Article: A Quick Guide To Reef Tank Photography

[ReefMatt]

@Mits:

Actually, a lot of the "General Tips" are the same: you can set your white balance on most point-and-shoots these days, and some of them even have RAW. Some point and shoots (I'm thinking of some of the Canon models) have excellent sensors... basically the same sensor as the DSLRs but in a smaller body, so with a higher ISO setting (with the understanding that you'll get some digital noise), you can sometimes get away with the "High Speed" equipment method that I described.

The problem with trying to give advice for point and shoots is that there's soooo much variation. The Canon Powershot G10, for example, has a hot shoe for using external flash equipment, and full manual control, so you can use big, high powered flashes with it if you know what you're doing. Some point and shoots are worthless pieces of junk and aren't going to give you good pictures no matter what you do.

So, when in doubt:

1. Do whatever you can to increase the amount of light that won't increase glare off the glass. If you have halogen work lights in the garage, fire them up and point them down from the top (unless it will be bad for your tank... I don't know).
2. Use a tripod and cable release or self-timer. That way, if your picture isn't sharp, you know that it's because your subject was moving, not your camera.

Good luck!

- Matthew