Aquarium
photography presents almost all the problems normally encountered
in other aspects of photography, such as small subjects, low light
levels, moving subjects, camera-shy subjects, troublesome backgrounds,
and insufficient depth-of-field. In addition, it poses some special
problems of its own. The presence of glass and water between the
photographer and his subject is a pitfall for the unwary. The coloration
of aquarium fish is composed of both pigments and structural colors,
and the aquarium photographer must master the technique of striking
a lifelike balance between these two in the final image. Together,
these problems make aquarium photography one of the most challenging
realms of the photographic hobby.
The solution to these problems begins with the application of good
aquaristic technique. Aquarium water, which is kept clean by means
of adequate filtration and regular partial water changes, is far
less likely to interfere with the photographic process. Old water,
even that which has become imperceptibly yellowed, will result in
serious degradation of the image and improper color balance. Similarly,
aquarium glass is the cause of photographic gremlins. It never ceases
to amaze me that the most imperceptible film of algae or bacteria
growing on the tank walls will cause flare and reduce contrast.
Every speck or water drop on the outside of the glass seems to be
located immediately in front of your subject when the photos are
returned from the processor. Every brine shrimp cyst catches light
from the flash and throws it back at the film with unprecedented
vehemence. The regimen required to avoid these pitfalls consists
of (1) never feed brine shrimp nauplii in a tank you intend to use
as a photo tank; (2) several hours before a photo session, clean
the inside of the aquarium glass scrupulously; (3) about a half
hour before the session, clean the outside of the tank equally assiduously.
This timing allows the detritus which has been stirred up by the
cleaning process time to be picked up by the filter; it also allows
your fish time to recover from any fright they may have incurred
during the cleaning.
Almost everybody who has used a flash attachment to try to photograph
subject matter behind glass has had the unpleasant surprise of having
his efforts completely obscured by the glare of the glass. Polarizing
filters have been suggested as a solution to this problem but anybody
who has actually tried them knows this doesn’t work. The true
solution to the problem lies in the knowledge of the optical law
of reflectance: the angle of incidence of the light always equals
the angle of reflectance. With this in mind it is always possible
to construct a lighting arrangement which will not be conducive
to this particular pitfall.
Electronic flash attachments come in two basic flavors: top-mount
and handle-mount. Top-mount flashes are cheaper, less powerful,
and are designed to be attached to the camera. Handle mount flashes
tend to be more powerful, and lend themselves to being used at a
location remote from the camera. Depending on your flash’s
capacity for being used off-camera.
If your flash must be used on-camera, you cannot shoot directly
at the glass. Instead you will have to shoot at some angle. The
exact angle is mathematically determinable if you know the focal
length of the lens, but when you have used your outfit a little
you will quickly get a feel for what’s safe and what isn’t.
If the flash is used off-camera, and you shoot at some angle, then
the flash can’t be positioned at the opposite angle. A popular
arrangement is a pair of flashes electronically coupled (“slaved”)
to one another so that they fire at the same time. This does such
a good job of filling in the shadows that the resulting image sometimes
looks “flat,” or lacking in three-dimensional effect.
The fish receives light from a high angle, as it would in nature,
and the resulting shadows on the underside gives the fish a three-dimensional
or “round” look. This lighting arrangement also results
in a pleasing balance between the rendering of pigment colors and
structural colors. When lighting strikes a fish at its own level,
the structural colors often predominate to the detriment of the
pigment coloration. When lighted from directly above, the structural
colors are not seen, and the resulting dominance of the pigment
colors causes the image of the fish to lack sparkle.
Getting Started in Aquarium Photography. Let’s
assume for the moment that you’ve stuck with me this far and
you are determined to launch yourself into the challenge of aquarium
photography. Let’s further assume that you don’t currently
own an SLR camera. If you’ve followed my advice so far you
haven’t actually bought anything but a book that describes
the system of your choice. You’ve read it, and from it you’ve
determined exactly which lens you need. In spite of my lack of emphasis
on the choice of a camera body, you have found one that you feel
you can live with. You have also chosen just the right flash attachment.
Now you can run down to your dealer and pick them up, right? Hold
it. You may be missing your big opportunity to save money. Before
you drop the many hundreds of dollars the above list of equipment
represents, do yourself a favor and swing by the local magazine
stand and pick up the current copy of either Popular Photography
or Modern Photography magazine. Look through the mail-order
house ads in the back. Now you know how much the equipment really
costs. Now you can go down to your local dealer armed with this
knowledge. You may be surprised to find out how high his markup
really is. Mail-order houses can allow you to realize a savings
of 30 to 50% on the items you intend to purchase. They are a dangerous
option if you don’t know exactly what you want, but if you
do (and you should by now), you will probably save enough in the
long run to more than make up for the occasional time one of them
rips you off. Just remember that if you deal with them in a businesslike
manner, sound confident, and act like you know what you’re
buying, you’ll be less likely to be victimized. So you’re
the type who’s too impatient to wait for a mail order delivery?
Fine, then buy locally, but remember you’re paying extra for
the privilege.
