I have been trying hard at all the shows I've been to this year to improve my standard of photography. It should be simple – the Koi is captive in a nice round vat so why is it so hard to get a good photograph? Why am I often disappointed with the results? How do other people get so much better results than me?

Let's start at the beginning: do you need expensive camera’s to get good results? NO, but ideally you do need one that allows some control over the main camera’s settings (shutter
speed, aperture and iso rating), ideally one that has a manual mode allowing you to take full control. Don’t be frightened of taking the camera out of AUTO – it really is not that complicated. Even cheap point and shoot camera’s are capable of taking fantastic quality photographs at a reasonable resolution.  The only other recommended piece of equipment is a circular polarising (CP) filter – this will remove the glare / reflection off the water's surface.

If conditions are such that you have no reflection, then this can be dispensed with, but 99% of the time this is a requirement. Some compacts do allow these to be placed in front of the lens but several don’t.

By modern standards my Canon 20D is ancient, but it is a good basic digital slr, only 6M pixels but this is sufficient for A4 prints. Couple this with a reasonable flash gun and it allows me to take good pictures when it goes right. Most Koi pictures will be taken at focal lengths in the range of 30–70mm. I usually have a 17–70mm lens on my body for Koi photography. No need to fill 100% of the frame with the fish, better to leave some space around that you can crop off later. Try not to lose bits off the head or tail! Shutter speeds in the range of 1/125s to 1/250s are fine.  Anything less that 1/60s is likely to result in blurred pictures.

You want the entire body of the fish to be in focus so ideally f5.6 or above.  If you are operating at f4 or below then it is likely you will not have a sufficient depth of field to get the entire fish length in focus. If the speed/aperture combination would give an underexposed image then it is worthwhile increasing the ISO rating rather than compromising on either shutter speed or aperture.  Many cameras will give acceptable quality images up to ISO 800 – some much higher but it does depend on the model. 

If the camera has various metering modes then using a spot meter on the centre of a fish is best for me.

Try to take the picture when the fish is evenly lit – not half in bright sunlight and half in shadows. Try to take the picture when the fish is on its own. Wait for the fish to be head on to you and the pecs out and even. Try not to take pictures with the Koi stuck to the side of the vat so only one side can be seen.

Single Koi photographs are better taken in portrait mode rather than landscape. Group shots are better in landscape.  Remember though if you change from one to the other to reset the polarising filter.

At shows, if you smile nicely at the members of the water team they may remove the airstones to let you take your pictures. Remember to accept rejection that may come politely – they are under no obligation and could be busy doing their real job! If they decline, look to see where in the vat the water is calmest and position yourself to wait for the fish to present itself there.  Patience is the keyword, the fish will come round to that position, if not, go onto the next vat and comeback later.     

After you have taken your pictures then don’t forget the post processing (PP).  If you are lucky and have the hardware, then shooting in RAW format is much better than JPEG and you then have more control to adjust the image. Either way some simple editing software will allow you to manipulate the image. Cropping is the most common component of PP. With the high pixel counts of modern cameras cropping allows you to cut out and keep the part of the photograph you want. Many other adjustments can be done but are well beyond this little blog. 

So the keywords are PATIENCE, CONCENTRATE and don’t forget the most important one - ENJOY.

Donald Gibbs, Hobbyist and forum moderator