In this article I hope to be able to tell you how to take better pictures of your fish. I don’t profess to be an expert but I have an interest in trying to get good photos. Everything you read is referring to digital cameras and though some sections may also apply to conventional photography it is primarily for the digital enthusiast. Most of the things to help in producing that special photo is dealt with by the camera but there are a few things that can be done which don’t involve the camera and I will tackle these first.

Firstly, you can have a digital camera costing many £££ but you wont get really good photos if there is enough dirt on the glass of the tank to grow mushrooms. So firstly, clean the glass, inside and out. I am not suggesting you plunge your arm into the tank every time you take a picture, but if it is kept clean in the first place, you only have to wipe the outside to get a nice shine. You will be surprised what dirt and fingerprints there is that you can hardly see but the camera will pick up.

Secondly, while you are cleaning the glass of the fish tank, why not clean your camera lens too. Please be careful here though because camera lenses cost a lot of money and you would not want to scratch one. A soft cloth for normal dust and a slightly moist cloth for more stubborn marks and please take care when cleaning the lens.

Thirdly, it is so important to be steady. Ideally, a tripod should be used but if you don’t have one it can help to have a pile of heavy books on a firm table, but a tripod makes it easier to make those small adjustments in framing the photo. Then, when finally pressing the shutter release button (cable release is better) press steadily, don’t jerk and take the finger off the button once pressed.

Fourthly, try to take the photos at night. That way, you will not have so many reflections as during the day time, ie: light coming through the window or from any light in the room. Some reflected light can be edited out in photo editing programs such as Photoshop or Photo Impact but why give yourself work when you can stop the reflections at source. If you have enough light in the fish tank you can turn out all the lights in the room and concentrate solely on the tank... Remember, if it’s what you see, its what the camera will see.

The next section will deal with the camera itself and the many buttons and knobs available to help you take the photos.

I don’t like to take photo's of my fish using a flash, it usually creates glare on the glass which will take away much of the interest. A digital flash shot will usually have a shutter speed of 1/60 which will freeze the image with slower fish but to get that clear shot with as much as possible frozen and in focus, a minimum shutter speed of 1/80 or even 1/100 is preferred. Most better quality digital cameras now have the option to take pictures in Programme, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority mode and it is the Shutter priority that you want. What then happens is that you manually set the required shutter speed and the camera will automatically set the correct aperture to give the right exposure. The smaller the aperture number, the more light will get into the camera... IE: an aperture of f2.8 will let in much more light than f16. However, there is a drawback and that is with the shutter speed set at 1/100 an aperture of f 0.5 might be required and that does not exist on any camera as far as I know. So, the camera will just let in as much light as it possibly can and you will have to do some editing in a photo editing package like I have mentioned earlier. When you take a picture under these conditions and you review the result on the camera, the picture will possibly look almost totally black but do not worry as when edited, you will be surprised what can be shown with careful editing. Also, with a large aperture it is really important to focus on the fish. I know that is always going to be the aim anyway but only a shallow depth of field will be in focus and it would be easy to get some plants in focus that were just beside the fish and slightly in front and the fish could be badly out of focus. To see what I mean, take a look at my photos and choose the one of the Uaru looking straight on the face. You will see the mouth is perfectly in focus as that was what I aimed at but going to the back of the body, it slowly goes out of focus. With everything set right, you could take a side on photo of a fish that will be perfectly focussed and everything else will be out of focus... I personally like that sometimes as it seems to make the subject stand out.

It will also be useful if your camera has a choice of metering modes. Many have 'Average', meaning an average exposure over the whole picture, Spot, meaning an average exposure taken from 5 different points on the picture and CW (Centre Weighted), meaning an exposure taken from the light in the centre of the picture. CW is best for taking photo's of individual fish and average or spot for photo's of complete tanks.

When you take the pictures, dont just take 2 or so, with digital cameras, you can take 20 or even 30 just to get 1 decent picture and all you have to do when you have chosen the one you want is delete the others. (Don’t forget to save that special one in a separate folder on the computer so as it won’t get lost).

Most fish tanks are illuminated by fluorescent lighting and that can cause a green cast over the picture. This can be edited in a photo editing package but can also be stopped by use of the white balance adjustment if you have one but for default, use 'auto'.

There are so many different things that can be done with digital cameras and even I don’t know mine as much as I should. It is good to sometimes just experiment with the camera and take note of what it can do. What I have written here is just guidance and its now up to you to read the manual of your particular camera for some finer points.

Good luck with your photos.

Happy Snapping,

Nigel