Bruce Condello's Photo Technique Revealed!

[Bruce Condello]

This news flash just in!

Bruce Condello holds his fish out in front of him for photos! Now I know this may come as a shock to many of you, but my secret is finally out. :-)

If you would like to know some of the secrets to this technique, read on!

Rule #1. Catch a big fish. No matter how hard you try, you're not going to make a 9 inch bluegill look like a 12 inch bluegill, nor will you be able to make a 15 inch bass look like a 22 incher. There are certain morphological characteristics that are highly distinguishable between small and large fish. Using good photographic technique you can make a small fish appear medium. You can make a medium fish appear large, and you can make a large fish appear even larger! But there are limitations to what you can do and maintain a modest plausibility factor.

Rule #2. Get the photographer close to the subject. Close to the fish AND close to the human subject. You don't want to be so close that the camera can't focus down, but if you're too far away, the photo will lose impact. Look at the following three photos.

In this photo, the subject is too far away. It is difficult to identify any characteristics of the fish, and the background is too predominant.

This photo is about right. Both subjects are in clear focus. I am holding the fish about half way to full extension of arms.

In this photo, the photographer has gotten too close. Plausibility is lost, and you lose perspective on location of human subject in three dimensions. The human subject begins to lose focus. In this photo I am holding the fish out to full extension. This is not a pleasing photo.


Rule #3. As hinted before, do not hold the fish at full extension. This tends to ruin the plausibility factor, and makes it much more difficult to maintain a focus on both fish and human subject. Here are a couple of examples.

Here's a spotted sucker being held with no extension.



Here's the same spotted sucker being held at full extension. As you can see, when the fish is held out at full arm extension, focus is lost in either the fish or human subject, both of which greatly diiminish the impact of the photo.





Rule #4. Hide your hands. I purposely took some photos to demonstrate this problem. Bob had asked me last week to do an article in Pond Boss magazine on this, but the situation lead me to believe that I needed to do something on the forum.

Look at this photo. My hand is not obscured, thereby giving the viewer an additional near perspective. which diminshes the impact of the photo.





But look at this next photo. My hand is hidden behind the fish, and this photo, which was taken with Dr. Jim Morgan becomes much more impactful. Keep in mind. We are not lying about the size of the fish. This is not photoshop. This is simply using techniques to emphasize what is already an incredible fish.



Rule #5. Take some photos of the same fish with full perspective. I tried taking the same fish shown above using a quarter laid on the fish to give some accurate and reproducible perspective. (No this is NOT a dime)



With ruler (sorry, but I couldn't focus down on the numbers on the tape while still getting the fish's head in the shot.



Boga grip.



..And I thought you might enjoy this one the most. It's our esteemed Bob Lusk taking a photo of me during a "Condello technique" pose.



And the same two fish "displayed" for possible publication in In-Fisherman magazine.

Learn some of these techniques yourself and let's see how they turn out!

[bluegillboogieman]

I looked up pinhead in the dictionary. Wish I hadn't. According to the definition and all the "related" words it listed, I'm a frequent flyer on the "pinhead plane".

Sometimes though, I'm smart enough to recognize a good thing when I see it. Like this web site and the sharing of tips and technique that goes on here. This blog is one of the best sharings of technique I have seen. A lot of effort and planning went into it. Don't do it this way, see how much better it looks if you do it this way kind of thing. Even a pinhead like me was able to see how to do it.

Thanks Bruce, for the web site and this how to blog. I still hate you for catching bluegills that could eat my biggest for breakfast though. Being a pinhead is not one of the seven deadly sins, but envy might be, I'll have to look it up.

[Bruce Condello]

Copperhead John. Actually I am not trying to "fool" anyone. I list the fish with precise measurements taken on a flat ruler, and I use an electronic scale that is accurate to within one gram. If you think I look like a pinhead, then you are welcome to your opinion, but the point to this piece was simply for purposes of fun. Sort of a tongue in cheek representation of what is used in today's contemporary fishing magazines. I'm sorry that it agitated you so much.

[Copperhead John]

I just gotta say that no matter all the technical advice, if the picture shows that your hands are enormous or indicates that you are a pinhead like the one you said was "about right", you're not fooling anyone and savvy observers will conclude the fish wasn't all that big at all. The best shot in my opinion was the potential picture for In-Fisherman magazine which looks normal and show that the fish you caught were impressive. I'm just sayin'.

[Jim G]

Caught one as big as a jeep. Had to hold it with a crane. Didn't realize how big it was till I looked at the picture. ;)

[Greg McWilliams]

Ok Boogie, I will work on that!!! I sometimes have trouble with rules.

[Bruce Condello]

That's awesome! That crappie is actually 45 feet long! :-)

[bluegillboogieman]

Greg, you didn't pay attention to the rules. You got to hide your hand.

[Greg McWilliams]

How about this one. LOL

[JBplusThuy]

The hardest rule is that one about catching a fish that big - thing looks like it's on roids :-)

Very nice tutorial, now all I have to do is catch the big fish :-)

[bluegillboogieman]

Well, I'm glad ya'll like the stiff arm photos but I refuse to take pictures of my fish like this...'cause I ain't got no fish like this. Stupid rule #1.

I will vote for you for the Heisman though Bruce. Oh! I ain't got no vote. Rule #1 again.