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How To Take Good Betta Pictures

61K views 204 replies 86 participants last post by  Mr. B 
#1 ·
*****Found this while surfing the web, Hope it helps*****

How To Take Good Betta Photos

Introduction:
Maybe you want a picture of your betta for a show. Maybe you need it for an auction. Or maybe you just want to show your beloved betta off to your friends. Either way, it’s almost an art form to master good pictures of bettas. This guide will give you some helpful tips for getting the best results out of your picture taking session.

**NOTE** Some bettas are very reactive to flashes or cameras and may be freaked out by the camera. If this happens to you, don’t pressure your fish for pictures. It will do more harm than good. In a case like this, give them time to settle and try again. IF the fish is still reacting badly, you may need to reconsider taking photos. It is always better to think of the animal’s welfare over your desire for a picture.

Also, some fish are much less willing to flare in general. Sometimes a female, another male, and a mirror are tried with no result. Again, I suggest to wait and try again later. Sometimes your fish is just being stubborn. Otherwise, you may just need to take a picture without a flare.

Suggested Materials:

* A properly lighted area
* Your intended Fish
* Another fish or a mirror to encourage flaring
* Picture taking tank (I suggest nothing larger than a 2 gallon. My personal tank is a 2 gallon glass tank with a glass divider)
* Camera
* Extra lights, if desired





Steps to taking a professional looking picture:
First, select your intended model and decide if you will use a mirror or a “teaser” fish. Some fish won’t perform for a mirror and another fish is the only way to get them to flare and perform.

Fill your photo tank with clean, room temperature water. Once the tank is filled, wipe the front of the tank off to remove water spots. If you need to use a glass cleaner, spray a paper towel with the cleaner away from the glass and other fish to prevent poisoning your fish. Wipe the front of your tank with the cleaner and let dry.

Move your fish into the photo tank. If you are using another fish to stimulate him, then either place the other fish in the divided section or move their tank nearby. If you are using a mirror, set up your mirror in the best angle to give you a sideways view of your fish.

Now get your camera ready. Take a few test shots with your lighting to see how they come out. This will also give you time to assess how your fish reacts to this new environment. Some fish need time to adjust to the new setting, and others are flarin’ and rarin’ to go right away. When testing your lighting, try moving your other lights back and forth until you achieve the proper lighting. Your goal is to be able to take pictures WITHOUT using the flash on the camera. The reason for this is because the flash will bring out metallic iridescence in the fish and will often make the fish look a different color. Also, the flash will slow down the shutter speed on the camera, often resulting in a missed photo opportunity. With good enough lighting, however, the flash can be used to just fill in some shadows without overexposing the fish’s natural metallic shine.

Once you have a few test pictures that are well lit, you can bring in the “stimulus” to encourage your fish to flare and begin taking pictures. The best show pictures show the fish from a perpendicular angle, viewing the side of the fish to show off their shape best.

Taking pictures of a fish in their existing tank:
Having a special set up is not always possible for a betta owner, so they often just want to snap a quick picture of their fish in its home.

Depending on the kind of tank your fish is in, you will have to be careful on distortion from the tank. Minibows are bad at this. If your fish IS in a minibow, it is best to take photos from the flat area of the tank if you can. This eliminates distortion as much as possible.

Proper lighting is hardest when you take a photo if the fish in its usual home. Even with a light on the tanklid, often times people resort to a flash. As mentioned before, the flash often will bring out too much of the metallic shine in a fish and will not be an accurate representation of your fish’s color. Therefore, bringing in other lights, like desk lamps, to set up near the tank will help you tone down the strength of the flash to get the best shots. And, as with the photo tank, cleaning the water spots off is a MUST for clear pictures.

Basically, once your lighting is set, the process is the same as with the photo taking tank. Stimulate and snap away!


“Do I need an expensive camera?”
The one question I hear most often when asking about betta pictures is “Do I need an expensive camera?” The short answer is no. Just because some of us nerds are packing digital rebels does not mean that you, average Joe, have to go run out and get a $700+ camera just to share betta photos. Here is a list of features and a few suggestions for how to pick a good camera.

