{trying to think if I have any} Well it's not that easy - looks like those tips are for a home aquarium. 1) No flash - it will just bounce off the glass 2) High ISO and/or a fast lens. You'll need at least ISO 800 and preferably 1600. Having a lens with a maximum aperture of 1.4/1.8 would be great. 3) You'll probably have to manually focus - it depends on the lighting inside the aquarium. The Living Seas is very dark. <img src="http://www.themeparkphotos.us/cpg140/albums/uploads/052507/To%20be%20added/F/IMG_6045.jpg" /> Don't expect to get pics of the family standing next to an indoor aquarium. Most aquariums are kept darker in the walkways around the chambers so that it is easier to see the sea creatures.
even with those tips i'd say 50% keepers is a good day, i maybe kept a third from the aquarium at the oceanographic institute de monaco, i find that and fireworks the 2 hardest technically for me, probably because it's the 2 subjects i shoot the least often, i always have to pause and re-think through what settings make sense
Flash is fine if you have a speedlight- just try to bounce it off something in the tank and don't be at a 90 degree angle from the glass.
now i'm ashamed to post any of my work from monaco's aquarium tanks, but i also didn't have a speedlight with me, i felt like a pack mule by the end of the port days anyway, since i hauled around 3 lenses everyday, all day maybe in the fall i'll try to get to coney island, see what i can do with these suggestions gary
Good shots Jeff. I'm probably thinking of the tanks at Sea World where it's VERY dark next to the tank so if you want a pic of the family even if you try to bounce it off something inside it probably will still be shown. Plus it could also be I usually don't remove my Sto-Fen.
remember, too, that you need a FAST shutter to stop the motion of the fish, unless you want a bunch of blurry fishy pics...
Look for good glass. I think the key may be flat glass. I had a whole series of shots from The Seas (formerly Living Seas..) that I thought would be great. But the tanks were ALL cylindrical, and I think the curved glass caused significant chromatic abberation (bending of differently colored light to different degrees, causing a sort of slight prism type effect). The only even vaguely sharp shot I got was of the cuttlefish, they had lots of sharp detail. Sufficient light wasn't the problem. I just couldn't get a sharp image to save my life. The thing was it didn't look bad in person, but for whatever reason the pictures all came out blurry in the end. Either the camera was recording more detail or else something about the optics of a camera lens is more sensitive to this than the human eye. About flashes.. well, I'd only suggest caution. I've heard that some institutions, aquariums and such, have completely banned photography, or at least all flash photography, because of people who used flashes in situations where they specified no flashes. I'd have no idea how harsh a flash would appear to an aquarium fish.. but I can only suggest make sure there's no "no flash photography" signs out before breaking out the strobe. I used flashes quite a bit at my zoo through glass (in places they clearly did not specify no flash photography). None of the situations involved water, they were all air breathing animals behind glass, but the principle should be the same. As has already been mentioned, just don't aim straight at the glass (perpendicular to it) because the flash will bounce back at you. And Jeff.. nice results overall, but I'm blown away by the seahorse picture. The clownfish picture is good, but the seahorse strikes me as something I'd see in National Geographic.
I want to thank everyone for their help. I am going to the Georgia aquarium and I hope to share some good photos with you guys. Thanks.
