Some New Pics, Some Questions

[WendyFish]

Fish Pics!

Here is some of my latest. All of it is shot with my T2i (went contrarian on the Canon route) and a diffused 430EXII on the top of the tank. Given the Very Large ratio of bad shots to good compared to the normal fish ratio of Large using camera built in flash (yes, I know, but it's easy mode), I've got some figuring to do in terms of flash.

Occie fry are hard to photograph but I finally got one:

More occies

Overbite mouthful

One of the only decent demasoni pics I've come up with -- see manual focus question

This guy (or one of his brothers) coming soon to an auction near you (or PM me)

So a few questions that I'm thinking about:

1. Pretty soon I'll have the opportunity to make mods to my 55gall lab/demasoni tank. I currently have a terrible time taking photos in that tank because it's full of tufa rock (noob can't auto focus cause it grabs the rocks) and reflective black outside background. In other tanks I have a slimline background and could put one in here, but I hate to sacrifice even the 1" out of the footprint in a 55gall. Would painting it be a better solution in terms of the reflection, or would it still catch a lot of light off the back glass?

2. Gear wise, the next thing I went for after the camera and Photoshop was the flash ensemble. Pretty soon I expect the budget and overall comfort level may accommodate a new lens. I'm still using the kit one (18-55mm f3.5-5.6) that came with it. :blush: My very long run plan is to get: (a) an everyday zoom that will replace the kit lens; (b) a macro lens (most likely 100mm f2.8); (c) the magical telephoto I rented for vacation last year. The telephoto will be last; I won't use it except once a year on vacation so I can keep renting it. Right now I'm probably about 50/50 fish vs other photography, all of it purely for hobby.

Which would you get first, an everyday replacement for the kit lens, or a macro? I was thinking the everyday, but then I was going after the occie fry and thought the macro is the niche I am lacking more than the everyday.

3. Also in the lab/demasoni tank (and in some other scenarios, darned plecos) I have trouble focusing on the fish I want, again because the rock is super textured and the camera's auto focus tends to ignore the fish and look at the rock. As I have been learning, I've tried flipping to manual focus in these types of scenarios, but I never get it quite right through the tiny viewfinder when I'm trying to quickly hone in on a fish in motion. What is a good way to approach (and/or practice) this?

4. Any flash tips for me? I am working my way through a pretty well reviewed book, albeit slowly. I'm finding it even harder to make good use of flash than it was to take a decent DSLR picture out of the box. So far I've mostly been tinkering around with the idea of shutter and aperture interacting on ambient and flash exposure -- but I'm taking more bad pics than good. I know this is pretty open ended, I'll be at the Jan meeting if anyone wants to discuss.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Tony]

Great shots, Wendy. I'm not the best photographer, but I'll give your questions a shot.

1) Background - I like painting the backs of my tanks either blue or black. Like the front glass, if you get the wrong angle with the camera-mounted unit, then you will get bounce-back. I have a couple of tanks that were unpainted when I set them up and have just used black construction/rolled paper. There is a bit less reflection, but not significant - you just need to get the angle right (unless you're using an overhead flash).

2) As for lenses, it's up to you. What are you going to use more? The best investment for fish pics is certainly a remote flash imo. I still haven't been able to justify pulling the trigger on a $300+ unit and have gotten away so far with using an old flash on a tether. While pretty inconvenient, it gets the job done (with a lot of patience).

Macros are certainly very nice, but I tend to shoot pictures of bigger fish anyway and can get away with my kit lens.

3) Try focusing on a fish at a certain distance away manually and then wait for him to return to the same place to take the shot.

4) Someone like Franny, Kevin, Mike Hill or Pat would be better at answering that last one.

 

[Andrewtfw]

I am of no help other than to state that they are great shots. I especially like how you captured the fish in motion.

 

[minifoot77]

so when are you gonna sell me some gold occies?

 

[WendyFish]

Thanks, Tony!

At a guess I think I would use the macro maybe 25% of the time and normal range zoom maybe 75% -- across all the photos I take in life. I could be overestimating the macro, but I don't entirely know.

