No Flash Photo Fun!

[Orion]

I was very inspired by BigVines photos of his Sal because they looked so good without a flash. I hadn't tried taking photo's of my fish without the flash with my new camera, so it was time to experiment.

Over all, I was pretty pleased with the results of the photo's. You can really see the colors of the fish the same way I do. No, most of them didn't turn out very sharp due to a few reasons. One, because I wasn't using a flash, I was using a slower shutter speed than normal and the least amount of movement from the fish caused a blur. Secondly, again due the lack of flash, my AutoFocus didn't always focus on the correct part of the fish and I was left with an 'interesting' photo. But over all I like how they turned out. This is something I'll definitely try again.

These are of my Gold Saum. Here you can really see just what a good looking little guy he is. And if you look in some of the photo's you can see him flaring his gills at some of the Blue Acara's! Also check out the hump on his head, this is something that the guy has just started getting in the past few weeks or so. He gets better looking everyday I think.

Just for my boy C-Man (I finally got a decent one!!!):

 

[Orion]

And here is some Australian Rainbow fish photo's taken under the same conditions:

 

[Kissyboots]

Oh, SWEET!!! My fish do that all the time but I never have my camera on me when they do. Kissyboots (the fish) did it once right at me and I could see all the way into her mouth. Creepy!!

 

[AlyKat]

Love that last shot!! Nice pics!!

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Very nice. I like the fin flare in the 3rd and 4th photo. That yawn shot is awesome, great capture on that one.

I think the rainbows colors could be somehow brought out a bit more, they seem kind of dull. Maybe thats just the way their sheen is.

 

[Pure]

Really not useing a flash is the way to go. The majority of the pics in my photobucket are done the same way. It helps if the room is totally dark.

Were you useing a tripod?

 

[Cichlid-Man]

I'm creepin your photobucket now Pure.

 

[Big Vine]

Hey Orion, great pics!
I especially like the last two pics of the GT in that first post. Rainbow shots are pretty good too...especially considering how much those tend to never sit still.

Thanks for the compliment too. *thumbsup2
BV

 

[FishGeek]

Nice shots Orion!! Great looking fish, but then I wouldnt expect anything less

 

[Orion]

Thanks so much everyone!

This was more of an experiment with my camera more than anything else. These were OK, but hopefully with some practice I expect to get some much better shots in the future. I'm still very much an amateur photographer

Pure, I didn't use a tripod. I've not even come close to being able to use a tripod and take photo's of fish unless they are guarding eggs or being really still for some reason. That's another reason I used a kinda high shutter speed and the photo's were dark.

That's a serious 'Duh' moment about taking the no flash photo's when the rooms dark. It never crossed my mind. I'll play around some tonight hopefully and see what I get in the wash.

About the rainbows: I've had them almost a week now, and so far the males are getting more and more color every day. So far it looks like I have 4 males and 7 females, and I don't think they are quite near maturity just yet. I'm really hoping that they will get more color to them, but they've come a very long way in just a weeks time. I'm thinking that I will end up moving the rainbows to the 75, and move all the columbian tetra's to the 65. That's going to give the rainbows more cover, and a larger footprint too. I could always make them look rather vibrant thanks to photoshop, but that's not very fun when your trying to natural

I can't believe I got such a good shot as the yawn. The fella came right up to me only inches from the front of the lens and just cut loose. I was worried that the original was too dark, and I would have liked the end result to come out a bit cleaner, but it's not too bad. I'm really looking forward to when this guy gets to be close to a foot long hehe.

Again, thanks for all the compliments everyone.

 

[Pure]

You are certainly on your way to being one of MFT's best..that's for sure.

Another little tip would be to take the pic back away from the tank, then use the cameras digital zoom/edit feature to zoom in close on your subject. Taking a shot like that makes it easier to get good clear pics. That's also when a tripod comes in handy. For the record your shots are very clear to begin with.

 

[Orion]

Well thanks for the compliment Pure. I've reached an area now where I think I can really learn to take my photography to the next level.

I really like my 100mm lens for taking photo's of fish for various reasons, but it's a prime and doesn't zoom in anymore. I think right now I need to play with the shutter speed and aperture more, it just sucks trying to review photo's like this on the LCD screen on the camera because it doesn't always give a good feel for what the photo really looks like. I still can get pretty far back though and get decent detail on the fish, they just won't fill the frame.

 

[AlyKat]

What kind of camera are you using Orion?

 

[Orion]

Aly it's a Canon Rebel XSI , and I took these photo's with the Canon 100mm Macro lens.