Fast fish? and some other pics..

craiglanda · #1 12/19/2007, 01:53 AM

starting to get the hang of my new canon eos rebel xt... tell what you think and some advice is always welcome! Im having trouble getting good pics of my fast moving fish (anthias) without it being to dark from such a quick shutter speed. How do i go about photographing fast moving fish?

thought these were some of the better pics i got so far but still very dark. If i go with a slower shutter speed it always comes out to bright especially when the sand bed is in the picture.

melev · #2 12/19/2007, 02:09 AM

Lots of very good crisp pictures.

If you use a slower shutter speed, you might either try "bracketing" when taking pictures, or dial down the Exposure Compensation a couple of notches to decrease the brightness.

Another thing you can do is focus on a neutral area - not too bright and not too dark.

craiglanda · #3 12/19/2007, 02:19 AM

sorry if i sound dumb but this is maybe my 3rd week into the photography hobby..."bracketing"? I have tried turning down the brightness but it makes the pics seem doctored. Here is an example of what i am talking about.
see how the tail of the waspfish in the foreground seems to get lost in the sand.. This was a raw image and i turned the bightness down just to make it visible. The original made the fish look like it was a ghost haha!

melev · #4 12/19/2007, 02:32 AM

Bracketing is taking 3 pictures in a row. The first one is under exposed, the second one is normal, and the third one is over exposed.

This is especially handy if you take pictures of a place you're visiting only once. Triple the images of every shot gives you more chances of having great pictures later.

Taking pictures of anything against a stark background like your sand will be very tough. Same as shooting pictures with a ton of snow in the image. Better to take the pictures with something in the background, like rockwork perhaps.

djc1026 · #5 12/19/2007, 07:54 AM

Another option is to try spot focusing, which will meter the light from the spot instead of taking all that sand into account.

Dave

Phyl · #6 12/19/2007, 08:46 AM

To increase the shutter speed, you either need to drop your FStop (lessening your depth of field which is going to hurt you in terms of getting that whole fish in focus) or you need to bump up your ISO. How much you can do that and not ruin the picture from the noise produced by the camera is strictly dependant on the body that you have. Noise reduction software and sharpening can help you recover some of the image lost to ISO noise.

What mode are you shooting in?

Aussie_hippie_2 · #7 12/19/2007, 10:38 AM

I agree with DJC, try spot focusing on the sand. In theory this will make it far less bright.

craiglanda · #8 12/19/2007, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Phyl
To increase the shutter speed, you either need to drop your FStop (lessening your depth of field which is going to hurt you in terms of getting that whole fish in focus) or you need to bump up your ISO. How much you can do that and not ruin the picture from the noise produced by the camera is strictly dependant on the body that you have. Noise reduction software and sharpening can help you recover some of the image lost to ISO noise.

What mode are you shooting in?

Being that i am an extreme beginner i am shooting in full manual mode. In hopes to learn everything about my camera.

"Umm, fish?" · #9 12/19/2007, 01:08 PM

Quote:

To increase the shutter speed, you either need to drop your FStop (lessening your depth of field which is going to hurt you in terms of getting that whole fish in focus) or you need to bump up your ISO. How much you can do that and not ruin the picture from the noise produced by the camera is strictly dependant on the body that you have. Noise reduction software and sharpening can help you recover some of the image lost to ISO noise.

Exactly, OR you can add more light. You did a good job of getting most of the fish in focus with a pretty open aperture (f/5.6). If you use a flash you can decrease both your aperture (to a higher f-number) and decrease your exposure time, which will help to increase depth-of-field and to stop movement.

Engine 7 · #10 12/19/2007, 01:18 PM

Your pics are very sharp

You are on your way to being a great photographer.

craiglanda · #11 12/19/2007, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Engine 7
Your pics are very sharp
You are on your way to being a great photographer.

Thanks! to be honest every shot is hit or miss...for every 100 pics i snap i get 1-2 good ones. Basically what i have been doing is taking a million of the same pics and changing 1 value at a time to see how it effects the image. I am starting to get the hang of it. So this makes shooting pics of corals and slow moving inverts and fish a bit easier. Now taking pics of things in motion is much harder because i cant just keep snaping the same pic over and over till i get it right. I basically set up the tripod on a certain background and wait for the fish i want to photograph to come into the frame. Is this how you are supposed to do it or should i not use the tripod and just follow the fish i am trying to photograph?

"Umm, fish?" · #12 12/19/2007, 01:31 PM

With fast fish, I use a flash so I can have a really fast exposure time and I then handhold the camera. You do have to keep the camera flat to the aquarium glass, though.

Phyl · #13 12/19/2007, 01:35 PM

When photographing fast moving fish, I typically set the camera to continuous focus (rather than single focus lock) so that as I follow the fish waiting for just the right pose, I am constantly in focus, just waiting to press the trigger.

craiglanda · #14 12/19/2007, 03:18 PM

thanks for the help everyone you can be sure ill be playing with the camera tonight trying all this stuff out.

reefman13 · #15 12/19/2007, 09:16 PM

Someone like the advice I gave him about getting his first SLR I assume

Some really good pics coming from that cam. One thing to look into is Adobe Photoshop. You can adjust so many things in such a greatly varying scale that I am sure once you get the hang of it, you can make things lighter and darker as you please.

Unfortunately, my reef pic taking skills are in need of serious improvement, but I am pretty good at taking non-reef photographs, which is where I have gotten the little I know from. It def. takes time, and you are very quickly getting the hang of it.

Awesome job.

craiglanda · #16 12/19/2007, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reefman13
Someone like the advice I gave him about getting his first SLR I assume

Some really good pics coming from that cam. One thing to look into is Adobe Photoshop. You can adjust so many things in such a greatly varying scale that I am sure once you get the hang of it, you can make things lighter and darker as you please.

Unfortunately, my reef pic taking skills are in need of serious improvement, but I am pretty good at taking non-reef photographs, which is where I have gotten the little I know from. It def. takes time, and you are very quickly getting the hang of it.

Awesome job.

Thanks Dave i love the advice and hate it at the same time...now not only do i have one very expensive hobby, i have two very expensive hobbies!
As far as photoshop i am pretty fluent with it already and anything i dont know how to do the ladyfriend picks up my slack! ( she is a graphic designer) I like to get pics that are just good without having to do much to them. So id like to avoid doing extensive touch up work with any image editing programs.

reefman13 · #17 12/20/2007, 06:21 PM

Well, expense, is something inevitable when you really get into something you enjoy

And I have to agree, at least for reef photography, I post all Raw images. Not fooled around with, but my out door photography, is all messed with a little.

Lpabsolute · #18 12/21/2007, 01:13 PM

Beautiful Pics...........Love The Blenny