Bad photography

[Daz2162]

Hi guys,

As the title suggests im pretty rubbish at photography and dont really understand (at the moment) about aperture, brightness, shutterspeed etc as ive never had a high tech camera, i either use my phone which has a pretty decent vam on it or i have a cheap Panasonic digital cam, unfortunately i never seem to be able to take pics that do my tank justice, it neber looks like it does in real life which is frustrating as i want people on here to see what i see.

Any tips for the Panasonic cam i already have and on a cheap decent cam i should get. If i can get my panasonice taking goodens i wont bother buying anything else.

Cheers

Darren

 

[Michael W]

Aperture is adjustable opening which allows the amount of light passing through into your camera. It affects the depth of field/focus from front to back. Your aperture will be the 'f' numbers eg f/2.8, f/4 etc etc etc. The high the f number the smaller the aperture opening which means the greater depth of field.

The shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter stays open for.

ISO is how sensitive the camera sensor is to the light the lower the ISO the more smooth the image looks but not as bright. And the higher the ISO the more noisy it is

All three play hand in hand to create a nice picture.

 

[George Farmer]

Hi Darren,

Michael's post is good but if your camera is a basic point and shoot then you may not have control over aperture, shutter speed and ISO (but learning these is fundamental to becoming a good photographer).

I used to shoot a lot of aquarium stuff with a basic compact and even had some photos published in magazines.

Here's a few tips.

Use a tripod to avoid camera shake. I used to use an ironing board before I bought a tripod. Try using self-timer for maximum sharpness (the action of pressing the shutter release button can blur the shot).

Get rid of any light source apart from your tank (close curtains etc.) This helps minimise reflection. Get more light above the tank if possible. The more the better.

For full-tank shots take time to compose the shot. Ensure the camera is dead-square centre to the front glass. This is easy with a tripod (or ironing board).

Experiment with the settings on your camera. You will have an exposure compensation adjustment. This usually has a plus/minus sign on it (+/-). Try deliberately underexposing and overexposing. Compact cameras may have difficulty exposing due to the high contrast conditions often found in aquaria.

Experiment with white balance settings (sunlight, fluorescent, incandescent, flash etc.)

Have fun!

George

PS Please consider reducing the size of your signature. Perhaps a link to your tank's journal would be more appropriate?

 

[Daz2162]

Michael, nice one, thats good info, i know what to look into now and research for when i get better with my compact. Cheers

George, thats great, loads of tips and tricks, i need to get a HUGE box of AA batteries and I'll have a long play with my compact and see what results i can get out of the stuff youve said. Not got it with at present so when i finish work I'll take a good look through the settings etc and see what i can make up.

Haha yes of course i can, sorry i didnt realise it even came up, guess its just me who cant see it. Must take up a page on its own I'll get it sorted.

When ive got the hang of shooting good photos I'll pop a few up on here to see what you guys think, of my skills and my tank.

Cheers

Darren

 

[Daz2162]

Ps, george, it sounds a bit 'groupie' but it's an honour for you to comment on one of my threads, i think your a frigging genius and i love your tank desigining! Just saying

Cheers

Darren

 

[Daz2162]

Been messing around abit on the camera, and it turns out that on my Panasonic DMC - LZ8 I have full control over the aperture, shutter speed ans ISO ect so i have been experimenting and also doctoring on the image editor I have built in to my laptop (arcsoft media impression).

Heres my molly looking all weird and wonderful within my plants.

 

[Michael W]

It is worth messing around with various photo editing software like Photoshop as they prove to be very useful. If you get into these software its worth shooting pictures with the raw format as opposed to say JPEG as it allows you to mess around with the picture a lot more like the exposure, shadows and white balance etc.

P.S Don't totally focus on using raw until you think you can work with the software good enough as its a very time-consuming process to interpret it.

 

[Daz2162]

Cool cheers Michael, yeah ive seem some software, looks crazy confusing. The one i used fot that photo isnt too bad, its sort of drag a cursor across a scale until you get the colour you want. Its pretty good fun messing with photos, trouble is you end taking tons of photos that need sifting through/deleting etc then they get the laptop treatment.

Im going to try and get some good shots tonight now its dark.

Cheers

Darren

 

[Michael W]

Yeah I was like that when I first started to take photos but you soon get used to it. I don't find taking lots of photos bad though, most pros will take a lot and at the end they'll probably only take a select few. Its always best to take a lot because you don't know when certain moments may happen again. Now that technology is so good the likely hood is that you can salvage potentially poor photos.