Sometimes, aquariums have good subjects for you to take pictures. A good example is the weedy sea dragon which lives in Southern Australia and then only in a couple of known locations.
But how do you get good aquarium shots, and especially how do you get aquarium macro shots? Well, there is a process and a couple of considerations on gear.
Call First. Most aquariums have policies on photography. Call them for information before you go there. There are 3 questions you want to ask…
- Do you allow photography? Most allow photography but no flash (it reflects off the glass anyway….)
- Do you allow tripods or monopods? Because you’re doing low-light photos, tripods help you out a lot.
- Do you allow lens skirts? Lens skirts block out the light coming from behind you so that you can shoot photos through glass without any light reflection. They are absolutely critical for shooting in an aquarium. They also work for cityscapes from your hotel room if you’re into that sort of thing.
Timing. Go early in the day during a week. Avoid peak visiting times because you’ll have to wrestle people to get a good spot on the glass, especially if you’re using a tripod.
Gear. My rundown on what I take….
- Camera. Anything works, but that’s the story for most photography. What I really look for in aquarium shots is good low-light performance. The biggest problem that you will have is lighting. Most tanks are dark inside, so you have to open up the aperture, bump up the ISO, and use slower shutter speeds. Burst mode works very well if you want to take pictures of moving fish.
- Lenses. What I would recommend is a wide and a telephoto, both with zooms. Because you’re standing on the dry side of the glass, you can’t get “macro close” to the subject, so a lens that can focus at a longer distance is preferable. A telephoto might work well for macro subjects. The Olympus 60mm macro for Micro Four Thirds can also focus out to infinity which comes in handy. And lastly, since you’re working with low light, you want as fast (ie, big apertures and low F-Stop) of a lens as you can get and yes I understand that zoom lenses aren’t usually fast.
- Lens Skirt. I mentioned this before. It’s a very valuable tool.
- Tripod. This is good for both video and for still photography. It helps when you do slow shutter photos. It helps when you set up your lens skirt in a weird location where you don’t want to manually hold the camera for long periods of time.
- Glass Cleaner. Either magic clothes like you use for lenses or a photography wet wipe. These are very important to clean the glass because otherwise you’ll see fuzzy spots in your photos where people leave fingerprints on the glass.
How to Do It. Now we’re ready to go take some snaps.
- Find a good subject. Look for macro subjects closer to the glass. The more water between you and the subject, the more magnification you need and the more you need to do color-balancing. Some aquariums have smaller tanks with smaller fish, they are perfect for macro shots.
- Stick on the Lens Skirt. They have 4 suction cups to hold on to the glass. Try to put the lens skirt perpendicular to the subject so the camera lens shoots straight through the glass.
- Clean the Glass. Very important. Clean the glass where your lens will go. This is usually a “window” inside the lens skirt.
- Set up the Tripod. Mount the camera and lens on the tripod so that the camera is inside the lens skirt and the lens shoots directly through the glass.
- Take some Photos. Feel awesome about your skills. You’ll have to mess with settings a bit to get the right exposure, and you’ll probably have to change exposure for each tank.
- Sharing is Caring. If the aquarium has a lot of people, let them use your lens skirt from time to time so that they have good photos too. And most importantly: they won’t complain about your lens skirt, tripod, and desire to hog all the good subjects.