Tip Of the Month

These are suggestions from members of the Goldfish Message board. Every month I chose from the Tips that are E-mailed to me and the winner of the Month will receive a Koko's goldfish bumpersticker......

Many people ask the question, "How do you take such good photographs of your goldfish?" Keep in mind that I am not a professional, but I will try to answer this question in depth here as per how I take my own photos, with several tips in attempts to help you achieve a better photograph. Your tank is in a bright, sunny location: Natural sunlight works very well for trying to take photographs. The brighter natural light you have, the less likely you will need a flash. To capture a fish in motion, I would recommend shooting at 800-1000 speed in this type of light. At this speed, the amount of time that the shutter of your camera stays open to capture the image in front of it is extremely short. There is less of a chance of blurring your photo from moving your camera, or a long orange blur in the photo from the fish moving. ------- Your tank is in a moderately sunny location: There is a chance that you will need a flash for photographs in these types of places. Your best bet is to take a few photographs without flash at 400/600/800 speeds and see how they turn out. In the lower lighting, the longer your exposure time is (a 400 exposure is longer than an 800 exposure), the more light your camera is absorbing and will make your picture brighter without the use of flash. So if your photographs turn out dark at 800 speed, try 400. They should be lighter. Then try out your flash at the different speeds to see what looks best in your lighting conditions. ------- Your tank is in a pretty dark location: I would really recommend flash in these instances. To get a decently bright photo in these types of lighting situations without a flash means you would have to set the speed of your camera to something like, 2, 4, 8, 10... In which case you would want a tripod set up. At that slow speed, the camera is holding it's shutter open a very long time, and any movement at all will blur your photograph. That means if your fish moves or you gently bump the camera even minutely, your photo won't turn out sharp and clear. Use a flash and try speeds of 600/800/1000. ------- Assuming your fish is a fast little nipper like mine is... the main problem will be, whether you're using manual focus or auto focus, getting the fish at the right distance from your camera at the right time for it to be in focus. Taking multiple shots will increase your chance of getting a good photograph. I always take a series of photos when taking pictures of my fish. One thing I've learned from photographing my Bubbles is that the majority of my snaps do not turn out. Every once in a while though I end up with a really great photo. If your photo is blurry, one of two things happened. You either were not focused in on the correct object or area, or your camera moved while the shutter was still open for the exposure of that particular photograph. Keep in mind a few things about photographing fish. Number one is, it's tricky. Even if you know what you're doing. Number two... It's a photographer that takes photographs, not the camera. You need to know your camera inside and out. The more you know about it and how to use it, the better your photos will become. You can get nice photos with pretty much any kind of camera. ~BubblesOwner~