So you get your new camera and buy a bunch of film and run off to
your tank and take a whole bunch of
pictures, right? Wait-slow down. Your goal at this point should
be to reduce as many variables as possible. By standardizing as
many things as possible you will reduce the amount of chance involved
in obtaining successful photos. If you haven’t decided already
what kind of film you want to use on a permanent basis, do so now.
Buy just one roll of it. Read the camera manual and lens literature
carefully, until you are sure you can load the camera without damaging
it or destroying the film. Before taking any pictures at all, move
close enough to your fish so that you will get a good, large image
and set the focus so the subject is sharp. Don’t adjust the
focus after this point. The focus control will help you standardize
one more variable, the camera-to-subject distance. Now decide on
a lighting arrangement. If you are using the flash off-camera, standardize
its location with respect to your tank. Otherwise, the camera-to-subject
distance will control the flash distance. Learn to focus on your
fish as he moves without changing the focus adjustment, by moving
the whole camera to follow him.
The trick now is to get the exposure right. Set the flash attachment
on manual, full power, turn it on, and
connect it to your camera. Set the shutter speed to the position
that the manual indicates is correct for flash photography. Now
set the aperture to its smallest setting- that is to say its highest
numerical value. Move the camera in and out until the fish is in
sharp focus. Then take a picture. Record the frame number and the
aperture setting you used in a notebook. Then open up the aperture
setting by one click and take another picture. Again record the
frame and aperture. Continue to do this until you have exhausted
either the roll of film, the range of aperture settings, or your
patience. Then unload the camera and send the roll off for processing.
Don’t do another thing until it gets back. When it does, match
up the resulting photos and their frame numbers to your notebook.
Pick out the picture that looks best and find out the aperture you
used when you shot it.
Through the next stage of your photographic evolution, don’t
depart from either this aperture setting or focused distance. For
the time being, practice your composition and background control.
Eventually you will want to shoot larger or smaller subjects, but
approach this task in the same experimental manner that you used
at first. Just remember that the farther away you get, the larger
the aperture (numerically smaller) and vice versa. Special Considerations
in Cichlid Photography Cichlid coloration is an evanescent thing.
Coloration in cichlids depends largely on the mood they’re
in. For this reason, it’s important that cichlids are feeling
happy and at home when you take their pictures. Otherwise, all you
can show off are pictures of cichlid flight patterns. (Sometimes
these are more colorful than normal patterns). Although it might
be useful to have available some cichlid fright pattern photos,
the demand for such photos is of necessity limited and one would
hardly want one’s entire collection to comprise these pictures.
And some cichlids have special breeding colors. You certainly want
to have some pictures of these patterns available to illustrate
this fascinating aspect of cichlid behavior. For these reasons I
cannot recommend setting up a special photo tank for cichlids such
as I do for killies and catfishes. I photograph them right in the
tank they have come to think of as their home. This vastly increases
the importance of aquascaping and good aquaristic technique. Because
you can’t take the fish out of their home tank to do the photography,
that home tank had better provide an artistically pleasing background
in your photos. It had also better be clean, for the reasons discussed
previously in this article.
Follow the procedures I have already recommended before starting
a cichlid photo session: Clean the gravel and make partial water
changes to your tank on a regular basis. Clean the inside of the
glass a few hours before the session. Clean the outside of the glass
about a half an hour before. Dim the room lights and wear dark clothing
during the photo session so the cichlids, who are quite aware of
what is going on outside of the tank, will be less distracted. Get
everything set up ahead of time, and patiently sit as still as you
can when you’re not actually taking a picture. Remember to
focus on your subjects by moving the camera in and out, not by adjusting
the focus ring, but keep all movements slow and deliberate. Cichlids
are behavioral fish and you will want to have the outstanding aspects
of their behavior recorded on film. You can increase the probability
of obtaining good behavior photos by aquascaping in such a manner
as to place the most desirable territories in the front of the tank,
where there will be less water between you and the subject to degrade
the image. Dither fish can be used to encourage the cichlids to
behave naturally, but you will probably not want them to appear
in the photos. Choose dither fish which will remain close to the
surface. Cichlids will generally remain oriented to the bottom.
Try to avoid having too much gravel appear in your photos. Aquarium
gravel, even the so-called “natural”
colors, seldom looks like any substrate you’d ever see at
the bottom of a naturally occurring body of water. It’s too
well graded: the particles are all the same size. You can help by
mixing several grades of the same color. Also, it doesn’t
hurt to mix in a few cobbles and a little sand. Keep your camera
on the same level as the cichlids, so that the aquascaping becomes
the background, rather than shooting down on them to make the gravel
the background. Aquascape heavily to hide the line of demarcation
where the gravel meets the rear of the tank. Use plastic plants
if your cichlids persist in destroying real ones. Just be sure they’re
far enough back to be slightly out-of-focus. Remember that today’s
plastic plants can’t be told from the real thing if they are
sufficiently out-of-focus.
Be patient and take lots of pictures. Whenever you try anything
new, take notes. Compare the results to the notes you took so that
you can learn from your mistakes. And if you learn anything really
useful, be sure to let me know about it.
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