Help with Sony Super SteadyShot DSC-W80

[mikellini]

Hey everyone,
First post in the photography forum. I'm looking for some help. I have the Sony point-and-shoot mentioned above, and it's great for taking photos of people, but I have no idea how to take better pictures of my reef. So far I've been taking photos with the auto setting on, and enabling the macro focus for close-up shots. I find that unless I hold the lens right up to the glass I always get a reflection when taking macros. Is this normal, and any way I can get around this? Also, does anyone else have experience with this camera (or one like it) and could give me a few pointers for settings I can change to get better photos?

Thanks

 

[mikellini]

Bump

 

[mikellini]

buuuuuuump

 

[Phyl]

A dark room will minimize the reflections. I shoot with my flash off (don't know if that's an option for you). Make sure you hold the camera parallel to the tank glass for best results.

 

[mikellini]

I've tried to shoot at a bit of an angle down the glass to minimize the camera's reflection, but it does seem to skew the image... can I get a better shot by holding the lense right up against the glass like I do sometimes, or is it better to back off from the glass a bit?

In the auto setting, the flash never goes off. Any ideas about taking out of the auto setting?

 

[Phyl]

The answer to being right up on the glass is going to be in your owner's manual. What is the closest working distance you can be to a subject? How far back in the aquarium is the desired focal object? If you have a min working distace of 4 inches and are closer than that to the object you wish to photograph then you're going to have to move back a bit.

I hate flash for corals (though I suppose it could be helpful for fish). I don't use one. If you want to use yours you'll have to force it to be on (check your user manual for info on this).

 

[mikellini]

I will look into the owner's manual, thanks. Maybe I can change the macro focus settings, it seems to be just automatic but who knows? It would be great to get more zoom and better macros... I guess it's a shot in the dark to ask about a specific camera, it just seems that there are too many settings I just don't understand, so I thought someone might be able to get me started...