blurry fish pics?

[wayway101]

i have a nikon coolpix 4300, i take many pics of my tank and its inhabitants but only a few come out decent. for example: i take close-up photos of my clowns in their leather coral home. everything comes out clear except the fish, theyre usually slightly blurred. i turn off the flash, keep the room dark, use a tripod. basically any fish is blurred, even when they seem to be still... its probably something simple that i do not know about. but if anybody has advice, please share... thanx Wayland

[GSELLERS1245]

have you read your user manual from front to back? I'm not being sarcastic, but you might find much info useful in there. If you cant then we'll try to help out more

[kratos3681]

The problem is the turning off the flash. With an automatic camera, it has to compensate not having the flash with having a slower shutter speed. Any movement, even something that appears to not be moving will be blurred. It's best to leave the flash on and just color correct later, that way you get sharp images.

[wayway101]

yes, ive read the manual, but only very few pics come out right. i will try leaving the flash on. wayland

[kratos3681]

One other thing, most digital cameras have a minimum focal distance of around 9 feet unless on macro mode, and even then, it's good to be about 12+ inches away.

[pnut]

If you leave the flash on, you will more than likely loose the color of the fish since the the flash will wash it out. Try using a tripod to keep the camera steady.

[phistio]

http://www.reeflounge.com/showthread.php?t=3893

do you have a manual setting on your camera?

[SATELLITE]

some one told me on top of the cameras on the dial u might have a picture of a flower on it if u do use that. i did and wow it DOES make the difference

[phistio]

some one told me on top of the cameras on the dial u might have a picture of a flower on it if u do use that. i did and wow it DOES make the difference

that's the macro setting. great for close ups! however on some cameras, while in macro mode, you're not allowed to zoom.

[SATELLITE]

oh right on never knew the correct name for that picture...thanks

[miket]

Another trick is to block or tape the flash with something black (your finger or hand will not work, the light goes right thru it). The pictures may come out dark depending on how bright your tank is.

Make sure your camera is focused, pretty much every point and shoot digital camera works the same way. A lite push on the button to focus, then push it all the way down to shoot.

I see people all the time just grab the camera, take the time to aim it, but just click the button all the way down quickly. This takes a picture of whatever the camera was focused on.

A fast moving fish is going to be hard to get clear, I get the best shots of my tang if I follow him with my camera.

[vtfishies]

another perk would be to use the action mode if you have a setting for it, most do. for close ups of corals..try using a magnifying glass in front of the lens.

[Scubaman]

it's not the focus that's off, it's just the fish is moving quickly which blurs only the fish due the shutter speed being too low as previous people mentioned. I would recommend using manual mode since the camera won't really be able to figure out what's going on. Try these settings:
Aperture: (usually seen as fx.x on your camera) - lowest number it will go to
Shutter speed (usually seen as x/x) - try using 1/80-1/100, higher if you can without the image being too dark
ISO - as low as possible, but high enough to get the above settings - probably around 400
Macro Focus if you have it.

hope this helps - best of luck

[Terry64]

i am getting really nice pictures using a macro lens and a flash unit with my D70s DSLR, use a tripod too unless chasing fish around the tank.

shoot in .RAW mode too so you can colour correct easily if you need to.

[patch2361]

I would just pay RickyRooz LOL