voogoofish 1 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 I'm reasonably good at taking photos when there is some light, but wen its totally dark (often when you get that big red or mully) the fish seems to shine too much and the person behind looks dull and terrible of course if you are releasing the fish you have a limited amount of time to get it right, and even if you are keeping it once it hits the esky the "fresh" look of the fis is lost forever...Any Advice with those sort of shots? I have an EOS, a fn adjustable flash that can tilt etc and different lenses... any advice is good advice. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TT 2 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Written by Starlo these should help!1. http://starlofishing.me/2011/12/08/basic-fishing-photography-part-1-perfecting-the-grip-grin/2. http://starlofishing.me/2011/12/09/fishing-photography-part-2-beyond-the-grip-grin/Not sure if they are what you after but they might be a good Read! TT Quote Link to post Share on other sites
voogoofish 1 Posted December 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Written by Starlo these should help!1. http://starlofishing.me/2011/12/08/basic-fishing-photography-part-1-perfecting-the-grip-grin/2. http://starlofishing.me/2011/12/09/fishing-photography-part-2-beyond-the-grip-grin/Not sure if they are what you after but they might be a good Read! TTtis a good read, but it's still the pitch black that gets me... funny all his photos are low light sunset or just day... its pitch black that is hard or impossible (for me anyways)... we'll keep searching I hope!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Astroman 0 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Are you using some sort of diffuser over the Flash? Sometimes flashes can be a little harsh and if you have something shiny it will really bounce back the light. My recommendation would be to use something like a diffuser or tissue over the flash head and if you can bounce the light off something white. If you want to be really fancy you could get yourself a softbox which will diffuse the light even more, illuminating a wider area but with soft light not harsh flash light. You might want to increase the ISO levels also to speed up the exposure a bit to prevent motion blurring during the exposures. Shoot in Manual mode too, if you shoot auto the camera may have a hard time distinguishing between the light and dark areas...Just some hints that may be of use to you. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brenton 637 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 yeah beats me as well,all i have is a cheap camera and the pics usually end up pretty ordinary so its going to be frustrating when i get that trophy fish cheers brenton Quote Link to post Share on other sites
voogoofish 1 Posted December 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Are you using some sort of diffuser over the Flash? Sometimes flashes can be a little harsh and if you have something shiny it will really bounce back the light. My recommendation would be to use something like a diffuser or tissue over the flash head and if you can bounce the light off something white. If you want to be really fancy you could get yourself a softbox which will diffuse the light even more' date=' illuminating a wider area but with soft light not harsh flash light. You might want to increase the ISO levels also to speed up the exposure a bit to prevent motion blurring during the exposures. Shoot in Manual mode too, if you shoot auto the camera may have a hard time distinguishing between the light and dark areas...Just some hints that may be of use to you.[/quote']yeh I have an attachment flash, and a white thing that wraps around it so I can point the flash up and the flash will reflect off the white. I think I need to get the camera out and experiment with someone holding something big & shiny, and see how the camera reacts... cause the fish comes out bright and the person comes out dark! I can add photos if you want to see and think you can help... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kingsley 19 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Post up a pic, most likely it can be improved dramatically with software like PhotoShop or even lightroom. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
voogoofish 1 Posted December 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 the first one is (obviously) the disaster... as you can see the fish shines and all else is terrible.the one below shows a smaller fish I took, but with the flash and a bit of light it came out well! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brenton 637 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Mine are a lot worse.I even get the focus out of whack. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimbojames 285 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Don,t know if it helps but with my wifes canon ixus camera , what i do is put it into macro an then zoom right back . this tends to help with the glare of the fish . Good luck . Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tonyb 1,017 Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 Flash is a total killer of pics at night in my opinion mate.I get best results with the camera in auto, the flash off, (mine is permanently switched off!)and shine a light source on the subject from a side angle like a bright LED lamp.I have some acceptable pics of dead foxes, rabbits etc just using my spotlight and the method above, although the pic tends to be a bit yellowish? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kingsley 19 Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 Mine are a lot worse.I even get the focus out of whack.Here ya go mate' date=' fixed it right up for ya :silly: Seriously, whats wrong with that picture? looks alright to me. Maybe a little bit bright on the fish is all. