Any Idea?

[Giraffe (He/Him)]

How is he lighting these?

I stumbled across this website this morning of Betta fish photography. Incredible.

How do you think he's lighting these? My first thoughts are a clean bowl, the fish, a black background some distance from the bowl, and a strobe VERY close to the subject. I'm thinking an off camera speedlite and gobo'ing the flash. Macro lens too?

[Jobaka]

Very cool pics.


LENSKIRT - Lenskirt

[Giraffe (He/Him)]

The folks at Flickr are saying:

the majority of the light is coming from the top and the spreading through the water. The black background is added in LR or photoshop....and done badly at that since no masks were used. You can see the painting when you look near the fish fins, edges, etc. The background still comes through...

Black background can be achieved through skillful use of inverse square law. Have you ever held a fish? The fins are translucent and not opaque. Color coming through is actual background visible through the fin.

My guess would be:
› large softbox above the tank
› white reflective surface under the fish
› black material on the opposite side of the tank from the camera
› a very well cleaned tank glass in front of the camera

There is no reason for the photos that the fish has to be in a large tank. Otherwise you would have to chase it and try to focus. Instead, buy, make or have made a small tank with a white bottom just for the photographs. It could be fairly shallow and not too wide - just enough room for the fish to swim in and breathe. Then transfer the fish in, take the photos, then put the fish back home.

[Giraffe (He/Him)]

I'm inclined to think some PS work was done based on this

[Nitro-C5]

Originally Posted by Thomas

How is he lighting these?

I stumbled across this website this morning of Betta fish photography. Incredible.

How do you think he's lighting these? My first thoughts are a clean bowl, the fish, a black background some distance from the bowl, and a strobe VERY close to the subject. I'm thinking an off camera speedlite and gobo'ing the flash. Macro lens too?

Those are some Badass Pics, thanks for sharing! Great now I gotta go out and get myself and damn fish tank to practice!

I would say the biggest issue would be the reflection off the glass regardless on how it was lite and I'm not sure (I never tried it like that before) if a CPL would take that much glare out of it. I also agree with your other post about PP...maybe they just exposed perfectly for the fish and then blacked the background in PS later, regardless that Photog has some skill