I Need Some Beginner Photography Tips

[ChrissFishes01]

So I've gotten tired of trying to get good pictures with my cell phone, and I needed a new hobby.. So I bought a DSLR and picked it up a Best Buy on my lunch break. I got the Canon EOS RP Mirrorless with the 24-105mm lens bundled together. I know relatively little about photography, so I was wondering if I could get some basic tips on getting good pictures of my fish. Here's a few from me playing around with it tonight:

https://imgur.com/a/J4CBRK2

https://imgur.com/zG6GB4g

https://imgur.com/uILG4I9

https://imgur.com/PgTziF1

https://imgur.com/ogPZzWY

imgur.com

imgur.com

imgur.com

Obviously cleaner glass would be step one, lol. But in the picture featuring the Limia, I had a heck of a time getting it to turn out clear. I left the ISO on auto - should I maybe just set it higher? Is that a good way to get a clear image out of a moving target?

Any help is appreciated!

 

[BigManAquatics]

Can definitely tell the difference in quality feom a camera phone.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

Can definitely tell the difference in quality feom a camera phone.

I'm glad! The price tag was a hard one to swallow, lol

 

[fish 321]

The higher the shutter speed and the lower the iso the sharper the image will be. With high shutter speed comes a dark photo so you have to adjust your iso to get the brightness you want. You just have to find the sweet spot with your lighting. When you crank up your iso all the way up it makes your image grainy.
Also make sure the camera isn't at an angle with the glass as it distorts the image.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

The higher the shutter speed and the lower the iso the sharper the image will be. With high shutter speed comes a dark photo so you have to adjust your iso to get the brightness you want. You just have to find the sweet spot with your lighting. When you crank up your iso all the way up it makes your image grainy.
Also make sure the camera isn't at an angle with the glass as it distorts the image.

Alright, so I'm figuring that out... Thanks!

I'm finding that the auto mode on this camera prevents me from getting too many unrecognizable photos, but rarely produces anything of decent quality. So, I turned off some of the auto settings and used manual ISO, manual focus, and manual shutter speed. Then I shut off all the other lights in the room, and focused on one tank at a time. Here's what I came up with.

https://imgur.com/a/NXpsAsW

 

[Alejandro]

My experience is frogs and tadpoles but in water with very reflective animals and glass you have a few basic issues

Similar to above responses, you need enough light then you need to ensure it doesn't reflect or glare.

The aperture effects how much light gets in but the more you let in the less depth you get in focus.

The ISO annoys me on digital as I don't understand why it survived the upgrade from film and they in essence digitally allowed grainy film back in when it's not needed. Faster film - higher ISO gives grainy pics, lower gives clearer (think pixels) but requires more light.

Slower shutter speed can allow more light but then if you move it causes blur. When photographing small things tiny movements can make big blurs.

Reflection can be reduced by lighting from above and sides but at an angle to the camera so it doesn't reflect.

So in short:
Low ISO (but you need more light)
Small aperture (but you need more light)
Faster shutter speed (but you need more light)
Take photos at different angle to the light to avoid reflection.

 

[veggieshark]

Much of the classic film photography is no longer the same in digital photography. There used to be a tradeoff between aperture (related to depth of field) and shutter speed. With digital photography, you can focus on any depth in the view and even use multiple depth levels. If you want to take individual fish pictures, it is best to move them into a narrow container, so they don't move in the depth direction, and then use a macro lens. Using an absorbent (dark) background helps. Sometimes, you take pictures in complete darkness. You take many random pictures and then pick the good ones. If you take pictures of your tank where fish can move quickly and out of focus, you will need a quick shutter and either a high depth or the capacity to synthesize multiple depth layers. You may need to use manual focus because autofocus is sometimes fooled by other things in the path.

