We will shortly be reviewing the entries from our underwater photo contest, so what is more appropriate than a post on photography? As aquarists, we will sometimes want to photograph our works of art for a purpose, such as selling fish or coral, or maybe just to show off our amazing tank set-up and creatures! The following are some tips for photographing aquariums. Most of these apply to other types of photography as well, so keep them in mind any time you take pictures or when you judge the photos entered in the contest!
Tip 1: Don’t use flash. While flash is a quick way of making your photo brighter, it is often harsh, and if your photographing an aquarium, it is likely to reflect off the glass and ruin your picture! Instead, try to use natural light, or light from the aquarium itself. If your photo turns out blurry, you can try using a tripod to help this.
Tip 2: Photograph with the aquarium wall parallel to you camera, not at an angle. If you catch the aquarium glass at an angle, the organism you’re photographing will likely look distorted.
Tip 3: Be sure to clean the glass before you photograph! Glass smears will be apparent in your photo, so be sure that the glass that you are shooting through is clean.
Tip 4: Edit your photo to so that it looks natural: Photos can always be edited afterwards, quite easily thanks to digital photography and availability of editing software. However, you should keep in mind that you want to accurately represent the animal you photographed. For example, if you photograph a vibrant green coral that doesn’t turn out as green in the photo, you can edit it to restore its vibrant green color. You wouldn’t want to misrepresent the coral by editing it to be blue, though. In addition to editing colors in your photos, you can also crop them, or even adjust contrast and exposure. Keep in mind that while editing can make a photo better, taking a good photograph with good focus and exposure to begin is vital to having a good photo; not everything can be fixed with editing.
Tip 2: Photograph with the aquarium wall parallel to you camera, not at an angle. If you catch the aquarium glass at an angle, the organism you’re photographing will likely look distorted.
Tip 3: Be sure to clean the glass before you photograph! Glass smears will be apparent in your photo, so be sure that the glass that you are shooting through is clean.
Tip 4: Edit your photo to so that it looks natural: Photos can always be edited afterwards, quite easily thanks to digital photography and availability of editing software. However, you should keep in mind that you want to accurately represent the animal you photographed. For example, if you photograph a vibrant green coral that doesn’t turn out as green in the photo, you can edit it to restore its vibrant green color. You wouldn’t want to misrepresent the coral by editing it to be blue, though. In addition to editing colors in your photos, you can also crop them, or even adjust contrast and exposure. Keep in mind that while editing can make a photo better, taking a good photograph with good focus and exposure to begin is vital to having a good photo; not everything can be fixed with editing.
Hope these tips will help you when photographing your aquaria or UMAC’s! In fact, UMAC would LOVE you to take pictures of our aquaria- please post them on our Facebook page or send them to our email if you take any good photos! Happy shooting!
-Kathryn
-Kathryn