Forums / Marine Systems and Husbandry – by Anthony Calfo / Archived Forums / Aquarium Photography / Getting fish to pose. / Latest Posts

RE: Getting fish to pose.

Anthony Calfo — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:23:43 GMT

I have to disagree with feeding time. I literally put away my camera when folks/friends being to feed the tank. The fish swim frenetically, and the particles in the water (food and sand/sediments kicked up by excited fishes) make the flash bounce back too soon (off the particles) and generally ruin pics IMO.

RE: Getting fish to pose.

Reefski — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:03:17 GMT

feeding time.

RE: Getting fish to pose.

gkarshens — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:22:24 GMT

Meant to add this with the post.

RE: Getting fish to pose.

gkarshens — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:18:46 GMT

I trained mine.

RE: Getting fish to pose.

Anthony Calfo — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:38:33 GMT

A little reminder/trick that was mentioned to me by Scott Michael and also pounded into my head by dear friend Robert Fenner is that most fishes in aquaria especially (but also on the reef) have a very predictable circuit they swim if you watch long enough.

Some of the "craziest" swimmers such as fairy wrasses and pseudochromids actually make a circuit (tens of seconds to minutes in length) as reliable as clockwork. You pick the spot they come back to (or one they swim by if the former is not good for framing) and adjust your camera settings... and wait

That tip now lets me take superb pics of many tricky fishes... rather than just build on my collection of images of their back-ends :p

RE: Getting fish to pose.

Umm_fish — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:32:55 GMT

Well, it's possible to take macros of fish in the water column, but it's not easy. This is about my best to date:

RE: Getting fish to pose.

Seahorse Whisperer — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:31:41 GMT

If you talk really sweet to them, you can hypnotize them!

Or, just get seahorses or lawnmower blennies. They are really posers....

RE: Getting fish to pose.

120gallons — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 03:56:39 GMT

Yeah, it is resized. It was in P mode with a flash, so I suspect it was a fast shutter speed, but I was using a macro lens, so not a lot of time the fish will be in frame.

RE: Getting fish to pose.

Umm_fish — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:27:29 GMT

I downloaded your photo to try to see what your camera settings were, but no luck. It doesn't seem like the settings were saved in your JPEG.

In general, more light. If you use more light you can increase your shutter speed and that will freeze motion better. Otherwise, good luck. Fish are tough subjects. They are highly sensitive to having a camera pointed at them and they are really good at avoiding portraits. Take lots of photos. Oh, set up a tripod and leave your camera in front of the tank for a couple of days and let the fish get used to it.

Getting fish to pose.

120gallons — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:08:50 GMT

Any ideas to get a fish to stay still?