Features to look for in a good betta photo taking camera:

- Macro: This feature allows the user to take pictures of items much closer up than a normal camera range. It is generally closer to about 3 feet in front of the camera. The macro feature is generally denoted by a flower shaped icon or selection on your camera.

- Fast shutter speed: In cheaper, every-day cameras, you cannot control the shutter speed. However, some cameras react faster than others. Ones with a fast reaction time are best, since bettas move FAST!

- More than 4 megapixels: This is just added as a formality. Nearly all the new cameras being sold today are over 4 megapixels, but in the case of an older camera, 4 megapixels and up is what I personally recommend. Now, this is not a requirement. There are perfectly good pictures out with cameras of 3 megapixels or less, but for resizing and cropping later, the larger the picture and the higher the megapixels, the more you have to work with.

- Optical zoom: In addition to the macro feature, this will help you get closer, clearer shots of your fish. Don’t bother with digital zoom – that really is a resolution killer in pictures you take with the camera. Plus, too zoomed in and you miss a chance at a photo when the fish turns out of your frame.

Now, if you’re looking for a new camera to take photos with, the best thing I can suggest to you is go to the store and play with the cameras. You can get a good feel for their shutter speed, macro abilities and just how comfortable you are with them. It all comes down to what you feel best with. Also, you’re not going to buy a camera just for taking pictures of your fish (or maybe you will….) so try to get a good all around camera that you can use in other endeavors. And remember, you shouldn’t have to pay more than $200 for a good camera.

3 Most Common Mistakes
Here is a list of the 3 most common mistakes I see in betta photography. Mostly surfing message boards and forums, I see these mistakes and just sigh. They’re usually very easy to remedy, if the person realizes what they’ve done and can fix it. Keep a lookout for these slip ups while you shoot and you should be able to avoid a problem.

1. The fuzzy shot – Most often, the fuzzy shot is caused by not focusing in the right area. Some people just aim the camera and snap, without taking the time to notice what is in focus. One suggestion to remedy this problem is take a step back and take your picture from farther back, then crop the picture and zoom in on the computer. With a higher resolution camera, this should still yield a great, clear picture. Also, take a moment to notice where your fish is in the frame. You don’t want to be focusing past it, or you’ll get the plants, gravel, other tank, shelf, decoration, etc behind it in focus, while your otherwise beautiful fish will just be a colorful blurry blob in the foreground. You should be able to focus most cameras by holding the shutter button down halfway while pointing the camera at what you want to be in focus. Then once you have the fish in focus, press the button the rest of the way down.

2. The water marks – As I mentioned in the picture taking section, water marks are a big distraction. Take the time to wipe your tank front clean and you’ll not only get a nicer shot, you’ll get a clearer one too. The water marks can distract the camera, causing it to focus much closer to you and farther away from the fish. This goes for photo taking tanks and your fish’s normal habitat.

3. The dreaded flash – When people just want to take a picture of their pet fish, they usually grab a camera and take a shot. Often times, when you’re not accounting for the lighting, the flash will go off to try and provide more light. But, the problem is 1. this will bring out too much of the iridescence in your fish and 2. the flash’s glare on the tank side will often obscure your fish and ruin an otherwise perfect shot. As mentioned before, bringing in more lighting around you to light the tank and fish will cut down, if not eliminate, the damage done by the flash.


Conclusion:
Once you’ve taken your photos and uploaded them to your computer, you can crop, resize and play with the lighting to improve the result. Even the best lighting will not always result in that “perfect” shot, so often, some photo editing on the computer is needed. I won’t go into that in this sheet, though, because that is an entirely other subject.

Don’t be afraid to try something new and experiment. You never know what kind of trick you’ll discover!
 