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Astroman 0 Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 Having the sun in the Same FOV as you are trying to image will always make the camera have a fit. Best to put the sun in front of you so it will illuminate yourself. You might not even need a flash then... tonyb has some good points. Even if you can get one of those banks of LEDs like a 12v under the hood car lamp then use that for illumination. The pics may have a blue cast to them but Auto WB tends to correct this to a degree... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spoolin 2 Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 you could get a way with a canon 43o EX II, with a good soft box, (lastolite micro apollo 45). the soft box will help kill the harsh flash light. if you wanted to go all out you could get a set of pocket wizards to go with it and run a remote flash system, this would give you the best lighting, but its not cheep, flash soft box pocket wizards you would be up for well over 1Kand get your self a Canon 50mm 1.8 that will increase you shutter speed, and there cheep around $250 or lesstry taking the photo from another angle so the light from the flash is reflected away from the camera and not bounced strait back in to the lens, this is where remote flash guns come into a world of there ownalso try pointing the flash upwards on about a 45 deg angle and pull the wight reflector card out this should soften the flash. the angle will be trial and error as there is nothing above you to bounce the flash off.Don't shoot it in program/auto mode use AV set the aperture as low as possible and bump up the ISO, set the Flash to 2nd curtain synk this will help remove the blurriness of the long exposureDon't shoot it in program/auto modeDon't shoot it in program/auto modeas above Quote Link to post Share on other sites
voogoofish 1 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 you could get a way with a canon 43o EX II' date=' with a good soft box, (lastolite micro apollo 45). the soft box will help kill the harsh flash light. if you wanted to go all out you could get a set of pocket wizards to go with it and run a remote flash system, this would give you the best lighting, but its not cheep, flash soft box pocket wizards you would be up for well over 1Kand get your self a Canon 50mm 1.8 that will increase you shutter speed, and there cheep around $250 or lesstry taking the photo from another angle so the light from the flash is reflected away from the camera and not bounced strait back in to the lens, this is where remote flash guns come into a world of there ownalso try pointing the flash upwards on about a 45 deg angle and pull the wight reflector card out this should soften the flash. the angle will be trial and error as there is nothing above you to bounce the flash off.Don't shoot it in program/auto mode use AV set the aperture as low as possible and bump up the ISO, set the Flash to 2nd curtain synk this will help remove the blurriness of the long exposureDon't shoot it in program/auto modeDon't shoot it in program/auto modeas above[img']http://www.warehouseexpress.com/webcontent/product_images/large/143/12408.jpg[/img]Awesome advice from someone who obviously knows cameras Hmm tried the 45 degree angle with flash but maybe tilting the fish so the shine away might be worth a shot or shooting from a different angle as you suggest. I do own a 430EXll flash, and the soft box seems cheap enough to try (at least one I googled anyways...)I've heard alot about these "nifty 50's" lenses is that what you're talking about? they seem cheap too will they help eliminate the extremes too?? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spoolin 2 Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Yea the nifty 50 is the one i was talking aboutyou only learn by trial and error, its the only way to get experience Quote Link to post Share on other sites
O2Catch1 170 Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 The biggest issue is that the flash is the sole light source when taking a photograph in darkness and obviously the light intensity drops quickly with an increase in distance, I reckon you will have 1/4 of the light intensity if you double the distance so the best way to achieve a half decent photo is to try and make the person holding the fish at the same distance as the fish itself. In the case of your bream photo the fish is held close to the camera and you are either going to end up with over saturation of the pixels on the fish or under saturation of the background (or a combination of both) depending on where the camera picks up focus and sets itself to take the picture.Then of course you can manipulate the photo with an editing program to improve it bit as well. voogoofish 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
voogoofish 1 Posted December 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 Yea the nifty 50 is the one i was talking aboutyou only learn by trial and error' date=' its the only way to get experience[/quote']need to maybe spend a few more $$$'s :pinch: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brenton 637 Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 That makes sense 02 thanks...and Kingley i sent you a pm. cheers brenton Quote Link to post Share on other sites
womblesa 0 Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 Hey guys new to the forums, reading through this post I thought I would also say a flash diffuser is the best way to solve this, as a photographer, I shoot a lot of event and one of the problems is exposing correct. For those that have a camera with a pop up flash you can buy pop up flash diffusers, which are similar to the one posted above. Cheap versions are available on Ebay, but a shop called Photoco camera house in Adelaide Central Arcades are great, have a chat to the boys in there, they may give you the wrong info if you tell them Jason from JEM Group sent you, but it may also help As it has been said shooting in Auto or a program mode is generally a no no, however shooting with a flash that has E-ttl will meter the shot and especially if it is only you and your shooting on a tripod and timer/cable release this will allow you to stay in AF (Auto Focus) as well. Also try not to have the flash pointed direct at the fish, the diffusers you can generally direct them away. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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