Tips for Photographing Mandarinfish

Having the best of the best underwater camera setup money can buy is not the key to getting great mandarinfish shots. It’s about using what you have and knowing how to use it.

On a DSLR or Mirrorless (full frame or APSC), the preferred lens is a 50 to 60mm Macro. For a Four Thirds, a 30 to 45mm macro should be all that you need as you can get quite close. Marco lenses with a longer focal length will do the job, but you won’t have as much depth of field even at F/32.

In this scenario, my own camera settings are often set as follows:

• Shutter Speed: 1/125 to 1/200 sec
• Aperture: F/19 to F/22
• ISO: Start at 200. If your strobes struggle a little to match the selected F-stop, bump the ISO to 400.
• Strobe Power: ¾ power is a good target setting as you will need a quick recycle speed.
• Back Focus: if your housing has a back focus button or lever, set your camera to use it. This way, as you are following the fish through the viewfinder, keep your forefinger on the shutter, with your thumb on the back focus button to independently follow the fish to keep them in focus.

If the auto focus of your system does not have the greatest ability to quickly follow focus on even slow-moving