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#173 ·
it's okay AquaThom. ^u^
 
#175 ·
Ugh taking photos of bettas is the most frustrating thing ever! My camera is a nikon d3200, its quite frustrating since it often makes pictures seem "flat" and not sharp but not blurry either...and it lies all the time by telling me that its focused on the object and ready to take the photo but then it just ignores me when I tell it to snap the photo. Ive been so close to smashing this camera so many times...since it always choses to ignore me at the most crucial times:evil:

Ive been playing around with different photo ideas and figured if you put another fish behind the one you want to take a photo of they will pose side on in full flare for you

Recently discovered that if you put the jar (preferably glass coz plastic is usually covered in scratches) inside a polystyrene box and shine a light into it you get a cool white background and it lights the whole fish up
this was taken with polystyrene box method and a flash



this one was taken with just an aquarium background behind the jar
 
#176 · (Edited)
Ugh taking photos of bettas is the most frustrating thing ever! My camera is a nikon d3200, its quite frustrating since it often makes pictures seem "flat" and not sharp but not blurry either...and it lies all the time by telling me that its focused on the object and ready to take the photo but then it just ignores me when I tell it to snap the photo. Ive been so close to smashing this camera so many times...since it always choses to ignore me at the most crucial times:evil:

Ive been playing around with different photo ideas and figured if you put another fish behind the one you want to take a photo of they will pose side on in full flare for you

Recently discovered that if you put the jar (preferably glass coz plastic is usually covered in scratches) inside a polystyrene box and shine a light into it you get a cool white background and it lights the whole fish up
this was taken with polystyrene box method and a flash

I also have the Nikon D3200 (red body) that I received last x-mas. May I ask, did you take those shots with the kit lens? Can you give me a bit more detail about how you got those shots and more detail about the polystyrene box method? I only have the kit lens at the moment (macro lens is going on my x-mas wish list), but I do have an external camera flash.

I've had trouble with the camera not wanting to take a shot when there is too much white in the background, and I recall I did look that up at one point but I can't recall what the info was about it lol. It may be in my "Nikon D3200 for Dummies" book (great book).

Edit: If you use Chrome, there's a borowser extension called Exif Viewer... I can visually see the exif info in your photos. "55mm F8 1/100 ISO 400 | 2015:09:03 00:40:02 | Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows" (second image). I remembered to hover my mouse over your lovely images to see the info after I hit the post button.
 
#177 ·
Yeah I have the kit lens, nothing fancy.
I put it on A mode, and played with the settings having no idea what they are or do.
My A mode settings are these...lol no idea what half of them do but i just take a few pics playing with each of the settingsto see what comes out the best. it tends to give a blueish hue though some how

qual fine
iso 1600
normal area af
active d lighting -on
pic control-vivid
matrix measuring

the poly box method is literally just this. I use the light from my little tank to shine into. This one has no editing to it except for a crop, but you can see how whit it gets even without editing.


Id def recommend putting photoshop onto your wishlist though. Gives you so much more control over the levels, and get rid of distracting things as watermarks, glass edges etc

Heres one that I did literally just ten in seconds
prety much is just
crop
levels
clone and patch tool to get rid of the bad things
warm filter
done

If I wanted to spend more time on It Id get rid of the scratches but that takes too much effort and Im a lazy person
before


