tank photography

Hi All,

I'm working on a photo/video project that partly consists of collecting marine specimens and shooting them in a tank. This is being done at the local aquarium with its collector of species.

Myself and the videographer are planning to build a tank suited for photography. Our main concern is the quality of the glass for shooting and I'm looking for recommendations on glass to buy (something with an anti-reflective coating?) or any pre-made tanks suited for this project. Most subjects are macro size (shrimps, crabs, small fish etc). I'd really appreciate any recommendations.

Any other suggestions for tank based photography would be welcome too. Cheers,

Chris

Normal glass should be fine. Far more important is filtering the water - use filter-wool to get it really clean - and change it after each subject. It makes the work very time consuming, but makes a big difference to the results.

Alex

I made a simple fishtank out of window glass and silicone sealer, lined on the base, back and three of the four sides with white self adhesive plastic. For fieldwork shooting insects it worked a treat.

Reflections were not a problem, make sure the lens (I shot macro) is close or touching the glass. Two flash guns mounted on tripods added the light.

This was in the field. I cannot stress too highly Alex's advice of filtering the water. My kids were pond dipping and the nets were coming up full of sludge from the bottom of the lake........clean water is critical for good results that don't need hours of despotting.

I build my tank with compartments so I could separate different species......didn't realise that Water Scorpions are highly agressive and one managed to find a way into the compartment with a damselfly larva........I felt very guilty when said Scorpion devoured the damselfly larva....

Cool picture, though!

It was a kind of "wow look at that.......oh bugger, that little fella....." moment when it all kicked off.

I just remembered something; if you are really stuck with no filter.........I took off my tee shirt, folded it over a few times and tipped the lake water through it.

Tee shirt stank, but got most of the crap out of the water. I guess that's why the tee shirt was a bit pongy afterwards....

I kept a marine fish tank for 2 years about 10 years ago, register with ultimatereef.com they will be a great help to your woes, its not just filter wool you need, there are ceramics and substrates to filter your water too, the wool keeps the carbon content down iIRC, water temp and salinity is also of great importance and many other things...marine fish are the worse to keep, I've done fresh and ciclids and theyre nothing compared to saltwater...cost me a fortune...sounds familiar!

I would check out the photography forum at reef2reef.com, its frequented by Gary Parr and a few others who are excellent reef-aquarium photographers. Gary's work is available on his website: http://www.gparr.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=13

One other consideration is to build the tank so that you can photograph it top-down. The colors of the corals show up MUCH more vividly when you shoot from a top-down perspective (i.e., from the same angle that the aquarium lighting hits the corals).

If you want something a bit lighter than glass but just as clear and usable there is always plastic .. or polycast acrylic.

I just bought 48 inch thick 2sq ft pieces from http://www.sdplastics.com/ you can get thinner and you may even be able to get them to assemble something for you. But it is definitely the cheaper lighter alternative to glass, it is what they make bullet proof windows out of and if yo do scratch it with something that is harder than it you can buff it fairly easily.

I used to keep and breed a lot of fish and did not find any difficulty in photographing them through glass, just make sure it is clean and scratch free and, as others have said, that the water is really clean. Get the lens really close to the glass to minimize "you" appearing in the shots and/or use a CPL. I used to use strobes positioned above the tank and polystyrene stuck on the ends or back of the tank to reflect light as required.

Hope this helps

Tristan

Another issue if you are looking for "Fish ID" shots where you need a perfect profile of the fish is setting up a squeeze box. Several types but you want to limit the subjects ability to move around. Plus many fish change color when stressed so you have to account for that when thinking about how much time it will take.

Unpacked my kit today as I needed something. Gave me a chance to check that I used JBL Symec Micro - as a filter- which is excellent at removing small particles.

Alex

Starfire glass is the clearest I think, or acrylic panes put together should work (acrylic scratches though so you need to be careful cleaning it etc..)

I think of put an aquarium and grow fish, but am not sure they'll grow by me as I cannot handle fish in my hands. So I take pics of fish and made it as aquarium and enjoying with it..

__________

Thanks for the great advice everyone, we're meeting in the next few days to plan the process and I have some good info for setting this up. It does sound like clear water is the real key and we'll be using water from our ultra clear saltwater caves. I'm hoping the staff at the aquarium will sort out the filtering for us but we'll look into our options, like Alex's recommendation.

And great photo Simon, you should let them escape more often.

More suggestions are always welcome. Cheers,

Chris

And great photo Simon, you should let them escape more often.

Glad you liked the image. For ethical reasons I can't do it.... Would I do this to a turtle/shark combo? No. Ethical values have to be consistent regardless of the subject and it might only be an insect...... but.......

Hope this makes sense. Not everyone loves insects, but I thought the damsel fly lava was quite a character when studied up close.

Glad you liked the image. For ethical reasons I can't do it.... Would I do this to a turtle/shark combo? No. Ethical values have to be consistent regardless of the subject and it might only be an insect...... but.......

 

Hope this makes sense. Not everyone loves insects, but I thought the damsel fly lava was quite a character when studied up close.

oh absolutely, i was just kidding. can't have blood on our hands just for a picture!