An aquarium is an incredibly special day out, helping visitors to delve under the water for a completely unique experience that sees people entering a new world of underwater exploration.
Capturing this underwater world can help to create lasting memories for you to share with your family and friends, possibly spurring them to make a trip to an aquarium themselves to create their own memories.
With fast-moving fish and glass that can reflect light, capturing the moment isn’t as easy as pointing and shooting, but with just a few easy tips, you can ensure that your photos and videos are worthy of a David Attenborough documentary.
However, it’s incredibly important to remember that above all, you should always turn the flash off on your camera.
So, with that in mind, here are our top tips for taking photos at an aquarium.
How to take photos in an aquarium
Aquarium photography is a skill that takes a few tips to master to get the best out of your camera:
Use a fast shutter speed
In low-light environments, your camera will likely slow down the shutter speed to allow more light to reach the sensor. While this may allow for more light, it will increase motion blur for even moderately fast-moving objects.
To combat this, manually set the shutter speed to be fast, allowing the aquarium lights to illuminate the scene rather than relying on the shutter speed, giving you sharp and clear images.
Press your lens hood against the glass
Even without the flash activated, you will likely see some reflections off the glass. To counteract this, you should get your phone or camera lens as close to the glass as possible.
Hastings Aquarium can get quite busy during peak times, so we’d recommend taking your time and asking people politely to get to the glass so that you can capture some fantastic shots of our marine animals.
Try different angles
Face-on shots from the same angle can look stagnant and boring, which is the opposite of a fun day out at the aquarium!
Try to get lots of photos from a wide range of angles so that you can pick the best ones to show family or post on social media.
TOP TIP: It’s always better to have too many photos than not enough. The more photos you take, the better chance you have of getting the perfect shot.
Be patient and act quickly
When photographing live animals, it might take a while for them to get into a good position, and when they do, it might only be for a split second.
You should be prepared to be patient when waiting for the animals to circle back around or strike a pose, but also be ready to act in a split second to avoid the disappointment of missing the perfect picture!
Include people
Including people in your aquarium photography is a great way to increase depth and breathe life into your photography.
Including excited or captivated people in your photography can really help to convey the emotion of the scene being captured and take your photography to the next level.
A simple silhouette can create this effect without taking away from the fantastic colour and dynamism of the scene you’re trying to commit to film.
What to do about the camera flash when taking photos in an aquarium?
When taking photos in any aquarium, you should make sure that your camera’s flash is not activated. There are a couple of reasons behind the strictly enforced rule.
The first reason is that it can confuse and dazzle the fish, in some cases causing them to become unaware of the glass that separates visitors from them.
Secondly, it can startle guests, distracting them from the gentle sensory experience of an aquarium or potentially hurting their eyes if a flash goes off directly in their eyes.
If you cannot disable the flash, we would strongly advise that you don’t use the camera while in the aquarium.
Learn more about our fish species
If you’re excited to learn more about the fish that we keep at Hastings Aquarium, check out our Exhibits page so you can get a sense of the animals you’d like to capture in a photo or a video and where you can find them.
When you’ve done your research and settled on the animals you’d desperate to capture, then book your tickets and head on down to Hastings Aquarium where you can find a whole host of wonderful plants and marine creatures that will dazzle in person and on camera.