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Re: Photography and tanks
>Anyway, what I really want to know is not what happened but how to take a
>picture correctly.
Well, I'm sure this isn't how to do it correctly but I have been playing a
bit with photographing some of my tanks and have come on some ideas.
Probably not at all the way your supposed to do it, but some of them may be
helpful if you aren't ready to go spend a small fortune on photography
equipment. :)
First I think you have to have an slr camera, otherwise you end up taking
shots of the area near the tank, but not always where you want it to be.
They can be kind of spendy, starting about $300, you can often pick up a
used one for less though, I found an older one for closer to $100. A
telephoto lens would be a nice addition, I haven't gotten one yet though so
I can't really tell you anything about them. :)
I dropped my flash in my SW tank a couple years ago so started experimenting
and find that if you put a bunch of flourescent lights on the top, it can
work without a flash.
Be sure the inside and outside of the glass are super clean, it's amazing
how well those little water drops will show up on a photo. To help cut down
on the reflections if you drape a dark cloth over the edge of the tank to
where you are taking the photo and do them in a darkened room you can avoid
the reflections. Just doing it at night with the other room lights out helps
a great deal too.
Another thing I found real helpful was to take a roll of film and a note
book, then before each picture record the settings and the number of the
shot. Just using that one roll of film that way can really help you
determine what settings are going to work out best for you on your
particular tank.
There is also a pretty good, short and simple segment on photographing your
tanks in the last chapter of the book "You and Your Aquarium" (ISBN
0-394-72985-4) by Dick Mills. When I started trying to take pictures of my
tanks I looked at several sources and this one seemed about the most
understandable to me. At the time I didn't know anything at all about
photography, not that I know much now. :)
Hope this will help a bit.
Rhonda
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