@Relborg - Your camera seems like a pretty decent entry level camera. The same advice above should work for you as well. Pm me if you have any questions.
@DerikPelser I see AF MODE-- the center,multi,continuous and tracking ? Also image quality-- fine or normal. Im playing around with those settings, stuff I never new about the camera, like face recognition, sweet. Anyway, there is so many settings and different stuff to choose, ai die engels is moeilik :banghead: only getting aperture to +2 or -2
Ok. Choose AF and set to center. The +2 and -2 sounds more like exposure settings, that should be on 0.
@Marius Swart. Remember that your cameras minimum focus distance is wide approx. 45cm andtelephoto approx. 2.5m. If you are to close on normal settings you must standto fat away from the fish and you will get bad reflection on the glass is youuse the speed light on your camera. With macro the focus distance is wideapprox. 5cm and telephoto approx. 1.2m. With macro you can be closer to thefish. Remember to set your camera to spot metering and the focus to single point. Iwill recommend that you use manual settings, turn the dial to the M and set theaperture(F value) to the smallest number F3.5 (wide) and F5.3 (tele). This willopen the hole where the light is getting to your camera as big as possible. Setyour ISO (sensitivity to light) to ISO 200. To photograph fish you need aminimum shutter speed (the speed how quickly the shutter door open and close)of 1/125. If it is inside a house you are going to battle. There won’t beenough light to get a photo that is not under exposed. You then are going toneed to use the speed light(build in flash light). Now you start getting theproblem with reflection. Now you need to photograph the fish from an angle thatthe speed light bounce the light away and prevent the light from bouncingdirectly back and leave a bad reflection. Do not use auto settings as this do whatever it wants and you will never get aclear photo. On you photo I can clearly see that the shutter speed is to slow and you are tooclose to the object. Automatic focus is also playing a big role on that photo. The most common used settings to get almost every time a clear photo is aperture - F8/F7 shutter - 1/125 ISO - 200 Camera set to daylight. This will only adjust the temperature if the light(warmer or colder)
If anybody thinks its a good idea we can maybe meet somewhere in Johannesburg and keep a fish photography day. Then you bring you camera and learn a few tricks. To photograph fish is very easy if you know how to use your camera.
So far away, but sounds like a great idea. Thanks for all the help so far,ill set the stings and see what happens today
Try to put a coffee filter over the flash light and adjust the speed light to sharper light. That photo is much better. Crop the bad shadows out and your photo will be way better. It looks like your dept of field is to deep. Adjust your F (aperture) to F3.5 and adjust your shutter speed accordingly. The photos is a huge improvement. Well done.
Pending on what your goal is, with an aperture of F3.5 the depth of field will be shallow. This means that only the fish will be in focus and the background will be out of focus. With F8 the background will be more in focus like on your photos. With F16 almost everything will be in focus, background behind background. It is also pending on how far you stand away from the object.
@maruis - Looking much better. If can get you fstop to 3.5 like sugessted your light would be better and the fish would really pop. Give it a try. Well done - just keep playing.
Sorry @DerikPelser I changed the settings but was a hectic day, even that I wasn't working. Tomorrow also but ill make time because im curious about this :fisheye:
@Marius Swart. Like @DerikPelser said, if you use a aperture setting of F3.5 (pending if you zoom in) your camera will focus sharper on the fish and not the background. This means the photo will be sharper and more detail.
So I notice if there is to many fish then also cant focus.. Then a few questions ...image size, whats the best pixels, 16.9? image quality, fine or normal? dynamic randge, 100% or 200%? photometry I can choose multi,spot average? AF mode - centre,multi,continuous,tracking? Just to make sure . Do I hold the camera to close? but then again I struggle with flash if to far away
What nice nice about 16.9 pics you can crop 1026*768 and make that small guppy in the middle look huge. Always use fine. Takes a bit more space but worth it. Don’t know Dynamic Range - Will look this up for you. Photometry - Spot only takes a light metering on the focus point. Multi takes all light into consideration. For fish I would use multi for model shoots I use spot. Af mode is good for beginners. Manual you have more control but way more tricky. Use center when you focus on one thing. Multi when doing a land scape, tracing I don’t like. Get the camera as close as it will allow you to focus. HTH You getting there