It is good to turn off the ambient light and use the tank light for minimum reflection on glass.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

Thanks for all the tips! Woke up a little early this morning to play around with a floodlight I have. I just placed it on the corner of the tank I wanted to shoot at. Here are the results.

https://imgur.com/a/oqP9ru3

Now, the floodlight is 5000K, so relatively warm. Some of the earlier photos are without any sort of white balance adjustment, and the later ones are with the "actual" WB set to 5000K, and the preferred set to 6500K. That's why some are much warmer than others.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

Tried out the video portion of the camera with a feeding video.

 

[dwc13]

The beauty of digital photography is instant feedback. If you don't like the image, take another one or "enhance it" in Photoshop. Turning off ambient light is very helpful. No flash. "Clean" aquarium glass helps, too. Once you figure out how to shoot full manual with your new camera, use that setting. Higher ISO (up to, say, 1600, depending upon camera), widest aperture, and then manually adjust the shutter speed (minimum 1/60th). You want to just freeze motion. Low light situations typically require a higher ISO to get decent results.

For the images you like, check out the camera settings in the file properties and keep a chart. Once you have enough data recorded from images, you'll probably spot a pattern.

 

[The2dCour]

You paid for the camera, now it's time to shell out to adobe for LightRoom. Or play around with something like RAWTherapee for free.

Start shooting in RAW and notice that you can almost retake the shots and save a lot of slightly under lit pics etc.

 

[dwc13]

You paid for the camera, now it's time to shell out to adobe for LightRoom. Or play around with something like RAWTherapee for free.

Start shooting in RAW and notice that you can almost retake the shots and save a lot of slightly under lit pics etc.

OP should learn how to operate the new camera in full manual mode and perhaps some photography basics before worrying about Photoshop or LightRoom.

 

[The2dCour]

OP should learn how to operate the new camera in full manual mode and perhaps some photography basics before worrying about Photoshop or LightRoom.

that's your opinion.

 

[Sanderguy777]

I have a few tips for you.

1. The first thing is to go on youtube and look up at least 5 well done videos on the exposure triangle. That is the BASICS and you need to know the basics before you can get good photos.

2. You DON'T need photoshop or lightroom. Canon used to have a software that came with the cameras and was decent to start with, but it wasn't anything super nice or for anything more than messing with the exposure and stuff.
If you want a good look at the best software, then look up J Christina on youtube and watch his "Life after Adobe: cutting the cord" series. I don't have any affiliation with any party involved, but Adobe is expensive, and very invasive. There are other softwares that work just as well, and only cost ONCE, not once a month lol

3. You'll want new lenses eventually and the BEST way to get them is used. That camera (the Canon RP) is actually not a DSLR (or at least not a NORMAL one). It has no mirror, so it has a lens, and then the sensor, no mirror is involved in passing light up into the viewfinder or moving out of the way of the sensor like in DSLRs.
That said, it is a simpler and arguably more robust system that has a very nice advantage: a very short flange focal length. That basically means that you can (theoretically) get adapters for most lenses that don't need optics (Meaning they can be much cheaper). I have a Sony with one of the shortest FFLs, but I think the new Canon mount is even shorter. Anyway, you can get old lenses WAY cheaper than new ones. Canon and Nikon are probably the best two lenses to get used because they are very common, but you can get others too.
One of the first lenses you'll want to get is a macro (preferably with autofocus) for the fish. You can use others, but a Marco lets you get in close and really "zoom" in.

4. To get better photos of your fish, you'll want a larger depth of field. Larger f/stop numbers (smaller/slower aperture), and shorter lenses (shorter focal length) both give you that.

5. Don't make the same mistake as me. ISO is great, but the higher it is, the noisier (grainier/more pixelated) the image will be. I shoot with it set to 100 and only change it if I have to to get a shot. It isn't the end of the world, but (with the possible exception of DXO de noise software) no post processing is going to remove it without leaving the photo less sharp looking.

6. There is NO shame in shooting auto. The drawback is you WILL miss shots and you will not learn what everything does. Manual is better since you learn what everything does, and have more creative control, but P and S modes are good too (they let you set the shutter speed or the aperture and the rest is auto).
I shot in P and S modes for a few years and then transitioned to manual.

I hope this helps. I know it isn't fish specific, but it will definitely help