I have a few questions about taking photos of tanks?

Every time i take photos they look real bad.

What is the best camera to use (model etc)

any other info on taking good photos of tanks.

Tim

to take good photos i found the following.

dont use a flash

turn off the actinic lights. seems to make the photos go fuzzy

what sort of camera do you use?

Olympus C5050.

Its ok. would work better if i knew how to master all the setup options.

I think one thing I don't have which makes my photo's look like crap is a tripod. If you set the f-stop of the camera low to get good depth of field with macro shots, you need to decrease the shutter speed. Which means you have to hold the camera really steady otherwise the photo's turn out blurry.

Layton

I've found I seem to have better luck with photos using the flash but with the camera hard up against the glass at an angle so you don't catch the reflection in the picture. Haven't had a chance to try on my marine tank with 10 times as much light as before though. Likely changes things a lot.

turn the flash OFF otherwise it will ruin your pics (light reflects off the glass and kills the background lighting) if you have metal hallides, your pic's should come out mint (the more light on the subject - in water that is - the better). have your digital camera batteries FULLY charged, you will get better results. put your camera on a tripod or at least on a table to take the pics, stability is key.

Most of my photos are taken with the flash, and I think my photos are pretty good.

Don't turn of any lights, infact if your shooting with digital have as much light on the tank as possible.

Patience and practice are the keys.

Pies

How about camera settings?

shutter speed

type of film if not dig.

f stop? whats this

Personally I wouldn't worry about f-stop or any other manual settings. It takes a while to learn what it all does.

I would start by using all automatic settings. Take photos and learn about the way your camera focus's etc. Then over time you will learn that to get a photo the way you want you need great depth of field, quicker shutter speeds, wider apitures etc. But its all very hard to explain, wait until you want to get a photo but don't know how, then we can talk.

Also there are many good tutorials on the net on how to take good photos and use all the features of your camera, have a look around.

As for film, I would reccomend using digital. Of every 10 photos I take 1 is worth keeping.

Good luck

Pies

I use a digital camera that is fully automatic. I love these point and shoot things! I don't have to know much about photography at all to get a good pic but agree with those who said...

1. As much light as possible in the tank.

2. Have the camera on a tripod or solid surface

3. Get the lens as close to the glass as possible and on an angle to avoid flashback

4. I use a flash too. In fact I just got an extra one which goes off a fraction earlier than the one on the camera and can be angled so it doesn't reflect straight back off the glass.

My husband tried to show me how to focus manually but when we both took shots and compared them - mine looked a lot better and all his were fuzzy so I stick with the auto setting.

Try turning off all the room lights, and keep the room dark, this helps with reflections on the glass, I have a great pic of my tank with a fire going in the middle!

Also get the glass out side and in really clean, any scraches, algae etc show up plus can make the camera focus on the glass not the subject.

Try playing with the macro/micro setting its usually a button with a flower and mountain (couple of triangles), this sets the focal length (I think) and tell's the camera if you are really close or far away from the subject.

Setting the 'metering' to spot can help to, this tells the camera how much of what it can see to use for auto settings. eg when set to spot it sets the focus, light etcetc, just to what is in the center of the picture and ignores the rest, normal (matrix) gives you an average across the whole picture.

Regarding flash, I always take a picture with flash on and off, generally they are better with it off, but my BEST pic's always have it on, more light is always better with tank shots hence flash on but it's really hard to avoid reflections etc