Macro shots possible with round tank?

[dmorel]

I'm not at all a photographer, but I've been learning a little bit since I set the new tank up. After years of just point and shooting I've started using my wife's digital rebel xs. I started just using auto settings on the camera, but recently did some reading and experimenting. Now shooting in raw, with a tripod and with more appropriate settings (ISO 100 or 200, using the AV setting etc) and doing a tiny bit of post processing on my images, mostly white balance, blacks etc...

These two shots show the difference between auto settings and manual settings.

Full Auto:

Manual:

I would like to start trying to get some good macro shots, but I've read that might be next to impossible on a round tank... My first question was actually going to be about lens choice, but before I go spend money on a good lens to do macro shots, I guess I really need to know if it's even possible with this tank? Most of my corals are attached to the rock stack so moving them to a holding container to shoot is not really workable

This is about as good as it gets shooting macro's right now, and this is by no means a macro shot:

Should I just crop the heck out of the RAW image to just get the singular coral?

thanks for any advice you guys can offer.

-dm

 

[sphelps]

You could do some nice top down macros on that tank, have to considered to tried doing that?

As for a lens I think the canon guys will suggest the 100mm.

 

[Misled]

Yea, top down is really the only way to go with a round tank. The curved glass will show quite a bit of distortion. I have a 54 corner so I feel your pain.

 

[Hookup]

I too feel your pain... PAIN!!! So because I could never take a decent photo, I just ordered a 180g 7foot long tank as a replacement... starfire for better fotos also...

 

[dmorel]

Well I tried some top downs last night, not ideal.
Shut all pumps down and everything, but with the glare from the lights, it wasn't ideal.
I might try and pick up the 100mm lens and see how that goes.
Thanks for the thoughts, boy this part of the hobby is tough.
I have some really beautiful corals, and all my pics look so awful compared to the naked eye.

thanks again for the thoughts.
-dm