Do you use submersible cameras or just normal ones with some sort of filter or am I just a bad photograph???
Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
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Showing off your puffer pals? Why not enter your photos into our Puffer of the Month contest?
Every month The Puffer Forum holds a photo contest featuring the puffers, burrfish, boxfish, tobies and other puffer family members photographed by members of this site. At the end of the year, the monthly winners will be entered into a Puffer of the Year contest! The POTY winner not only gets supreme bragging rights but also wins a $25 gift certificate to The Puffer Store.
Click HERE to learn how to join in this fun competition!
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Ti_CLaD
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:47 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 Fahaka
- Location (country): Canada
Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
How do you guys do to take the pics you do of your puffers??? All those close-ups and stuff... All I can get is blurriness thru the glass, water reflection or flash reflection ( or total darkness in other spots)...
Do you use submersible cameras or just normal ones with some sort of filter or am I just a bad photograph???
Do you use submersible cameras or just normal ones with some sort of filter or am I just a bad photograph???
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
I just attended a workshop where Mo Devlin (AquaMojo) talked about his techniques for taking good shots. He is well known for getting great fish pictures.
The main thing he does is get more light - 1-5 external flashes (not the dinky one that comes on your camera) shining into the tank, up from the bottom, and/or from the sides. He also uses a nice camera (DSLR), although I suspect a Micro 4/3 would work well too. He takes a lot of pics, using manual settings, and paints the photo tank on the back with a 'bumpy' frosted glass type paint, then a black paint, so light reflects into the tank but is diffused instead of mirrored back.
I usually take my pics with my Galaxy S3 phone camera, because I have it handy, but could get much better shots by trying some of the above, I think.
The main thing he does is get more light - 1-5 external flashes (not the dinky one that comes on your camera) shining into the tank, up from the bottom, and/or from the sides. He also uses a nice camera (DSLR), although I suspect a Micro 4/3 would work well too. He takes a lot of pics, using manual settings, and paints the photo tank on the back with a 'bumpy' frosted glass type paint, then a black paint, so light reflects into the tank but is diffused instead of mirrored back.
I usually take my pics with my Galaxy S3 phone camera, because I have it handy, but could get much better shots by trying some of the above, I think.
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Ti_CLaD
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:47 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 Fahaka
- Location (country): Canada
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
Alright I'll look into that... I'd like to enter the POTM contest but can't get decent pictures of it...
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bertie 83
- Moderator
- Posts: 5298
- Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 4:28 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: lineatus R.I.P, South American puffer. Valentini puffer, porcupine puffer.
Non puffer
Danios, Tetras, Redtail Rasporas,
Harlequins, CAE's, Yoyo
Loaches, Clown loaches ,Eels, various shrimp, tangs,wrasses, damsels, chromis - Location (country): Brighton, England
- Location: brighton , england
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
I just take a load of photos on my iphone, the best ones get kept, the duff blurt ones get binned. I only get reasonable shots with persistence
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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sgtmyers88
- Moderator
- Posts: 1294
- Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 12:37 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: Green Spotted Puffers
- Location (country): USA
- Contact:
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
I use a Canon 500D DSLR with good quality glass. A fast shutter speed with a macro prime lens is most useful.
WARNING: Puffers are mischievous little blimps with enchanting powers. You may not be content with having just one.
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Fahaka Fakka
- Dwarf Puffer
- Posts: 53
- Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 6:32 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 x Fahaka
Also kept:
2 x South American Puffers (SAP) - Location (country): Norway
- Location: Oslo
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
screenshots of video clips made with high resolution smartphone cameras, flash off
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KorrepZ
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 289
- Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:35 am
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: .
1 Fahaka
1 Ceylon
1 Valentini
1 Dwarf
1 Mantis Shrimp
R.I.P. 2 F8's - Location (country): Holland
- Location: Holland
- Contact:
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
I take my pictures in the evening when its dark outside. Then turn off all the lights in the house and use a fast shutterspeed. Then play around with the diafragma and ISO a bit untill the fast shutter gives clear and good lighted photo's so you dont need to use the flash 
Master Yoda the Fahaka and Manny the Mantis Shrimp! - R.I.P R2 & 3PO (F8), Luke (dwarf), Snips (Ceylon) and Obi 1-3 (Valentini)
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casc
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 126
- Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 2:24 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: "Juke" porcupine puffer 150G FOWLR
10G Aqua scape tank with Dwarf Puffer
~Non puff tank:
30G reef tank with Hawaiian Dwarf Peacock Lionfish
~GF tanks:
90G freshwater w/ fancy goldfish
90G freshwater w/ oscar - Location (country): USA, Vermont
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
My girlfriend has a really nice professional HD camera. The things amazing! Also has a big external flash.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32771
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
With all these great cameras here, we should have no problems getting enough pics for POTM!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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RTR
- Mentor
- Posts: 6155
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 4:39 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): East Coast, USA
Re: Taking the perfect pics of your puffers
LOL! Some of us have not taken a photo in decades. While my wife has a non-trivial collection of cameras, she hates trying to take fish tank photos, so I only very rarely ask it of her. There are plenty of folks for whom even cell phones are quite a challenge and for emergency use only. Modern key pads are alien devices which I cannot see. Sorry about that. I usually call in a professional if I want photos...Submitting those few pctures would not be fair competition and a tad expensive to boot.
Where's the fish? - Neptune