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Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - Printable Version

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Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - toni-a - 09-03-2021

I am back to an old hobby: fish keeping.
We have a glass planted tank with shrimps and  tiny fish (what is compatible with a planted tank)
Shooting the shrimps is practically macro photography.
The problem is I have massive CA issues that decrease when the camera sensor is perfectly parallel to the tank wall, even when using Canon 100mm macro  that never had CA issues.
Any photo taken with an angle more than 20-30 degrees is unusable, practically a color soup.
First I thought it was the lens, replaced lens with 70-300 plus close up filter: same problem, tried shooting outside tank, everything back to normal.
Is there anything I can do aside shooting with the lens perfectly perpendicular to the glass ???


RE: Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - Brightcolours - 09-03-2021

We can't see what you see, if you don't post images. That aside, the glass of your fish "tank" will refract light of different wavelengths in different angles, so you always will have that "chromatic aberration". With lenses you correct CA by shrinking or expanding the R, G and B channels to the same size, with this fish enclosure glass it might be more tricky.

Things that can help: very thin or acrylic glass for the tank, instead of thick glass. Shoot at right angles, easiest when using a non-extending lens and pushing the front of the lens against the glass (or the lens hood, of course). Or shooting from a tripod, where it is easier to set the right angle than handheld.


RE: Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - toni-a - 09-03-2021

(09-03-2021, 09:22 AM)Brightcolours Wrote: We can't see what you see, if you don't post images. That aside, the glass of your fish "tank" will refract light of different wavelengths in different angles, so you always will have that "chromatic aberration". With lenses you correct CA by shrinking or expanding the R, G and B channels to the same size, with this fish enclosure glass it might be more tricky.

Things that can help: very thin or acrylic glass for the tank, instead of thick glass. Shoot at right angles, easiest when using a non-extending lens and pushing the front of the lens against the glass (or the lens hood, of course). Or shooting from a tripod, where it is easier to set the right angle than handheld.
I can do nothing about the tank, tripod for fast moving shrimps that's close to impossible


RE: Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - wim - 09-04-2021

I'd suggest you try a polarizing filter, and lighting from above the tank only. Regardless, you'd have to shoot perpendicular to the glass of the tank, there is no way around it.

The transition from air to window glass, basically what a tank panelis made of, and water, generates a lot of unknown quantities when it comes to refraction and reflection. Effectively, it works like a not-so-great lens as you already noticed, and even more so at angles.

Alternative is to do proper underwater photography, but that gets expensive very quickly.


RE: Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - Arthur Macmillan - 09-09-2021

Hi, Toni!

All I can suggest is putting as much light directly over the water as possible while you are doing the photos. Preferably lying directly across the tank , so none of the light falls on the outside of the tanks glass. To prevent motion blur you'll need a pretty fast shutter, so the more light the better! Sounds like a nice project!


RE: Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - Mirko - 09-30-2021

I seriously don't know if this is true, but a friend of mine who is a photographer told me that Anubias aquarium plants help the fish tank looks more lively. Therefore, the light will be captured at a better angle or something like that (sorry, I'm not a photographer, lol. I wish I listened to him carefully). I will ask my friend later, though. He's a professional when it comes to shooting water environments (which is just basically everything under the water). Idk how, but he's just super good at it 


RE: Need help:shooting macro in fish tanks - you2 - 09-30-2021

Anubias are not likely to help here; I do not have CA issue so i have to think it is some how related to your lens or sensor in combination with perhaps some diffraction induced by the water? I can't really guess why you are having issues but i do take a few aquarium pictures (not macros) - here is a simple one with my phone heavily downsized for kb limit; of course taken with a phone it has some limitations:[attachment=149]