Many betta hobbyists would use a digital compact camera to take pictures of their fishes. But a digital compact camera would not be up to the job. Without flash the camera would require good ambient light in order to obtain a good picture, which means very much restricted to an outdoor environment. With the flash switched on, it would be able to take pictures indoor, with poor ambient light, but would have bad pictures as the flash which bounced off the glass could get into the lens and cause a large white patch or flash reflections in the resulting image. So, is there a better way?

Yes! the best solution is to use a DSLR instead of a digital compact camera and shoot your pictures with flash off camera. For me this means placing the flash over the subject and with the illumination coming from the top. With me is a cheap entry level DSLR, the Nikon D3100, a flash the SB700 also from Nikon and one set of China made but surprisely reliable and of course cheap flash triggers! called Pixel Soldier. The flash trigger's transmitter is mounted on the DSLR and the flash trigger's receiver on the flash which is itself mounted on a tripod. Now it is ready to take some pictures!

With the SB700 set to Manual mode and selecting a power level, mount it onto the D3100 DSLR (also in Manual mode), it could then read the DSLR's shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting and provide an effective flash distance. After acquiring the flash to subject distance, I would then remove the flash from the DSLR. This is a good way to start as it provides a rough estimate of the distance to place my flash from the subject.
The video shows my DSLR setting to be 1/200th sec(flash sync) for shutter speed, aperture at f11 and ISO 100, flash output at 1/8 of full power and at a distance of about 1.0m away from subject.

Digital cameras has preview screen, you take a picture and see the results in the preview screen, if it is too dark, increase the flash output, if it is too bright turn it down. It is simply a process of taking a picture, examining the results, then adjusting the falsh output and repeat until good results are obtained.

In the days of the film cameras it takes money and time to develope and print, but in today's digital world, time have changed!
You can take as many pictures as you want, even using trial and error is actually workable! No cash is burned :) Just do it.

email: redhillbetta@yahoo.com.sg