Many people asked me how I could get these nice looking photos. What settings of the camera should be? Below is my personal experience on photography:
To get better quality photos, remember to:
(1) Shut down the pumps (wave or return pumps) before taking the photos. The water flow always causes negative effects on focusing, especially for those corals that wave with the water flow.
(2) Try to set the ISO to lower value. I personally prefer to set at 200 when I used my 60mm micro lens.
(3) F value: the extent of light entrance (the higher the value is the less the light can enter the camera)
If you want a photo to be with shallow depth of field (only the focused region is clear and the surrounding is blurred), set the F to lower value, such as 2.8. This will allowe more light to enter. In this case, one can decrease the shutter value to avoid negative effects due to the vibration.
When a small F value is set, shutter value should be adjusted by refering the light condition. The intenser the lighting source is, the lower value (1/100 sec) of the shutter should be set to avoid over-exposure.
If you want to have a deeper depth of filed, please set the F to higher value, such as 8 or even 10. The higher the F value, the less the light can enter and be captured. In this case, one should set the shutter to higher value (to increase the exposure time), such as 1/5 or even 1 sec to compensate the light loss due to the high F value.
(4) Shutter value: Light exposure time (the higher the value is, the more light is exposured)
When the shutter has to be set at high value (longer exposure time), there is a great possibility that artificial vibration can cause negative effects to the photos obtained. The photos might become blurred due to the vibration. In this case, a supporting leg will be necessary to fix the camera. An even better way to eliminate the vibration is to get a remote line to press the button.
Please remember, using P-mode of most digital camera may get you some "good" photos but definitely not "great" photos.
If you want to take some FTS of the whole tank, higher ISO value is recommended. Just try to fix one setting (F or shutter) while adjusting the other (shutter or F). You will find the difference between them.
I am willing to offer my personal experience on photography. Please feel free to point out the mistakes for correction if there is anything wrong with my understanding.