Fish pics - tips at the aquarium

[mcflurry]

Hi, At some stage soon i'm taking my family to the Sea Life Centre and would like to take some pictures whilst there.

Last time I ended up with flashes bouncing off fish tanks, or blurry pics where the flash was off. i.e. a waste of time and film

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for some better shots, aside from buying postcards

Thanks in advance

[JJM]

If you have the camera at 45' to the glass you should be able to avoid your reflection or a bounce back from the flash.

[FaineantFreddy]

Use an off-camera flash and hold it against the glass.

[Stig]

Erm.. fish aren't mad keen on flash photography, or rather (more accurately) aquariums aren't.

Edited by Stig on Friday 26th August 18:08

[havoc]

Don't use a flash.

Do use high ISO and a quick lens.

If you remove the lens hood and put the lens right up to the glass, you'll remove all reflections...but you'll end up with a close-up shot...so you may want a fast, wide-angle lens.

Might also be worth using RAW and shooting in manual mode - select the aperture and shutter-speed required, then adjust the exposure up in Photoshop. Note that this only really works for "small-ish" under-exposures - otherwise you're better off ramping up the ISO.

...and on the subject of ISO, that's the one area where Nikon really are supreme...are you a Nikonian or a Canonite?

[jr502]

I think you can get large rubber lens hoods, which allow you to press it against the glass cutting out reflections.

[mattdaniels]

You need a lens that works well in low light. As others have said, don't use flash and press the lens onto the glass square-on and use a fast shutter speed.

[mcflurry]

I think I need a faster lens
The high ISO was ok, but the shutter speed on the blue tanks made the fish "blurry"
Still, the family enjoyed the morning there, which was more important