# Photography Tips?



## Arana (15 Mar 2008)

I was hoping a few of you could share a few tips, that might help those of us with average cameras get better quaity images of our pride and joy  

I have a 8MP Comapct and i struggle to get decent photos  

I can think of couple of obvious ones...

Use a tripod
Clean the glass

there must be others that might help :?


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## Garuf (15 Mar 2008)

Always take pictures with the flash turned off and move your body rather than using the zoom, having any outside light limited or removed entirely helps too. 

Those are the only ones I can think of of hand.


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## Themuleous (15 Mar 2008)

Mark,

Check out 

http://www.aquatic-photography.com/



San


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## Graeme Edwards (15 Mar 2008)

You will be limited some what by your compact camaras. They are fully auto, so you will have no controle over what the camara is doing. So its down to your creative skills with how you shoot. So try different angles, shooting from lower down looking up at your tank. Back lighting it, adding more light over the top.
Allways steady the camara. Dont use the flash. If your camara has different shoot settings, ie landscape, portrait etc, then try the same shot, ( angle, lighting, etc ) but with every setting you have, and see what that brings you.

Its a bit more complicated with digital SLR's, but with much more controle and creativity.

Graeme.


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## George Farmer (15 Mar 2008)

I'm no expert but these have helped me out...

Select highest quality setting.

Get more light over tank if possible.

Experiment with preset WB modes.

Use lowest ISO, unless shooting moving stuff, then use lowest possible to get sharp image vs. grain.

Use tripod or makeshift version i.e. bean bag on ironing board.

Use self-timer creatively for shooting fish i.e. wave hands about at right moment...

Turn off filter (moving plants can blur)

Shoot square on if possible.

Use post-processing to improve contrast, hue, saturation etc.

Take lots of pics. Try out WB and EXP bracketing. Sequence shots for fish.

For those that can alter DoF, use the higher possible f-stop for full tank shots, but bear in mind exposure time increases, so you get blurred fish. This is why more light is good - faster shutter.

For macros use low f-stop to get blurred backgrounds.

Experiment.

Be patient.


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## Arana (16 Mar 2008)

Thanks,Great tips guys  

Sam,thanks for the link, i've signed up and will start giving it read through


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## Themuleous (16 Mar 2008)

Some great tips George, Cheers

San


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## Dave Spencer (17 Mar 2008)

If you have access to Photoshop, and have exposure compensation on your camera, then look to underexpose a little. Some experimentation is required here.

Underexposure gives you more colour saturation, plus the option to brighten things up on PS. Any overexposed, burnt out areas of the photograph can`t be recovered, so it is information lost forever. I tried to reduce the over exposure in George`s new secret squirrel opti white 60cm, but couldn`t.

I am trying to find the opportunity to have a proper go with a light box over my 60cm. This gives me the option to switch off the tank lights and just use a flash overhead. Tank lights cause a lot of detail burn out on plants at the upper reaches of the tank.

Dave.


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## Superman (21 Mar 2008)

I have a Canon PowerShot A710IS and am been thinking about getting a Macro lens for it.

Are Macro lens worth it?


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