how do you get your fish to sit still?

[Supergenius74]

Ok I have been trying to take pictures of my fish for 2 years with little luck. I have a kodak dx3500 and i take good pictures with it, 2.2 megapixel. The hardest thing to do is take pictures of each fish, they won't sit still long enough for the picture. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for this. i have about 4 or 5 good pictures in 2 years time. The fish never sit still, always swimming swimming swimming!

 

[Anonymous]

How many shots are you taking at a 'sitting'? When I shoot my fish, I regularly shoot 200 shots and am really happy if I get 3 or 4 good ones. I'm not familiar with your exact model of camera, but if you can adjust the shutter speed (or go into a 'sports mode' or something like that), make the shutter speed higher. Odds are you'll have to brighten the photos somewhat in photoshop, but they'll have much less blur.

Also, just work on tracking the fish around the tank. Orrrr, set the camera on a tripod and try to lure the fish in front of the camera with food or something.

 

[Len]

I admit I have it a lot easier with a SLR because of the virtual lag-free shutter. With a point-n-shoot camera, the only way I could get fish pics to come out clear is either to use flash or pre-focus and fire away hoping to get lucky. A lot of the newer p&s cameras are faster and can auto-focus just fine, but the older ones have trouble with moving objects.

Some people are nuts and move fish out to a slim holding tank to photograph it. These people are usually scientists photographing for documentation though

 

[mkirda]

Some people are nuts and move fish out to a slim holding tank to photograph it. These people are usually scientists photographing for documentation though

I saw a recent IMAX movie (Coral reef adventure? Something like that...) where Richard Pyle did exactly that. He had brought up a few specimens from really deep and they were new to science. He put them into a tall, thin tank, not wide enough for the fish to turn around, clipped the flash onto the top at about a 45 degree angle down, then used a normal autofocus camera to take the shots. Tank was likely the size of a dictionary or text book.

I wonder how many people use this technique for their fish shots.
Seemed to work pretty well.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[Anonymous]

I have pavlovian fish, for the most part. When I get close to the tank they all think they are getting fed and come out to see what is going on. It does not work on my mandarin tho.