taking pictures

[Ironman]

Ok so david had his tutorial on photoshop, So now lets get help on taking the good picture to begin with.
I have what I considered a good digital camera till I wanted to take close up pics of corals. So Someone please give some details of how to adjust my camera settings to take good pics, or tell me my camera is a piece of junk and Ill go get a new one.
By the way mt camera is a cannon powershot S230 ELPH

[sailfin]

I'd like to know this as well. It seems no matter what I do, the camera just doesn't take a good pic through glass.

[bkv1997]

I read a couple books on the honey moon.

Can you set it on a tri pod? The second thing to check is to see if your camera has a way to set the white balance.

I'm not an expert just some things it recommends.

[Ironman]

the problem with mine is focussing, it will auto focuss and make a crisp clear picture from 12 inches away from the tank. but if I try and get close to the glass to get the kind of pics you need to really show the coral it focusses and blurs. a tripod wont fix that, but I dont see any adjustment for white balance. I dont see very many adjustments that affect picture quality?

[bkv1997]

Does it have a macro feature? Should look like a little green flower type icon?

[Ironman]

yes and that makes a big difference, but still wont let me take the close ups

[salt newbie01]

My Kodak camera does not have an adjustable macro setting but it does have a close up setting. The trick I have found to get the maxium quality is to turn off all the pumps so the coral isn't moving, then to use a tripod. On the close-up or macro setting the shudder speed is slower to capture more light without a flash so the tripod is critical. You can always zoom in after the pic is taken. Sometimes I have to focus on something beside the coral or right under it. For some reason my camera does not focus on some corals very well, maybe it's the color.

[Ironman]

thats all makes sense, but I can see the blurry picture on my screen before I even take the picture, So how is a tripod and shutter speed gonna help that?

[salt newbie01]

How far away is the camera from the coral you are trying to photograph?

[salt newbie01]

The reason I ask is that with my camera sometimes if I move a little closer or a little farther away it will focus. I guess they are picky. My camera's close-up setting says focus from less that 24 inches away from subject. But sometimes if I move from 10 inches back to 12-14 inches it will focus. I don't have an explaination to this but that is just how my pos digi camera is.