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Trophy Photos: Don't Try to Make the Fish Look Bigger With Camera Tricks
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July 30, 2012
Trophy Photos: Don't Try to Make the Fish Look Bigger With Camera Tricks
By John Merwin
I was out with a couple of friends the other evening, having fun with panfish in a local lake. Eventually I caught what was probably my smallest largemouth bass ever. This immediately sparked a discussion of all those silly fishing pictures in which the angler tries to enlarge the apparent size of a fish by using a wide-angle lens, arms outstretched toward the camera.
So we took the photo shown here. I’m reaching with the baby bass, arms outstretched toward the camera as far as possible while a friend obligingly focused on the fish. The whole thing is a bad idea taken to extremes. “I guess if the fish is smaller than your hands, then it is,” said one friend, laughing.
From what I recall from my days as a pro-photographer, a wide-angle lens (most common to digital point-and-shoot cameras) enlarges the visual perspective, while emphasizing foreground objects. This is why so many people hold their fish out toward the camera. It is a really bad idea, one that’s become so cliched as to be like a bad joke told over and over.
Maybe you should just accept the fact that there’s no way to make a small fish look bigger than it is. And it’s likewise true that a really big fish will look big no matter what. (It’s not always about the fish, of course. Any shot of a grinning little kid with his/her first sunfish is inevitably wonderful.)
So what I wish would happen is this: In fish pictures, the photographer will use a moderate telephoto setting on the zoom lens. The angler, meanwhile, will hold the fish, arms relaxed, close to his or her body. The visual perspective won’t be distorted, and a large fish will still obviously appear large.
I’ll add that you should take your fish photos however you want. That’s up to you, of course. But if I see yet another shot of arms stretched toward the camera holding a fish, I’m going to smirk and shake my head. It just looks dumb. I do like fish photos, but I don’t like dumb.
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Comments (11)
No one, but no one does it better than Kirk Detter. He can make a catch with the egg sack still hanging off the aft end look like a wall hanger. :)
So THAT is why a 4lb bass looks bigger in other people's photos than a 4lb bass in my photos!!!!!! Stinkin' camera tricks! LOL!
Seriously, I do a lot of my fishing solo, and since I only have the length of my arm to hold the camera and hope to get both my face and my fish in the frame, I don't have a lot of the shots your talking about. Onthe flip-side, when one of my kids or grand kids catches a nice fish... I generally have them hold it at arms-length in front of them to make the fish look bigger - "Guilty as charged"! Best part is that when looking through a photo album, the kids always seem to have bigger fish than I do, and they get a kick out of that. That little bit of chicanery puts a grin on their face, so I'll keep using that little camera trick for kids and keep taking normal pics of myself. A happy kid with a fish is always top of my list of favorite photo subjects.
Well said John. But dumb is an understatement.
As a guy who's 6'3", I always feel like fish photos are one of the areas where my smaller friends have a clear edge. Maybe in the future I'll try to get one of my shorter friends to pose with me, for scale.
Joe,
A small tripod and a camera with a timer will work wonders for self-portraits while hunting and fishing.
I carry a small tripod which extends and a waterproof Olympus camera with a 12 second delay. Fits neatly into a fanny pack or chest pack while wading.
You are correct in your assessment of those wide angle photos, but, just like a little seasoning can make a good steak taste better, a LITTLE bit of wide angle and a LITTLE bit of holding the fish out(just an inch or two) will emphasize the size of the fish without throwing things so out-of-proportion that it's obviously fake. After all, part of fishing is the ability to view the truth from various angles.
Want to shoot a shot holding a fish, and make it look big without holding it out? The cameraman gets LOW to the ground, and shoot UP at the fish and the person holding the fish.
John, just think about the story that liitle bass will tell his buddies about the the fisherman that got away from him. He will tell them, if I could have just gotten a little more of his thumb in my mouth, I'd of had him.
Hey Sayfu, I have to say that you're barking up the wrong tree on this one... anyone who has ever worked with me knows that getting a photo of me with a fish at all is like pulling teeth (ask Romano). To wit, I recently became one of the first people on the planet to catch an arapaima on a fly (and trust me brother, you don't need arm tricks to make them look large)... didn't bother to get a photo with it. Experience locked in my head... good enough. It's all about the thoughts and words. Mr. Merwin and I are on the same page on this one. Exactly.
John, I think if you would've just stretched your arms out a little more that would have been convincing as a wall hanger!
Couldn't agree more with you. If you want a picture with you and your fish, fine. But lets not make a mountain out of a minnow here!
And all this time I thought people who held their fish way out in front of them in photos had merely forgotten their reading glasses and needed the extra distance to admire the fish clearly!
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You are correct in your assessment of those wide angle photos, but, just like a little seasoning can make a good steak taste better, a LITTLE bit of wide angle and a LITTLE bit of holding the fish out(just an inch or two) will emphasize the size of the fish without throwing things so out-of-proportion that it's obviously fake. After all, part of fishing is the ability to view the truth from various angles.
John, just think about the story that liitle bass will tell his buddies about the the fisherman that got away from him. He will tell them, if I could have just gotten a little more of his thumb in my mouth, I'd of had him.
No one, but no one does it better than Kirk Detter. He can make a catch with the egg sack still hanging off the aft end look like a wall hanger. :)
Hey Sayfu, I have to say that you're barking up the wrong tree on this one... anyone who has ever worked with me knows that getting a photo of me with a fish at all is like pulling teeth (ask Romano). To wit, I recently became one of the first people on the planet to catch an arapaima on a fly (and trust me brother, you don't need arm tricks to make them look large)... didn't bother to get a photo with it. Experience locked in my head... good enough. It's all about the thoughts and words. Mr. Merwin and I are on the same page on this one. Exactly.
So THAT is why a 4lb bass looks bigger in other people's photos than a 4lb bass in my photos!!!!!! Stinkin' camera tricks! LOL!
Seriously, I do a lot of my fishing solo, and since I only have the length of my arm to hold the camera and hope to get both my face and my fish in the frame, I don't have a lot of the shots your talking about. Onthe flip-side, when one of my kids or grand kids catches a nice fish... I generally have them hold it at arms-length in front of them to make the fish look bigger - "Guilty as charged"! Best part is that when looking through a photo album, the kids always seem to have bigger fish than I do, and they get a kick out of that. That little bit of chicanery puts a grin on their face, so I'll keep using that little camera trick for kids and keep taking normal pics of myself. A happy kid with a fish is always top of my list of favorite photo subjects.
Well said John. But dumb is an understatement.
As a guy who's 6'3", I always feel like fish photos are one of the areas where my smaller friends have a clear edge. Maybe in the future I'll try to get one of my shorter friends to pose with me, for scale.
Joe,
A small tripod and a camera with a timer will work wonders for self-portraits while hunting and fishing.
I carry a small tripod which extends and a waterproof Olympus camera with a 12 second delay. Fits neatly into a fanny pack or chest pack while wading.
Want to shoot a shot holding a fish, and make it look big without holding it out? The cameraman gets LOW to the ground, and shoot UP at the fish and the person holding the fish.
John, I think if you would've just stretched your arms out a little more that would have been convincing as a wall hanger!
Couldn't agree more with you. If you want a picture with you and your fish, fine. But lets not make a mountain out of a minnow here!
And all this time I thought people who held their fish way out in front of them in photos had merely forgotten their reading glasses and needed the extra distance to admire the fish clearly!
Post a Comment