April 2019 Meeting
On April 27th, a group of 28 people came to Viktor’s house to hear a talk by Alex Wenchel of Tank Tested. He gave the group a tutorial and some tips about how to document your aquascape.
According to Alex, documenting your tank is a good idea because then you can tear it down or redo it and always have those photos to remember your previous tanks.
When photographing a tank for social media or to get new people interested in the hobby, it’s important to give context. Photograph your tank at an angle to show the depth, show the light or other hardware, and include some background if it’s in an interesting place (window, etc.)
In terms of camera and accessories, Alex suggests using a DSLR camera. That way you can play with the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. You want to find a balance between good lighting and fish that are in focus. He said a 1/100 or 1/200 shutter speed and small aperture is a good starting place.
Before you actually start photographing your tank, add fill light or light strip behind the gray background to make it lighter and enhance the foreground for a more “natural daylight” look. Next, block out ambient light by placing black poster board around the tank. For the finishing touch, use a hair dryer to add ripples to the top of the water. Then, just wrangle the fish or other creatures to where you want them in the tank
Capturing living things in your tank is the most challenging. Alex says that you need to commit to 4-6 hours in order to get a good photograph of animals. You can watch them beforehand, and if they have a routine path around the tank, focus the camera where the animals will end up, not where they are.
Most importantly, accept that your photos won’t all be perfect!!!
Here are some photos from the meeting!
