# Trouble getting clear pics



## ringram (Jan 10, 2005)

I have a cheap, Nikon 2 megapixel camera that's basically a point-and-shoot. There are some settings (portrait, landscape, indoor, outdoor, etc) and it has a red-eye reducing glare that always seems to be on, signified by the triple-flash when I take pictures. I'm guessing it would be best to turn this off. but my question is:
Should I turn off ALL lights in the room, including the tank lighting, just relying on the flash, or is there a better way? Forgive me, I'm not too adept with camera usage, but I'd like to find a way to get clear, crisp pictures of my tank -- at least as good as possible. I also seem to remember hearing to take the pictures at a slight angle, to avoid the reflection glare --- basically, so you're not taking the picture right on. Is there any truth to this? Or, better yet, how do most of you take you're beautiful pictures? Thanks -- and if I can figure this out, I promise I'll upload some pics


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## glenhead (Jan 29, 2005)

Ok, y'all are gonna think I'm nuts, but here goes.

I burned 36 exposures of 200ASA film (yeah, I'm a throwback who still uses a film camera), all shot with a 50mm f/1.4 lens, to see what worked best for taking pictures.

Long story short - take the shot at about a 15-30 degree angle from straight-on, and use the flash. The room lights didn't make a whit of difference. With the on-camera flash or a dedicated whoopty-doo mongo tilt-rotate flash with fancy bounce doohicky, the best shots were taken at about that angle range. At about 45 degrees, I started getting some distortion from the glass; less than 15 degrees, the flash intruded. I also tried taking some shots angling either up or down instead of left-right - same results (more or less) but harder to control. I used a tripod for all shots, just for consistency - hand-held shots work ok with a flash unless you're doing extreme closeup work. Also, the closer you can get to the tank wall, the better (if you can still focus) - the flash has less of a chance to intrude.

HTH


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