Your Guide to Aquarium Photography #5 - Taking Better Pictures with Mobile Phone Cameras

[csb123]

What device you are using? Depending on that the feedback will differ . Any photo with your coral and fish is good photo, as its your own memory.
But for starter, the camera/phone should be in parallel to the glass of the tank (look at the hammers in left bottom. Keep the subject in focus at 1/3rd.
Rest looks ok. If its a good phone, there is a scope of improving in-phone or post processing settings

I took it with my iPad, no filter. You bring up a good point. I took the picture off parallel with the tank glass to eliminate reflections from out side the tank. What are good techniques to eliminate the reflections? I’ve been frustrated with whole tank shots because of this. This only way I’ve found is to do it at night with the windows covered by blinds and minimal lighting in the room.

Top down shots are equally frustrating due to light reflections.

 

[Ranjib]

I took it with my iPad, no filter. You bring up a good point. I took the picture off parallel with the tank glass to eliminate reflections from out side the tank. What are good techniques to eliminate the reflections? I’ve been frustrated with whole tank shots because of this. This only way I’ve found is to do it at night with the windows covered by blinds and minimal lighting in the room.

Top down shots are equally frustrating due to light reflections.

You nailed it. Turn off all external light, including any sunlight if possible, light should only come from inside the tank to outside .
FTS is a pain for me as well, Biocubes have curved front .
Camera+ is an awesome app for post processing. I use the optical macro lenses as well, for iPhone, at 65$ they are good bang for the buck

 

[xJumboShrimpx]

Ugh, slow at work. Reading this just makes me want to fake being sick, go home and have some fun taking pictures of the reef. Thank you for these helpful tips!

 

[biecacka]

Any helpful tips for the iPhone pro 13?
I want to learn to take better pictures overall with it.

corey

 

[maroun.c]

Any helpful tips for the iPhone pro 13?
I want to learn to take better pictures overall with it.

corey

unfortunately I only have the pro 12 but again I don't really see any difference in most of the techniques above to take better pics regardless of phone brand or model. I do however have the Samsung S20 ultra and just aquired he S22 ultra and believe the pro mode on the Samsung is better than I phone yet that is a personal preference.

 

[biecacka]

the android phones def appear to have the better camera and settings. I will look for settings to tinker with.


corey

 

[ESABOE]

You nailed it. Turn off all external light, including any sunlight if possible, light should only come from inside the tank to outside .
FTS is a pain for me as well, Biocubes have curved front .
Camera+ is an awesome app for post processing. I use the optical macro lenses as well, for iPhone, at 65$ they are good bang for the buck

Hi Ranjib,

I’m just starting my reefing journey (5 months new tank); and I would love to take decent photos of it. I’m very bad at taking pictures and I have an iPhone 13 mini that is 2 yrs old.

I see you had recommended in much earlier posts, the app camera+. - is that still your preferred app or is the something new I should get.

I will need simplicity as this isn’t my wheelhouse.

I’d be thrilled to get non-windex photos, but still show the color spectrum of all the wonderful corals I have purchased. Not to mention the fish!

Also, holding the iPhone and pressing button is difficult as I have neuropathy in both hands. I have considered buying an actual camera, nothing fancy or complicated, and no more then $150. Do you recommend any or are you satisfied with mobile phone for your photography needs?

Thank you in advance !

Jennifer

 

[Freenow54]

I tried to take pictures with my digital camera, and could not get a focused close picture. I tried to use a 40mm probably need to go smaller. My phone however was enough for what I needed which was a bristle worm. As far as a cheap camera you may be disappointed. I don't know enough about them. Ever considered a timer? Probably an app for a camera phone available, again I'm ignorant of that as well

 

[Premium]

Appreciate this article! First try with Samsung S22 no filter WB all the way up. Best photos I've been able to get of the tank this far. Will continue to experiment

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Appreciate this article! First try with Samsung S22 no filter WB all the way up. Best photos I've been able to get of the tank this far. Will continue to experiment

I love the gsp one!

 

[Premium]

I love the gsp one!

Yeah that one turned out nice!

