Camera Techniques When Fishing?

[Poodroo]

Over the years as a fisherman I have not only learned that there is a lot to know about fishing itself but there is also a lot to know about photographing those special moments and that there is a lot of difference between taking an ordinary snap shot and a remarkable photo. With the technology continually advancing we have at our disposal an amazing variety of digital cameras that represent good value and while some are better quality than others they all have the potential to take amazing photos.

I don't consider myself to be an expert in photography by any stretch of the imagination but my basic knowledge to capture a reasonable shot of my fishing exploits is okay by most standards so I thought I would share with you what it is that I do to capture my photos.

First of all the camera I use is an Olympus MJu750 which is a sleak little compact camera best suited to taking in the boat because it is splash proof so it is not going to get ruined if it gets wet. It features a 5 x optical zoom, 7.1 megapixels, manual settings, wide lcd screen, stability control and much much more.

The main thing which is useful to me is the ability to imagine the photo before I take it. Recently I did a fishing trip to Mud Island following Scalem in his boat and upon arrival at Mud we were greeted by quite a pleasant sunrise. I envisaged the sillouette of Scalem's boat against the sunrise so got the camera ready and accelerated to get alongside him to take the shot. This was the result which I find is pretty amazing for a budget camera.



The camera has a manual setting for sunrise and sunsets which I use a lot for this type of shot but being able to imagine the shot before taking it is very helpful. Most cameras are capable of capturing such a photo.
Most often I see photos taken of prize fish and in my way of thinking if the fish is worthy of a photo then it is worthwhile putting some simple techniques in to taking the photo to have that moment captured.
Things to consider include :-
1/ Making sure no shadows impair the shot ie: Have the sun in a position that doesn't cast a shadow on the fish or subject.
2/ Make sure you line the horizon up so that it is straight howver if you take a good shot with a crooked horizon all is not lost because you can rotate the photo when you get home using Paintshop Pro or Photoshop to name a couple.
3/ Most cameras have an automatic setting so you can just aim a shoot however I always half press the shutter to allow the camera to focus itself first on the subject to avoid getting out of focus shots.
4/ Always make sure that whoever is holding their catch for a photo is holding the fish in a good side on profile. Many shots are taken with the fish angled backwards so that you see more of it's underside rather than the whole fish.

Anyway there are a lot more things to consider but thought I would leave it open to any of you who feel like sharing what it is that you do when taking nice shots. There are great photographers amongst us like Kingtin who might like to share some knowledge so that we can all see more amazing results of peoples' fishing trips caught on camera. Here's just a few more of my favourite photos that I have captured in the past.

Scalem holding up a nice Snapper caught at Mud Island recently.



Scalem holding up a nice Jew caught in the Pin a couple of months ago.



Another magical sunrise at Mud Island.



A bit of a nature shot taken on one of our 4wd M&G's earlier this year.



Still probably my favourite photo of a sunrise taken at Wello last year.



Not a photo taken by me but rather one my uncle snapped of me holding a yellow tail kingfish I caught off Cape Moreton. He is largely responsible for giving me a lot of tips on taking photos when fishing. Note how straight he gets the horizon in the background.



Well that's about it from me. Just thought it would be a good topic seeing as most of us take photos of our moments on the water or even when fishing on land. Feel free to share your knowledge with us. I am keen to hear and see what you lot are doing with your camera techniques. If possible also let us know what camera gear you are using. Thanks.

Regards,

Poodroo

P.S. If you have a favourite fishing photo feel free to post it up and share it. I would love to see it as would many other members I'm sure.

[Poodroo]

Decided to post up an example of a poor quality photo that I would have ordinarily discarded however used it as an example of what can be achieved with an ordinary shot and Paintshop Pro (My prefered editing program). Note the original photo is dark and the horizon background is crooked. The result in the end after editing is much better.

Original



Copy of the same photo after using Paintshop Pro.




Poodroo

[webby]

I personnelly go out to fish, the camera is just to point at things and click the button.
None of this poseing stuff involved, just point click and throw the next bait out, if what i pointed at comes out so be it.
regards

[HIGH and DRY]

some good info there andrew!!

I have the next model up to your camera, but essentially the same, and its fantastic!
Those sunset and sunrise pics make for some great screensavers on nice big computer screen!!.
I seem to have a lot more scenery pics rather than fish pics though,
maybe i should take webby's advise and spend more time fishing!!!

pete

[146C]

Photography has played a big part in my life.

One of the first things from the many I learnt is the rule of thirds which I believe can often make an image more interesting .

This is where you imagine a grid in your viewfinder or LCD screen when composing the photo bit like a tic tac toe grid. Some cameras already have this feature built n.

Place you main subject on one of the intersecting lines(focal points) and use the horizontal lines for the horizon in sunsets etc.

Also using the cameras Shutter Priority and Aperture Priorty setting will allow you to be more creative.

