Lens for fishing shots

[vern]

Hi everyone,

Just curious if you have a favorite lens for shooting fishing pics in a boat? I'm mostly thinking about portrait shots where the angler is holding up the fish. I have a Nikon D-200 & have been using a Tamron 17-50mm which has worked great so far. Are there better options & what are the advantages? I'm new to digital photographer but I'm learning a lot from this forum.

Thanks, Vern

[Steve Foss]

Hey Vern, I think you've already got a great lens for fishing pictures.

There is a common photographic technique that makes fish look much bigger, and it required a wider angle lens. You zoom out as wide as you can go with an ultrawide zoom, the angler holds the fish far from his/her body, and the photographer gets really close to the fish to take the picture. Because of the distortion in such lenses, the fish is rendered bigger than life.

For your camera, the most affordable option I know of is the Sigma 10-20mm, which retails for about $475. On your camera, because of its sensor size, your 17-50 acts approximately like a 26-75mm lens. The 10-22, which is specifically designed for your sensor size, will act like a 16-35, and at 16/17mm, you have true ultrawide capability.

It's a chunk of change to lay out for a fish taking lens, but once you start using an ultrawide at the wide end, a host of new photographic options open up.

[Dbl]

I think you are right on track with your lens choice. You want something wide enough to capture the subject but not so wide you end up with distortion...well let me rephrase that. If you want the fish to look a bit bigger a wider lens could do that A fish eye (no pun intended) lens will give you some real distortion that will give you some cool looks, but I would not consider it for ALL of my fish shots.

I think the creative use of flash can help the average fish shot out. But that is a whole another topic to cover!

[Jim Almquist]

Hey Vern, I think you've already got a great lens for fishing pictures.

There is a common photographic technique that makes fish look much bigger, and it required a wider angle lens. You zoom out as wide as you can go with an ultrawide zoom, the angler holds the fish far from his/her body, and the photographer gets really close to the fish to take the picture. Because of the distortion in such lenses, the fish is rendered bigger than life.

This is a shot that Steve took to give you a example of what he is talking about.

[polarsusd81]

This one was shot by Deitz with my Canon 1DII (1.3x) crop and a 17-35 at 17mm (22mm converted).

The fish was just over 20" long and was 5lb 6oz on the Berkley digital, but the photo makes it look much bigger. But this one isn't your typical long arm fish photo either. Angles from which you shoot a photo can make or break it. This shot Deitz was kneeling on the front deck to get a lower angle, and the fish more or less centered over my body and just slightly out in front, looks like it covers me up.

Then again, if you are looking for something different, longer lenses can do some pretty cool stuff too. This one was shot with the 1DII and a 70-200 at 200mm (260 converted).

For a boat, wider is likely going to win every time, but on the ice it can be a whole different story. Your 17-50 can probably do some pretty good work for you, but a bit wider like Steve recommended would sit quite nicely in the boat. Next time out, practice a few different angles in your boat and run your current lens on the wide side to see what you can do.

[vern]

Thanks for the great information as usual guys! Great pic samples too. I'll keep practicing with this lens for now but I'm sure I'll add more options down the road.

- Vern

[Steve Foss]

Always more fun to be had, Vern.

The shot Jim put up I took with the Canon 30D and Canon 10-22mm. Because the 30D has a 1.6 crop sensor, the lens is the equivalent of 16mm when zoomed out as far as it'll go.

So 16-17mm equivalent is all you need to make an 11 pound laker's head look five times bigger than a 250 lb guy's head. Is that a fish picture lens or what!

But that's just one fish pic technique, and one that quite a few people frown upon, since it doesn't offer a realistic look at the size of the fish compared with the person in the pic. In any 16-foot or longer boat, your current camera/lens setup will be fine.