 

[maroun.c]

Great shots well done

 

[Premium]

Getting better with the phone excited for Friday when the camera shows up

 

[reefplumer13]

Why am I just seeing this 6 years later.. thanks for the help

 

[Freenow54]

Appreciate this article! First try with Samsung S22 no filter WB all the way up. Best photos I've been able to get of the tank this far. Will continue to experiment

Amazing this thread showed up. I became a supporting member and was sent a t-shirt and what I can only imagine a draw prize. Live in Canada it cost me $118 taxes and brokerage fees. The prize was 4 ortek filters with a clip intended to use with a phone. Mines anything but high tech. Samsung 51 android. Any guidance welcome

 

[maroun.c]

Thanks for becoming a supporting member and congrats on the filters. my advice is to shoot some pics and start a thread int he photography section where many will be more than happy to pitch in an provide advice

 

[Chemjab]

In our previous article in this Your Guide to Aquarium Photography series, we looked at the differences between using DSLR cameras and mobile phone cameras for aquarium photography. This week, we will continue that discussion by answering the question: How can I take better pictures with my mobile phone?

Different mobile phones have different tools that make it easy to take a good picture. It takes a little bit of trying to find out what works best for your tank, lighting, and the shots you are after.

Focus and Exposure

A short tap on the screen of most mobile phone cameras will set the focus and exposure on the selected object. A long press will lock the exposure and focus so that if you recompose, focus and exposure remain unchanged. On some mobile phones this also sets the white balance if shooting in “automatic white balance” mode. I try to focus on different items, rocks, or sand to try to have the camera adjust white balance and also have a good exposure. If taking a full tank shot, it’s best to try to focus on the middle of the tank left to right and front to back in order to try to have most of the tank in focus.

​

Exposure Compensation

Tells the camera to increase or decrease exposure to achieve desired effect or correct for bad exposure. When setting exposure with too much white in the picture (sand), camera tends to underexpose the rest of the picture, so increasing exposure a step or two will correct for this. Same way if there’s too much black in the picture, the camera will tend to over expose the shot so setting a negative exposure compensation helps. Also, if you want a fish or a coral to appear slightly more or less bright, adjusting the exposure compensation accordingly will get you closer to the desired image exposure, without having to edit the picture. For some mobile phone cameras this setting is hidden in the menu, for others it’s just a slide bar on the screen which I found very practical as one can see the effect while making changes.

Automatic exposure fails to get the desired exposure

Left: Positive exposure compensation overexposing the picture. Right: Negative exposure compensation value gives better overall exposure​

Gridlines can be set to appear or not on the camera screen when taking pictures. They can be of help when trying to take pictures applying the rule of thirds because it shows you how your composition looks and also helps by showing you how straight the horizontal and vertical position of the camera is.

Burst mode

Burst mode is available on many mobile phone cameras. This mode causes the camera to shoot a burst of shots at around 10 pics per second and then allows the choice of the best picture and automatically deletion of the other images that were not selected. This is a good feature to use when taking pictures of moving fish as one can chose the shot that is in focus and has least blur as well as choosing the shot where the pose, angle, or position of the fish is best.

Flash

I find flash of little to no use in aquarium photography with a mobile phone. Except maybe for very dark or night shots, the amount of shadows generated, the reflections on the glass, and the washed colors resulting from use of flash makes it inconvenient. Increasing ISO, exposure compensation and having a steady support are all considerations to try before resorting to flash use.

HDR High Dynamic Range

A very convenient option where the camera takes 3 shots (bright, balanced, and dark) and combines all three in to a single picture that has more details all over the brightness range. DSLRs are also capable of doing the same, but in most cases, combining the pictures is done in post processing (although some newer models process the shots in camera to combine them as well).

Left pic taken with HDR turned off. Notice the overexposed highlights. Right picture taken with HDR on. Notice the better exposure over the complete dynamic range.​

One can also experiment with other options and tools that are available for most mobile phone cameras like time-lapse photography, slow motion, filters and clip on lenses.

Filters and clip on lenses have gained popularity for mobile phone cameras where polarizing filters are used to reduce glare and clip on lenses are added in front of camera lens to get a wider field of view or zoom more. Dedicated lights and filters are also available to use together in front of DSLR or mobile phone cameras to better capture fluorescence in corals. These are all beyond the scope of this article.

Hopefully this article has helped you to learn how to take better pics with your mobile phone camera. Be sure to go practice some of these tips and post your results! As you have questions, feel free to join in the discussion thread, and be sure to check out our next article in this series: Your Guide to Aquarium Photography #6 - Top Down Shots.

Here are a couple of quick and dirty shots just using the white balance trick described above. It made a huge improvement. I'm looking forward to learning how much more my phone camera can do. Thanks again!
phone: Google Pixel 8 pro.
lights: Radion XR15 G6 set at 70% and 15500 Kelvin.