PlanetCatfish.com

At long last i have sorted out FTP and webspace!!

Somehow the photo's don't do it justice. anyone have any photography tips for dark tanks?

The Tank


Left hand side


Right hand side


Feeding


Mrs Krib with fry


Current Stock:
3 X Keyhole Cichlid (Cleithacara maronii)
2 X Kribensis + Fry (Pelvachromis pulcher)
3 X African Butterflyfish (Pantadon bulchlozi)
3 X Banjo Catfish (Bunocephalus coracoideus)
2 X Spotted Climbing Perch (Ctenopoma acutirostre)
2 X LDA33
2 X Panaque L002
2 X Apistogramma cacatuoides
2 X Apistogramma nijsseni
2 X Apistogramma macmasteri
1 X Leporacanthicus joselimai
1 X Gold Nugget
1 X Hypancistrus L262
1 X Twig Catfish (Farlowella vittata)

Java Fern
Java Moss
Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiodes)

Tank is 70 US gallons. 60 imperial gallons.
pH 7.15
°GH 3.36
°KH 2.24
nitrate <5 mg/l

20% water change weekly with RO water.

2 X eheim 2213
1 X eheim 2215

1 powerhead and airstone.

hi racoll

nice tank indeed. also nice pic's on mum and babies

Nice tank of SA and African Cats and Cichlids!!!

thanks.

this is my first attempt to photograph fish and it's quite tricky in my tank as it's very dark blackwater. with the flash they look lifeless and dull, but i can't get enough light without it for a lot of shots.

i have a pentax optio S4 compact.

any tips?

The biggest problem with photographing fish-tanks is the fact that there's usually not a huge amount of light.

So here's a few thoughts from your photos:
1. The top photo, the camera is being fooled by the bright light from the hood. You need to compensate a little bit to brighten up the rest of the tank. If you got something like Photoshop, you could probably tweak it there, but better would be to get the exposure for the tank itself right. If the camera has some form of exposure control, try upping the exposure a step or two.

If the camera hasn't got exposure control, try aiming the camera lower so that the light from the hood isn't in the picture, and the top of the water is right at the top of the photo. That will help getting the camera to expose correctly.

Also, if your camera has adjustable ISO settings, try setting it to higher or lower values. Depending on the camera, it may well give you better pictures at lower ISO values due to less "noise", and picking up more of the details in the low-light areas. But try higher values too, just to see what that does.

If you're using lower ISO settings, you want to use a tripod (or put the camera on something steady) so that you don't get camera shake.

The other ones are pretty good.

If you have the capability of using an external flash for the camera, you could do that and bounce the flash in the ceiling or a wall (lighting up most of the room in the process), and get a more "life-like" exposure.

--
Mats

You also want to make the room as dark as possible, also consider a temporary light source to show the tank better, ie a light behind it if it has no backing for instance . . .

Thanks a lot for the tips.

i've already "photoshopped" the pictures a little to brighten them up a bit and remove some of the tannin staining

i think a lot more playing with the camera is needed.

i.e. learning how to use it properly !!!

racoll wrote:Thanks a lot for the tips.

i've already "photoshopped" the pictures a little to brighten them up a bit and remove some of the tannin staining

i think a lot more playing with the camera is needed.

i.e. learning how to use it properly !!!

Playing with the camera is the only way to learn...

--
Mats

Lovely tank
Fill in water so the contrast between water and tank-air will not been seen

Thanks Durlanger.

Actually i quite like it with the lower water level. the java moss is growing really well above the water and the java fern is also pushing out.

In the feeding pic I spotted a head, right behind the krib; wich isn't on the list!
Opsodoras??

Ooooohhhh, Racoll!

indeed, those are old pics, and i changed the list today to when the topic was revived.

that little chap i bought as Hassar cf. wilderi but i think he's a bit more like Hassar notospilus. i've sent jools some pics for the cat-elog. i'm not sure if he knows exactly what it is.

i moved him to another tank as he's a very active swimmer and needs more space.

what do you think he is?