For example in Aperture Priority you could say select an Fstop of F4 for example so you have less depth of fied(less in focus) this would have the effect of the subject in focus but the background out of focus being less distracting. Of course this also depends on other factors such as focal length of lens and distance of background from subject.

However what works for one photo may not work for the next.

Poo is right re images from most budget digital cameras or most average images can quickly be transformed using Photoshop, Adobe Elements or Paintshop Pro into a fantastic looking Sharp contrasty photos. You can even at boarders to your pics.

One other thing I do is after an outing with the family I will put a selecton of images together of the outing into digital slideshow program with transitions, text and music burn it to DVD which can be kept for many years and makes interesting viewing.

I currently use a Canon 20D DSLR.

Cheers,

Dave

Ps Attached are a few of my photos.

[the gecko]

That software makes it look like the boats have been cut and pasted in. Both scalems fish look like theyve been pasted in, yet I know they havent....
did you use the software on the fish shots?

Good topic tho , Id like to improve my shots.

Andrew

[Poodroo]

some good info there andrew!!

I have the next model up to your camera, but essentially the same, and its fantastic!
Those sunset and sunrise pics make for some great screensavers on nice big computer screen!!.
I seem to have a lot more scenery pics rather than fish pics though,
maybe i should take webby's advise and spend more time fishing!!!

pete

Thanks Pete. Those Olympus cameras are really good value I reckon. Always worth taking on a fishing trip.

Photography has played a big part in my life.

One of the first things from the many I learnt is the rule of thirds which I believe can often make an image more interesting .

This is where you imagine a grid in your viewfinder or LCD screen when composing the photo bit like a tic tac toe grid. Some cameras already have this feature built n.

Place you main subject on one of the intersecting lines(focal points) and use the horizontal lines for the horizon in sunsets etc.

Also using the cameras Shutter Priority and Aperture Priorty setting will allow you to be more creative.

For example in Aperture Priority you could say select an Fstop of F4 for example so you have less depth of fied(less in focus) this would have the effect of the subject in focus but the background out of focus being less distracting. Of course this also depends on other factors such as focal length of lens and distance of background from subject.

However what works for one photo may not work for the next.

Poo is right re images from most budget digital cameras or most average images can quickly be transformed into a fantastic looking Sharp contrasty photos. You can even at boarders to your pics.

One other thing I do is after an outing with the family I will put a selecton of images together of the outing into digital slideshow program with transitions, text and music burn it to DVD which can be kept for many years and makes interesting viewing.

I currently use a Canon 20D DSLR.

Cheers,

Dave

Ps Attached are a few of my photos.

Dave thanks for sharing those amazing photos. I too am a big fan of the SLR digital cameras however they are above my budget at the moment and even if I owned one I'd be afraid of getting it wet out there which is where the little MJu750 comes in. Perfect for the job. Doing those slide shows with music accompanyment is good fun too.

That software makes it look like the boats have been cut and pasted in. Both scalems fish look like theyve been pasted in, yet I know they havent....
did you use the software on the fish shots?

Good topic tho , Id like to improve my shots.

Andrew

Andrew the problem that you are pointing out is not so much the photo editing program but rather one of the only camera limitations. It is only a 5 x optical zoom and when you zoom in too far the camera tends to make the picture become a little pixelated and grainy. When you use the photo editing program to enhance it then you also start to enhance the grainy pixels along with it. A better quality camera with 20 x optical zoom will get rid of that problem. I guess the real trick also is to know your camera's limitations. If it doesn't have such a strong zoom then move closer to the subject.

Cheers,

Poodroo

[kingtin]

That software makes it look like the boats have been cut and pasted in. Both scalems fish look like theyve been pasted in, yet I know they havent....
did you use the software on the fish shots?

Good topic tho , Id like to improve my shots.

Andrew

I think that could be down to how they've been sharpened, although I may be wrong.

When you use some sites to host your pics, and then link them into another site, for some reason I have noticed that some seem to increase the edge sharpness (where one coloured pixel butts up to another of a different colour). This often makes the edges more pronounced, hence the "cut & paste" feeling to the image. If you really have to sharpen your image, do it only once, and then, as your final touch before saving.

kev

[PinHead]

I use a Canon EOS300D..point, click and download..never bother trying to alter the pic. I take pics for the moment...for my memories...not so much for anything else .
Took 98 pics on Saturday morning and most of them are brilliant..not because of the quality of the pics but for the subject matter.

[146C]

Andrew the problem that you are pointing out is not so much the photo editing program but rather one of the only camera limitations. It is only a 5 x optical zoom and when you zoom in too far the camera tends to make the picture become a little pixelated and grainy. When you use the photo editing program to enhance it then you also start to enhance the grainy pixels along with it. A better quality camera with 20 x optical zoom will get rid of that problem. I guess the real trick also is to know your camera's limitations. If it doesn't have such a strong zoom then move closer to the subject.

Cheers,

Poodroo

Also the higher the ISO the grainier the image becomes.
Particularly noticeable when cropping and enlarging an image.
Always try to use the lowest ISO you can.