Given that I have something that "works" for normal range stuff, I was thinking go for the macro first -- especially that I can correct some of the kit lens's weaknesses (vignetting etc) with software. What I don't know is how much better an upgrade to the kit lens would be -- my guess is a fair amount still, but again I come back to "buy the upgrade" vs "get new functionality" and am kind of veering towards the latter.

Probably what I will end up doing is renting both for a weekend, try a bunch of scenes, and see which one I fall in love with. Much love for lensrentals (if nothing else I find their gear reviews are really good).

so when are you gonna sell me some gold occies?

I'll probably look to start selling them in the spring. They have really just figured out the birds and the bees, and now they need to figure out "How to Guard My Fry Instead of Running After a Shiny Thing and Leaving Them to be Eaten." They come back to their shells like, "oops." This is really the first time I've seen any number of fry (right now can identify 6-8 around the shells in the tank) and right now I don't have tank space to pull them out and raise them.

I'm kind of hoping some of those make it. Even if not though, sometime in the next month I hope to sell off one fry tank's worth of inhabitants (demasoni, anyone?) so I will probably raise the next clutch I can pull out after that.

 

[mscichlid]

When using manual focus on fish it is best to move your body back and forth to obtain the ideal focus.

What knock around lense are you looking for? 18-200? Zoom lenses have a tendancy to be soft at either end unless it is a very fast lens such as 1.4 or 2.8 (better lenses)

The 100/105 mm macro lens is also a great portrait lens as well...if you are into that.

The bottom line is to purchase lenses based on what you like to shoot.

As far as flash goes with fish, the best way is to use the flash on top of the tank and to use a diffuser of some kind. Since you have a white substrate, you have an advantage with getting some fill naturally under the fish. Having the flash on top of the tank requires a remote mechanism or a tether to use the flash off camera.

 

[WendyFish]

Thanks!

My wish list is:

Everyday = 17-55m f/2.8 -- same base range as the kit lens as a matter of fact, but faster

Macro = 100mm f/2.8

Telephoto = 70-200mm f/2.8

I've read the same things you mentioned, Francine, about the huge range zoom lenses. I loved the telephoto on vacation (despite the weight) and don't mind swapping it out if I want to get more than 55mm so I figured I'd stick with the slightly shorter range lens for "regular" use. The main alternatives I've considered are the 24-70mm and the 24-105mm.

Seems like I just need some practice at manual focus. I have a hard time looking through the viewfinder and seeing what's in or out of focus. I think I've got it and then when I get it loaded to PC, I realize notsomuch. Maybe I should start on something other than fish in motion!

 

[mscichlid]

That is a good wish list of lenses for your bag.

Doesn't your camera have a focus indicator on the bottom of the screen in the veiw finder that indicates whether your subject is in focus or not?

Basically you can start with auto focus. Watch your fish first to see how they act when you are sitting in front of the tank after you feed them. The next thing to consider is to just shoot them in the area where your camera is set. You should be using a tripod. Also, focus on the eye of the fish. That has to be tact sharp. The best way to get a fish totally in focus is to make sure the fish is parellel to the focal plane of your lens and to use an apeture of f8 to f22. Play around with those f stops to find the one that is closest to what the fish looks like to your eye.

Keep in mind that the camera will try to focus on the background because the fish is moving. But fish always stop just before they turn to go the other way. That is the moment you try to capture.

HTH

 

[Spine]

Great pictures Wendy. Your camera might have an adjustment to reduce the area that gets focused on. Take a look in your on camera menu(or owners manual) and see if there are any focus area adjustments.

Nikon uses words like spot=small area,Dynamic=large wider area etc. I haven't used any cannon equipment so I can't give any further hints on how to narrow the area that gets focused on.

A off camera flash will help freeze motion and makes things easier but you can certainly get by with putting as much light over the tank as you can and only shoot in one area like Franny suggested using f8-f22. I try and use the highest shutter speed I can ranging from 60-250.

Look in your owners manual and they should list the minimal and maximum distance from an object you can be at a certain aperture and still have things in focus. If you stand closer than the minimal distance the picture won't be sharp.

You can try panning along with the fish as it swims into your target zone focus on the eyes and then snap the shot once its in that zone( a tripod helps)

On the lens. I've heard good things about the 100mm 2.8 it's pretty versatile. The more light a lens allow in gives you more options, All the 2.8 lens on your wish list look good to me