Photographing aquarium fish with strobes/flash?

[Corbidorbidoodle]

Hey, y'all.

Is it okay to photograph your fish with flash/strobes? Is it gonna freak 'em out?

I've been a professional photographer for about 20 years, but I've only been back in the fish keeping hobby for about 5 months. Cell phone pics of the pets don't turn out optimally for me, so I'm gonna start shooting fer realz.

Can I light my tank with strobes? I've got everything from "on camera" speedlights to sun killers (powerful studio strobes). Can I blast these at the fish while I'm shooting? Think it's okay to use the big'uns? Just a few shots or a few hundred?

[Dancing Matt]

I haven't noticed any issue with fish and the flash feature but I don't use it excessively.

The big problem is you will get a lot of glare using flash. The advice I have heard, and used, Is putting in bright aquarium lights (or turning them way up) then playing with the exposure and shutter speeds.

[Jungle Fan]

I would keep it to a few shots now and then instead of doing a multi hour mega session that might leave your fish shell shocked. I like to place a U-shaped frame around my Kessils to prevent them from creating glare and just go with their light without extra illumination for professional shots with my Canon 5DsR. For a quick forum shot with the cell I omit the U-frame and also just go with the aquarium lighting provided by my Kessils. If you use any flash you'll mostly have to use multiple units with a designated master, and the others as slaves, or you'll have to position them at just the right angle to prevent glare. Generally this also requires stands for the light units, in my opinion overkill for something you can accomplish without all the extra equipment with just one tripod, camera, frame for the aquarium light, and cable release.

I took these shots this way:

[Corbidorbidoodle]

Oh, glare isn't a problem. I've had to shoot through windows or with windows in the background lots of times. The trick is just getting the lights at the right angle to the reflection. I'll probably just set the strobes right on the lid (polycarbonate)

[Jungle Fan]

Then like I said, I'd keep it to a few shots and avoid the long sessions. Post some of your shots when you're done. Used to do this for a living and I'm always interested to see others work. By the way Takashi Amano also was a professional photographer before he got into aquascaping. 

[Corbidorbidoodle]

Oh, right. I remember hearing that.

I'm a lousy nature photographer. I do mostly studio table-top work and a little bit of editorial. I was messing around a little this morning and even just getting these guys in focus is challenging. I'm going to bring my higher res camera from work and try that one. I'll be able to shoot wider, so I can get the fish and eek out a little more DOF, so maybe I'll even get a whole fish in focus from head to tail. Then I can just crop it.

So you used to specifically shoot fish for a living? Or nature? Or just photography in general?

[Choogie]

If you’ve photographed thru glass before you probably know this trick but if not, it should help you. I took a large ( new and unused,lol) toilet plunger and removed the rubber part, cut a hole in the  small end the lens would fit into, and taped it on the end to form a large funnel, like a sun shield. This large end could now be placed against the glass and stop any light reflection from entering the lens. Of course you’d need a lens that will focus close but you probably have one if your a serious photographer. Any thing might be used in place of the plunger to seal the space between the glass and the lens but rubber or something soft won’t scratch the glass or acrylic. You could use any light source, flash or constant then. Hope this helps you or someone else.