after

 
#183 ·
You got some nice shots there.
I have some suggestions on your setup that you could maybe try.
I actually had the exact same idea as you with using a polystyrene container as a tent/studio.
I used to shoot with Nikons so I still know them pretty well. If you have access to a Nikon speedlight, you can set it up wirelessly in commander mode. If you keep the flash on camera, it will probably look like crap, but off camera and you bounce it in the box then the whole box becomes your light source.
On your camera settings, switch it to manual. Choose your aperture. I'd go F8, shutter, I'd go slow like 1/60 maybe even slower, it doesn't matter, play around just don't do high speed. ISO, keep it s/low like 100 max at 400. Put your camera on a tripod and pre focus so you don't have to worry about it. I'd probably even just go manual focus too so when you do start shooting, the camera won't go hunting. When your fish is around the right spot just start shooting. If you want a nice super white background, remember to adjust your EV (exposure value) maybe 2 stops, you'll have to play around. All cameras will see the white, and will try to expose it for 17% grey. So you'll need to adjust that.
For your flash, just keep it in TTL, it'll take care of itself.
When flash photography is done right, it's amazing. People complain about flash being crappy when they don't understand it or are using the on camera flash as main source. It's only usefulness is as a fill flash, not a main.
Why your shutter doesn't matter is because your off camera flash becomes your shutter. So you'll actually be shooting at maybe 1/10,000 of a second, your camera and exif data will say otherwise. But in flash photography, only the flash will produce enough light for your camera to see. Just make sure you're working in a dimly lit room. Just bright enough for you see what you're doing.
But back to where I say don't use a fast shutter speed. The reason why is because, the faster the shutter speed, the darker your background becomes. So if you "drag" the shutter, the brighter your background is. Don't worry about it being motion blurry, you already freezed the action.
Any more questions or if you guys need more explanation. More than happy to answer.
If you're shooting with a smart phone. I've used sports mode and night mode, and they both seem to work pretty well.
Just remember DSLRs don't take great pictures by themselves, the reason why great pictures comes from DSLRs is because it allows the photographer full control of their camera.
 
#178 ·
You are a saint... thank you so much for the write-up! I've copy/pasted it and made it a pdf file so I can perhaps print it for later use (I'll probably stick it in my camera bag lol).

I do have Adobe Photoshop, and been using it for many years (it was one of my go-to's for pixel art, graphic design, web design, and Wordpress theming when I ran my web hosting company). I have Lightroom around here somewhere (I'm still learning the software), I just never reinstalled it after installing Windows 10. I think I prefer Lightroom to just Photoshop for photo editing. Since I like the Dummies series of books I oughta break down and buy Lightroom for Dummies lol.
 
#179 ·
Any tips on getting a fish to slow down and stop wiggling all over the place while he's flaring? Morpho refuses to hold still long enough for my Droid Turbo to get a good zoomed in shot of him flaring. He also somehow manages to get his tail folded over sometime between when I tell the phone to shoot and when the photo gets taken.
 
#182 ·
Simply stunning.

I used to be in a photography class, we were able to get access the school's Nikon D3300s, great camera too. I was finally able to get some really neat shots. I'll have to keep your method in mind for future photography, Trilo! Thank you! Unfortunatley, I don't have any DSLR camera now... So I'm just stuck with a smart phone. But to be honest, they're not the worst. I've got some surprisingly interesting shots from one. But an actual camera is what I prefer. Much better overall for photography. :)
 
#184 ·
^^^ I legit don't know the difference between sports mode, night mode or any other mode in my phone. I still get blurry pics. Maybe that's just because I'm on an iPhone. One day I'll change to something better.

The one and only advice I can give to people though: turn off your shutter sound! That CLICK noise scares the life out of Seren and causes her to swim erratically. Even harder to take pics that way.
 
#190 ·
Black background:

I cover half the top with a black towel and drape it down the back and sides. To the fish, I hope this looks like the bank of a pond, like the shade from marginal vegetation.

Turns out, this gives me the best black background I've achieved so far.

Side/back light gives a dramatic effect. But then I don't do portraits, just "natural" shots.
 
#191 ·
Blu that photo is so cute! I love it!

Thanks for the advice Hallyx and VeeDubs!!
I tried the black way and it works, especially with the light on the side :-D but my fish arent very photogenic on black it seems haha.




Heres the white background. I need to get a jar that isnt covered in scratches
It works really well on my goldfish! and captures the true colours of the bettas much more closely too. I think I need to play with where Im aiming the light to get it real white




 
#193 ·
:oops: Aww thanks so much Hallyx :love: that means a lot to me. I feel like sometimes my photos make them seem nicer than they are though lol

Taking photos has somehow turned into my new found hobby so I want to learn as much as possible to make my pictures as good as I can make em :-D
 
#198 ·
I love all of the photos so far!

and I'm not sure on the photos that are already posted.
 
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