# [Wet Thumb Forum]-What can i do to improve my macro shots? Pic included



## imported_depthc (May 3, 2003)

Here is the picture. Im using macro mode, no flash and everything else set as stock when i got the camera. I dont have a tripod so i cant get very sturdy pics often. SO what can i do to improve this? I got a Canon PowerShot A300 with a 128 mb card.

- depthC

- - - - - - - - - - - -
45g: 19 Harlequins, 7 Bloodfins, 6 Black Phantom, 5 Neons, 1 Spotted Corys, 1 Sunset Platy.

10g: 4 White Clouds, 1 Betta, and 1 CAE.

10g: 8 Zebra Danios.

10g: No Fish
{Plants - Water Sprite, Dwarf Hairgrass, Bacopa Monnieri.

Total of : 64 Fish

[This message was edited by depthC on Sat September 13 2003 at 06:51 PM.]


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## imported_depthc (May 3, 2003)

Here is the picture. Im using macro mode, no flash and everything else set as stock when i got the camera. I dont have a tripod so i cant get very sturdy pics often. SO what can i do to improve this? I got a Canon PowerShot A300 with a 128 mb card.

- depthC

- - - - - - - - - - - -
45g: 19 Harlequins, 7 Bloodfins, 6 Black Phantom, 5 Neons, 1 Spotted Corys, 1 Sunset Platy.

10g: 4 White Clouds, 1 Betta, and 1 CAE.

10g: 8 Zebra Danios.

10g: No Fish
{Plants - Water Sprite, Dwarf Hairgrass, Bacopa Monnieri.

Total of : 64 Fish

[This message was edited by depthC on Sat September 13 2003 at 06:51 PM.]


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

If I dare point out the obvious, the picture is quite out of focus, so that's step one. I'm assuming there's no manual focus, so you have to lock the focus first by pointing the camera at a fixed object and depressing the botton halfway. Then move the camera to your intended subject and move the camera back and forth until the subject comes into focus (i.e., is at the same distance from the camera as the fixed object was), then click.

Is that a wild ram on the right?


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## imported_depthc (May 3, 2003)

Alright thanks i do the halfway click on the fish so maybe it doesnt help too much when they are moving. As for the ram im not sure, i got it a LFS so im unsure of were it hails from. Im still trying to distiguish their sexes. 

- depthC


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## imported_depthc (May 3, 2003)

http://www.freewebs.com/depthc/ram_9_12_03.JPG

http://www.freewebs.com/depthc/ram2_9_12_03.JPG

http://www.freewebs.com/depthc/ram3_9_12_03.JPG

Am i doing any better? They arent as blurry as the first.

- depthC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ride A Bike

BMX}Ride Or Die


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## Guest (Sep 13, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> Am i doing any better?


Better but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Macro shots of moving fish if very hard to capture.

#1. Use higher resolution. You can always "zoom-in" withough causing too much "pixelation effect".

#2. Don't worry about tripod when taking macro shots unless those are plant pictures. You won't be able to catch the fish on the tripod since your "distance" from camera to fish is so small. Using tripod when taking macros of plants is extremely helpful.

#3. The best way to do macro is to "freeze" the fish with fast shutter speed. Problem is that fast shutter speed requires more light and usually light setup on the tank is not enough. Thats when external flash comes to play. You can easly use 1/500 shutter speed and aperture of F4 or so.

#4. If you don't want to use external flash, get more light just for picture sessions and then shoot, shoot and shoot.

#5. Read first two topics in this section.

Repetition is a mother of sucess.


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## 2la (Feb 3, 2003)

At least the first two pics sure look like a wild male ram to me. Consider yourself very lucky; IMO they're breathtaking fish that put their domesticated counterparts to shame, but I've had terrible luck with them: Every shipment of wild rams that have come in locally have been infected with contagious lymphocystis. I can't wait for the day when I can set up a tank around HEALTHY wild rams!


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## imported_depthc (May 3, 2003)

Thanks for the tips Jay ive been messing around with my camera and came up with some more shot but these ones are good.

2la, ive only had the fish for a week or so and i see that the dull colored one gets chased quite a bit by the colored up one so maybe my 10g is to small. Also i dont have them in the perfect water in which they prefer. I have a pH of 7.4 - 7.8 so in that area its not so great. Also i dont have my temperature in the 80's. I dont no hopefully i can get them even more healthy and happy in one of my 45's. But eventually in the future once i get a RO System i plan to keep some tanks for the sole purpose of keeping and breeding some blue rams. Ill add some more links of the better pics. But i dont no how long you will be able to view them my bandwidth is almost up to my limit and i cant find a good image host for free.

So now im using ISO Speed of 200, and i tried with flash and i actually got good results so ill try to get some flash pics of the fish you think looks wild.

http://www.freewebs.com/depthc/ram4_9_12_03.JPG
http://www.freewebs.com/depthc/ram6_9_12_03.JPG

- depthC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ride A Bike

BMX}Ride Or Die


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## BobAlston (Jan 23, 2004)

Clearly better pictures with flash! Keep taking pictures. IN my experience, it takes a lot of pictures to get a single very good one.

Bob

High Pressure CO2 sources, needle valves, information:
http://members.cox.net/tulsaalstons/AquaticPlants.htm#High%20Pressure%20CO2


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## imported_depthc (May 3, 2003)

I got some very good shots and the ram is actually in focus. Please check them out and tell me if i can tweak them anymore for better quality.

Canon PowerShot A300 
ISO 400 
Small(640x480)Resoultion 
SuperFine Compression Setting 
No Flash 
Macro Mode 
Auto Whitebalance 
Manual Focus









http://www.freewebs.com/dc02/102_0216.JPG 
http://www.freewebs.com/dc02/102_0217.JPG 
http://www.freewebs.com/dc02/102_0218.JPG 
http://www.freewebs.com/dc02/102_0221.JPG 
http://www.freewebs.com/dc02/102_0236.JPG

- depthC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ride A Bike

BMX}Ride Or Die


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2003)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by depthC:
> I got some very good shots and the ram is actually in focus. Please check them out and tell me if i can tweak them anymore for better quality.


depthC,

The first one is very good. Practice is paying off.

What do you mean by tweaking ?. Do you want to tweak the way you take pictures or tweak actual picture in PhotoShop ?

I would lower your ISO to 200 or even lower and see if this will make any difference.


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## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

That's a great photo. One thing you can try for fun, specially with fish that have reflective colors such as the ram is to shorten the exposure and play with different sensitivity levels, you can get nice effects such as a darker image with mostly the reflective blue specs showing of the ram. You can also play with the position of the lighting or flash if you have an external one, there's always those few angles that the rams really "light up" with. 

Giancarlo Podio


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