[johnmflores]

Update: Well Im sure its my photographic skills, but pictures are coming out horrible. I have my iso set at 100 with f8 and f11 and played with the auto balance for almost an hour and could not for the life of me get a decent picture. All of the pictures were blurry and did not show the real colors of the corals. Any more advice? Thanks

Did you order a plastic 18% grey card and stick it in the tank?

[Vivas]

I just want to thank everyone for the feedback. I am very grateful. To answer everyone's questions: first, manual shooting, I have not tried manual shooting yet. Ive never tried manual shooting before so once I get a chance I will play with manual focus on my camara and provide feedback.

Pardon my lack of experince, but I have no idea what EXIF data represents. After I get a chance to play with the manual focus and with the timer I will post a picture. I am about less than 12 inches away from the subject. Ive tried moving back, but I am still unable to focus on the object.

I do have a high end led lighting with high PAR, but Ive seen pictures of corals from other people and I am not sure how they did it, but the coral comes out great.

I have not order a grey card yet. I do not think I will be able to do this since one of my fish is a big biter. As soon as my hand touches the water my hand becomes his enemy so it would be kind of hard to get a steady shot of the grey card.

Finally, I forgot to mention that my tank is bowfront. This means that the front glass of the tank is curved. I am getting the feeling that because the glass is curved it is making it really hard for me to focus on the corals. What do you guys think? Again, thanks!

[TER-OR]

Oh, yes I can see the curved plexiglass could be an issue.

Do try manual focus, and make sure you're past minimum focus. You can leave all the other settings automatic, but drop to manual focus. Don't be afraid of manual focus, it's very easy.

You should also try Live View if you haven't before - this could tell you if you have some issues, and what the camera is thinking. The K30 has focus peaking which could be useful for manual focusing in this situation.

EXIF information is all the data the camera records, it's embedded in the picture file. Some processing software strips information away. We'll need the data to see what the camera was doing. You can get into that information in windows by right-clicking the jpg file, click Properties then look at the details tab.

[johnmflores]

I have not order a grey card yet. I do not think I will be able to do this since one of my fish is a big biter. As soon as my hand touches the water my hand becomes his enemy so it would be kind of hard to get a steady shot of the grey card.

Then suspend it temporarily from a string or a chopstick. This is the key to getting the color right.

Finally, I forgot to mention that my tank is bowfront. This means that the front glass of the tank is curved. I am getting the feeling that because the glass is curved it is making it really hard for me to focus on the corals. What do you guys think? Again, thanks!

Use a DOF calculator (like this Online Depth of Field Calculator) to help calculate what aperture you should use to get the full depth of the tank in focus.

Come to think of it, hang the grey card from a string or chopstick smack dab in the middle of the tank and use it to both set your white balance and focus. Use manual focus and magnify the view and adjust focus until the edge of the grey card is sharp.