I need tips for shooting saltwater aquariums!

[d2creative]

My photography has been mostly put on hold recently for a new project that's been taking up all my free time. I just built a bowfront stand/canopy for a 46 gallon bowfront tank and started building a saltwater reef setup. I never built anything "real" before so it was an interesting challenge. Anyway, I was trying to take a pic of a tiny snail and I was having trouble getting my macro lens to manually focus! The odd thing is that if trying to take the shot at an angle (like a 45 degree angle from above), I couldn't focus through the glass... even manually. But if I was pretty much level with the snail, I could focus fine. Don't know if it has to do with my bowfront glass or what, but my own eyes can focus fine... why can't I get a camera lens to manually focus? Didn't even bother trying auto focus. I'm stumped! Or maybe I was high... i dunno. This was two days ago and I haven't had a chance to play with it again.

Also, any other tips for taking macro shots of corals, fish, etc would be helpful. Everything is constantly moving. Lighting is challenging too. Shooting thru glass doesn't help either.

btw, here's a gallery of my build process if it helps to understand what I'm talking about or you're just plain interested.
http://d2creative.smugmug.com/gallery/6218728_hLpFH

Thanks!

[venchka]

According to the Canon rep. I heard speak last night, Canon has a downloadable camera style for aquariums on thier web site. That will handle a few camera settings. As for being high, well only you can fix that.

[CaptainTom]

Perhaps your lens to subject distance was closer than the close focus capabilities of your lens ??

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

Perhaps your lens to subject distance was closer than the close focus capabilities of your lens ??

That's exactly how it was acting when shooting through the glass at an angle, but shoot perfectly perpendicular to the glass and it focuses ok. Not tack sharp but good enough. And this is my macro lens which can focus uber close... closer than i was shooting here. I was just playing with it again and got the same results.

[kamari]

Congrats on the saltwater adventure. I got out of it to get into photography. Got tired of losing $200 worth of fish every time I moved my 80gal from house to house.

[SCone]

Best shots I ever got were taken from the top with a clear plastic tube sticking into the water. Not sure where I got the tube from, seems like it was a vase at one time. I cut it down so it was about 4" long. To shoot, keep the end underwater a couple of inches and fire away. Never had any luck shooting through the sides.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by kamari

I got out of it to get into photography.

Me too. It was a 150 gallon tank. It took sooo long to get enough rock and corals in there and so much money. I got tired of spending $60 on a piece of coral that looked lost when i put it in the tank. lol
So this time it's a much more manageable size. Although I do miss certain things about the bigger size. But fortunately my now remodeled house no longer has the wall space for anything bigger.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by SCone

Best shots I ever got were taken from the top with a clear plastic tube sticking into the water. Not sure where I got the tube from, seems like it was a vase at one time. I cut it down so it was about 4" long. To shoot, keep the end underwater a couple of inches and fire away. Never had any luck shooting through the sides.

I'm not sure I understand the use of the tube?

[kamari]

Originally Posted by d2creative

But fortunately my now remodeled house no longer has the wall space for anything bigger.

wanna see big? I posted this a little over a year ago.
http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum...ad.php?t=55015

[d2creative]

That is awesome!
So how did it turn out??? Any more pics?

[kamari]

No new pics. There were some construction delays and the house hasn't been finished yet.