What makes for a good picture?

by **Zambize4899** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:27 am

I've noticed that most of the pictures for rating purposes are rated fairly low. Just curious, what is your personal opinion about what makes for a good picture? Generally, when I look at the picture I look for picture quality first, clarity, content, background, color, focus, artistry, etc. Then I look for how well the fish features show, for example, can I see the rays, is the color clear and sharp, are the edges defined, etc. And maybe extra points for rare fish, unusual "pose", cute position, a good shot of 2 or more fish, etc. Points taken away for equipment showing up in the picture, an unusual picture that has little or no artistic value, like a fins or head only shot with no redeeming quality.

Zambize

by **miami754** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:16 pm

I agree with a great deal of what you are saying, but I personally rate a little differently. I don't judge the tank so much on the photo quality (unless of course, it is so bad you can hardly tell it is a tank). I use this site as a place to rank tanks - not photos. So I look at the tank itself and rank accordingly. Again, nothing wrong with your method. Mine is just different.

by **cyndrine** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:16 pm

depends on the actual picture for me. poor picture quality will get a lower rating from me yes. but the tank set up and how well cared for it looks also influences my rating decision.

by **zambize** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:19 pm

Good point, how well the tank is cared for should have been on my list. I agree with miami754's idea of not rating "photography" here, too. That idea works well I think, but I can't get away from also rating the photo itself. To me (only to me) is demonstrates a degree of caring, diligence, and pride in one's fish/tank when time is taken to post the best photo possible. I think it also shows the viewer that I value their time when I provide something nice to look at. But I can see why some would not focus (no pun intended:) on the photo quality itself.

--Zambize

by **zambize** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:22 pm

I looked at your 58 gallon cichlid tank, very nice. I'm curious, why no plants? And did you photograph from an angle to avoid glare? It's beautiful though...I would have rated it but I can't see how to do that from your home page, and I can't figure out how to locate it in the vast abyss known as "rate pictures". I only have 28, 6.6, and 5 gallon tanks right now. Can't wait to get a big one.

--Zambize

by **snowboss** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:45 pm

Zambize

I read in another post here about photographing your tanks - - the guy said put your finger over the flash about 1/4 inch in front of it that is and that lets the flash do its thing without that glare in the glass on the tank - -worked well for me - -now I just need to get some better quality shots - - the size restriction really limits the quality on my camera - -if i set it for like 2.0 mega pixels I can load right from the camera - - but its not a real nice crisp pic - - if i bump it up to 8.2 megapixels then the pic is so large that resizeing it has been a problem - - im working on it though - - sooner or later ill find a way around it - - and forget even trying in the 10 megapixel range - - i end up with one grain of sand by the time i crop it down to the 500K range size for posting...lol

by **miami754** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:07 pm

Yeah, I understand what you mean about the quality of a photo showing the care a person takes in their tank. I can definitely understand that viewpoint.

Thanks for the compliment on my tank. You are, however, not allowed to talk to my wife because she wants plants too :) . I just decided I wanted the rock look with this tank. I love watching them hide in the rock work and swim all around it. I wanted the rock work and the fish to be the centerpiece and I felt like plants would distract from that. I have had tanks in the past with live plants and really enjoyed that look as well, but I was going for something a little different here. Hopefully people like it. I took the picture from an angle for artistic purposes. I didn't use a flash so I wasn't worried about the glare. I have some head-on shots, but I felt like the angled shot looked better.

In terms of ranking the tanks, it appears there is no way to search for a tank in particular as that would cause the rankings to be vulnerable to skewing. I found some tanks on the "Top 10" list that I wanted to vote for and I just clicked on the "Rate Pictures" tab at the top and then pressed refresh until I found the tank. It usually didn't take too long.

I really like the picture you have of your betta - really, really beautiful. I showed my daughter and she loved it.

by **zambize** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:51 am

Thank you for the compliment on my Betta picture. I'm ridiculously attached to that fish, Finley, and I photograph him often. So far, that's among the best shots.

I think a few plants may enhance your rock collection. I like rocks and/or driftwood so I understand the desire to make that the focal point. I have three tanks set up with 1) a rock/driftwood combo 2) and two driftwood tanks. Each tank has tall vegetation in the back "framing" my rock or driftwood focal point. I think it works and enhances the beauty of my rock/driftwood. Since the vegetation is designed to enhance the view, it doesn't seem to distract from the focal point. Maybe consider it. But your rocks are beautiful. Just yesterday I was thinking that I'd like stacked rock or slate in my next tank.

--Zambize

What makes for a good picture?

8 posts