The Best Way ?

When fishing on my own ,using an ordinary digi camera what is the best way of getting good pictures,I took my last pictures from above and was a little disapionted with the results.

Assuming you mean exposure problems, the trouble is that you tend to shoot a shiny reflective fish against a dark (grass, earth, etc) background. The overall darkness of the composition tends to cause the camera to overexpose, which makes the fish -which needs less exposure because it's lighter generally - turn washed-out, especially the belly (chub, roach, barbel shots all tend to suffer from this) There are several solns:

1 use a camera with a spot or centre weighted exposure meter option and meter off the fish's midline area

2 shoot against a lighter background

3 underexpose by a stop or two if your camera allows it

4 "Darken highlights" in your photo editor once you've got home

Because tench are quite dark, they photograph well.

If you aesthetics/composition, I just try to add some interest like rod/reel, an open float box, or similar.

Hope this helps

Try and get the fish to fill the shot and not so much of the background. Be careful of where the sun or the light is coming from and try to avoid getting your own shaddow, ie don't let it go across the fish.

Thanks for your replys, it was depth,I mean the fish looked thin .

'use a camera with a spot or centre weighted exposure meter option and meter off the fish's midline area'

For a reflective (as opposed to ambient) light reading you should point the camera at a mid-tone grey card for optimum results however green grass has a similar tonal quality and will therefore give you similar results.

Most new cameras light meters are more than capable provided you don't give them extremely difficult conditions to cope with. Make sure the sun is behind the camera (not behind you and the fish), or if that makes you squint then a 45 degree anglestill from behind the camera should see you right.

As for the fish looking thin, try holding it at a slightangle toward the camera or take two shots, one side on and one almost face on to the camera.

<blockquote class=quoteheader>Phillips Jerry wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>Thanks for your replys, it was depth,I mean the fish looked thin .</blockquote>


Maybe it was thin

/forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

Sounds like a problem of composition. Though in this case it was probably due to where and how you where standing and positioning the camera to take the shot.