Help with macro shots-Nikon D-100

[flyyyguy]

I am looking for resources to improve my macro skills.

I bought a nikon d-100 a while back, and bought a tamron 2.8 macro lens......and was getting much better.......but my pictures were better a few months ago than they are now.

Im at a standstill. I have made hundreds of trips from the tanks back to the computer messing with settings and writing them down...trying to figure out where i am going wrong.

I am looking for a place that may have a comprehensive list of where the settings should be for taking macro shots of my corals.

I dont care if I have to pay for it. If anyone owns a nikon d-100 and would be so kind as to provide me with where the majority of their settings are at for macro shots of their corals that would be beyond helpful. Im thinking its one or two settings that are simply wrong, limiting what i can do as far as clarity.

I do shoot in raw, and prefer not to photoshop anything besides cropping.

Thanks in advance for any insight or suggestions for where to look.

 

[gregr]

A list of settings will help you in the short term but ideally what you want is to know what settings you need for any given shot- not just macro shots. Forgive me if I'm wrong but the info you're lacking is the understanding of how the aperture affects depth of field and shutter speeds. Once you know that you'll be able to decide for yourself what settings to use for any given shot, without having to consult a piece of paper.
I'd suggest working in aperture priority while you gain an understanding of depth of field. Small f-numbers [apertures] like f2.8, f4 etc., will get you minimal depth of field for macro shots. To get a lot of depth of field you need to use very small apertures [large f-numbers, like f16 etc.]. Getting good depth of field on macro shots is hard because the closer the lens is to the subject the lesser the depth of field will be. With the lens one foot from the subject f2.8 will get you a depth of field that of only a few millimeters. At f16 you'll get a couple inches maybe- but that's a huge difference.
Photography is all about compromise and the compromise with macro shots is slow shutter speeds, and this is why a good tripod/head is so important when you're shooting close-ups. As you change the aperture to smaller and smaller settings watch what how the shutter speed changes. With that macro lens you bought you'll want to use a tripod on anything slower than 1/60 or 1/90 even, depending on how steady you are.