Cheers,

Dave

[Volvo]

Nice Pics and good subject with the keen photographers comming out of the woodwork lol..So much advice can be passed along and so much learnt if your keen enough and a willing listener..
Talking of Lens, SlR's and from an amature level ..Some of the best advice i think is worthwile is to play and learn the limits of not only your camera but your lens and each Lens's sweet spot..
Watching the Bee Movie with the Grandchildren the other day and after taking what Pics i could of the Grandkids i started playing around with my 50mm f1.4 primes without flash at variouse appatures see how they performed at each setting.. Took a Pic of the plasma with the Movie playing trying not to get too much reflection in the shot and here's the result of the shot..Had to do a quick resize via irfanviewe so cant see a full viewe of the Pic but for me it was impressive..
Far as sharpening is concerned there are variouse ways depending on the pic and a little less is better than too much for reasons previousely pointed out..
Cheers

[Cammy]

I got the Olympus MJU 850sw, i got it too improve shots when im fishing,
Aquariums and in General. Great little camera with 24 different Camera Modes and has the Panorama Mode where you join photos together, you also got Face Detection and Auto Zoom thingy. Also if you get the 2G memory you can house over 1,000 pics and video memory is in the 30min mark.

I actually havent been fishing since i got the camera several weeks ago so i still gotta try it out for fishing shots. But i have been taking tank shots and they come out pretty good, you can see all the detail and colours. I'll attach some shots i have done and i recon they are pretty good with detail.

Thnx to all the members who recommended the Olympus series of Cameras to me

The pic in my sig is a Jungle Prch i took with the Camera on Underwater Macro Mode, shows detail and the beauty of these magnificent fish. The pic has no editing at all, i did try to edit it but it actually wrecked the pic rather than make it look better.

To look at some of the videos this Camera takeshave a look in my utube account at the recent vids.http://www.youtube.com/user/TheFishGuy011

Cammy

[Nic]

Those photos look great Poodroo, thank you for sharing. Dave your photos are beautiful, too.

I still have my photography training wheels on, but one thing I do appreciate is that you don't have to fuss around for ages to get a good pic or two. It can take surprisingly little time and effort, so I figure -- why not? Whether it's a photo of the waterway, a fish coming to the boat, a pic of you with your rod bent double... they all remind you of the happiness and pleasure you felt on that trip.

I don't know which of my photos is my favourite but I am fond of this one of a nannygai (this is a cropped version). It's the first of my underwater photos that actually 'worked', most of the others came out with just a nose, a fin or a tail.

Our camera is a 12.1 megapixel Canon PowerShot G9 with a waterproof housing. It's OK but I don't know that I would recommend it wholeheartedly, it's not an SLR and after shooting underwater you have to wipe the front of the housing before taking any more photos. That, or take the housing off.

It is handy for wading though, you just wear it around your neck and take snaps as you go, and it doesn't matter if you slip and fall in. I tend to do that quite a lot!

[kingtin]

That's a good tip from Volvo and one which often is overlooked. Each lens has a "sweet spot" mine are all around f8 or f11 so I mainly shoot in aperture priority with the camera/lens set at f11. Ther are other considerations of course, such as how much dpth of field you requiore so there will be occasions such as landscape shots, where you may have to set the aperture at something less than optimal.

You can google your camera's name (if it's a compact) with the word "review" and if you're lucky, some techy site may have reviewed your camera and the review will mention the lens sweet spot. Failing that, you can take a shot of a test card or similar, from the same position and in the same light with your camera set to all the different apertures available..............you should then be able to see which pic is the best, if you have a reasonable monitor.

I'm, by no means an expert but if there's a question that I may be able to answer, feel free to throw it out.

I'll post these pics, mqainly as an indicator that all is not lost if the weather is crap. Even pics on a dull day can be enhanced and if it's one of those days when your brain reads grey featureless skies, then all is not what it seems. ther are actually clouds there and features that your brain has no need for and hence, doesn't recognise but those features can be brought out fairly simply in many cases with the use of software.

It is not "cheating" as some purists may think. Photos have always been manipulated by dodging and burning in the darkroom..............think of photoshop and other software as your darkroom and you can rescue some shots that are dull and lifeless.

Josh (KIngcobe) posted some pics of an ausfishers travels so here's a few of mine. The weather was crap but nearly all my pics were "rescued" in one way or another.

Here it was dull and rainy (hence the haze/spray from the waterfall)...........a trout fisherman



Coarse Fisherman.............his reflection adds to the image



Coarse Fisherman..............grey skies and rain but managed to pull some detail into the clouds



Coarse Fisherman getting his prioroties right



look around you............you never know what's over that hedge



All the pics below are of sea lochs in scotland that I used to fish when I lived in the UK.......we used to catch atlantic cod to 35lb till the trawlers moved in. The first one illustrates that even with rain and fog, you can still make something of a shot.

[Nic]

Those are beautiful Kingtin, it's like a travel catalogue!