# Today in the Fishroom ~ 07/29/08 Zonatum~Lighting explained



## Aquamojo (Jan 4, 2003)

Here's the lighting setup I used to take these photos. There are three flashes. One on a tripod to the right (slave#1)with a large diffuser. That flash was set on full power. As you can see in the angle it was positioned higher and pointed slightly down. This to help bury some/any of the resulting shadows. The flash above (slave#2) was set to half power. This was positioned down and pointed somewhat back toward the back of the tank. This to help fill in some of the "other" side of the fish and also help bury the shadows. The main flash on the camera was set to 1/16th power...just enough to trigger the slaves...and diffused slightly with a piece of tissue paper over the head of the flash.










These are the resulting photos. What I wanted was a more evenly lit photo. It really depends on where the fish was in the tank....and how the body was situated. in a normal portrait photo session I would have asked the subject to turn left or right and keep their chin up...yadda-yadda. With the fish, of course all I had was his nature and my experience with moving him around the tank. Fortunately he is very susceptible to my hand on the glass.

Here he is coming directly into the main slave. In this photo that slave is lightly to the back of the fish...illuminating his dorsal fin. He is slightly in front of the second flash. The back of the body is in shadow, but the rest is illuminated nicely.










IN this photo the fish is closer to the second light and slightly in front of the first. You can see that the BG is illuminated as is some of the foliage right behind and below his head.










Here he is RIGHT in the sweet spot of the tank. You can see that the fish is more or less evenly lit...the lighting on the left side noticeable around his eye. Unfortunately he didn't cooperate with the pose.



















In this photo the fish is almost right on top of the first flash. The lighting is dramatic...and kind of nice. I like these partially lit shots. Too often however the fish is turned so that too much of the shadow block the detail. I lucked out here with a very nicely illuminated dorsal fin.










Even though the fish is nicely illuminated you can see that the lighting setup doesn't do much when the fish is flat on to the flashes. One thing I noted was that by using this set up...all of the light I got some great color and the depth of field was excellent. Most of the photos were shat at an aperture of f22 - f29. You can see that in almost ALL of the photos there is no loss of detail.

One last shot...slightly out of range of the second flash, but still nicely illuminated by the main slave. I did try tweaking the lighting by moving the second slave up and down in power. For the most part it worked best on half power. One other thing of note is that I painted the back of this tank with a frosted glass spray paint. with this setup I am able to position a large reflector behind and pointed back toward the front of the tank. It does a good job at reflecting light back...when I want the back of the tank lit.


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## mezzy (Jun 1, 2006)

Excellent shots


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## Reiner (Jul 17, 2002)

Great explanation of your picture takinfg technique. I like the last picture the best since his blue colors are really vibrant in it. Looks like he is putting on some girth more now and not so much in lenght anymore. How big is he now?


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## Skinnydipper (Jul 19, 2008)

Many thanks for detailing your art for some of the rest of the fish world to ponder :thumb:


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## Aquamojo (Jan 4, 2003)

Reiner said:


> Great explanation of your picture takinfg technique. I like the last picture the best since his blue colors are really vibrant in it. Looks like he is putting on some girth more now and not so much in lenght anymore. How big is he now?


Thanks all. He's 14 inches long and yes...girth is the right word. Very thick.


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## Mandalawi (Apr 24, 2005)

Outstanding shots!! Thanks for the educational explanation. :thumb:


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## TExotic08 (Aug 1, 2008)

Very nice pictures


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