firenzenz Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 I Painted the back of a small 20ltr tank matt black. I used one flash from above and one synced into first from the side, and a polarised lens to kill off any little reflections. The first lot I only had polystyrene undr tank which seemed to make lots of white bounce back from below, so put black towel over poly which helped. I probably would like to go bigger to give bigger fish a bit more free swimming space, but here are my first results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firenzenz Posted March 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Awesome pics and nice fish too Have you bred your polystigs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 nice pics, great skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 lol we should play the naming game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos & Siran Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 nice, awesome job mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquila Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Really great photos! They would be great to use in a fish ID book Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 well done! they are really good. The tail-on one is a pretty neat angle! (Accidental I don't doubt, but what a shot!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Looking good. Perhaps it will encourage others to give it a go and we will have even more entries in the POTM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Ive been making these for the last 18 months. (I have yet to enter a photo in the POTM comp that was taken with one yet!) I strongly recomend that you reduce the size of the tanks to one that will not allow the fish so much room to move. This will allow you to use a higher f/ number making the sharpness of the shot a lot greater. Keep in mind my interest is Killis so I made tanks that were 150mm high x 50mm deep x 100 mm wide I belive that you need 3 tanks, one in clear so you can add colour to the back by holding the photo tank to another tank (lower f/ number needed), one with white for dark/plain fish and one in black for more colourfull fish. If your serious about it and want the best get a glazier to have it coloured black using the splashback system that is used on kitchens. This is strong and you will not get the different shades that normal paint seems to leave. Also look at the focus that can be obtained by using a smaller tank Give me a yell at some stage and you will be more than welcome to have a look at what I have and I may be able to help you with the glass side of things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Good looking fish and pics, the ebjd has got a lot of gold on it (there is a guy on MFK trying to selectively breed the gold, but thats another story). I would have thought the fish freaked out when transferred to an empty tank with the stress of being netted and moved, but they all seem to be coloured up and happy so I guess its not an issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Those pics are really awesome! what is fish number 3? looks s. american? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Good looking fish and pics, I would have thought the fish freaked out when transferred to an empty tank with the stress of being netted and moved, but they all seem to be coloured up and happy so I guess its not an issue? if you use water from their own tanks and with the darker surroundings, they tend to calm down very quickly I find Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 My guess is no 3 is a sajica or t bar cichlid.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firenzenz Posted March 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 if you use water from their own tanks and with the darker surroundings, they tend to calm down very quickly I find That exactly what I've done, and I have black card around the tank as well so that might calm them. I left them for a few minutes to calm down but it is up to the individual fish at the end of the day. The young Jacob for instance was in full flare mode in his tank but had lost a lot by the time I shot him. I almost thought about putting another peacock in an adjacent tank to get them to flare-too much work A lot of them want to scoot around the bare bottom. Thought about putting in substrate but didn't want anything that might murk up the water. I was shooting at about F16 so was getting pretty good depth, but was shooting with macro so maybe a lens that I can pull beck a bit would be good, but I did want to get 'into' the fish. The thing I want the most is to get true colours as when in tank under tank light it is hard to shoot 100 iso so they can tend to contrast up and over saturate at higher speeds, and hard to pick out the eyes. In tank shot with tank lights in photo tank- although over bright from below from whit poly under tank So a bit of fine tuning needed. You're right about the painted black not given an even finish Barrie, but i dont have a problem in cleaning it up 'post' The 3rd fish is a Sajica young male- as Ryan has rightly noted in his guess game Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 All I can say is the are 100 times better than any photo I can take.. Having a fishroom lit with fluoros and slightly scratched tanks and a cheap camera doesn't help Noone else is playing the guess game so ill try.. no. 1 I think is your chilumba male no. 2 fryeri male no. 3 sajica male no. 4 jacobs male no. 5 EBJD no. 6 rear end of lithobates no. 7 maleri gold male no. 8 polystig male (have you bred these?) no. 9 lithobates male (very nice big blaze on him too) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 15, 2010 Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Whatever the results, however they were shot, it will still enthuse some to give it a go in their own way 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firenzenz Posted March 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2010 Thats the idea Caryl- Sems that is happening already, judging by the ever improving quality of photos in the comp. Ryan- 2. is 'copadichromis Azureus' but as with previous post i personally think you are 1/2 right. All else are spot on- I 'm eating your chocolate fish as I type. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted March 16, 2010 Report Share Posted March 16, 2010 I 'm eating your chocolate fish as I type. where is mine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 16, 2010 Report Share Posted March 16, 2010 I think there is a rule somewhere that says you are not allowed to eat chocolate fish in front of the rest of us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfish Posted March 16, 2010 Report Share Posted March 16, 2010 great shots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.