if you have an shutter priority setting set the shutter at 1/100th of a second, and go to 1/60 and 1/30th if needed. Keep in mind decreeing the shutter speed decreases aperture which will increase the depth of field (hopefully I didnt confuse myself just there) but I have found slower than 1/30th is pretty much blurry and useless without a tripod.If you still can’t get the light right you will need additional lighting.
Lastly I would like to add if you can barrow a Digital SLR, My nikon D-70 takes great hassle free photos of the aquarium. |
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I have never realized how difficult it was to take a picture of a fish through glass until I bought my first digi camera a few days ago and gave it a shot (no pun intended haha). I tried until Epsilon was obviously getting impatient with my failed attempts. Every single pic was either unfocused or the reflection of the glass was too great to see past. I didn't go for the cheapy camera either-its a 160 dollar samsung, so its got plenty of options, so the problem is definately the user! Do any of you have advice for conditions, or options on the camera like flash and stuff like that for optimal picture quality? If so, I will post a picture of my lavender Epsilon and some of his lovely offspring.
Well, I feel silly posting that new thread earlier; I guess I didn't realize so many others had already commented on aquarium photography in the past. Oh well, I am still learning about this forum stuff-its kinda new to me. Anyhow, if anyone has anything to add to the advice already in this forum-feel free.
