Cant get good pics of the tank!

[aep]

Hi, im okay with a camera in general and have some fantastic sports photos. but the tank I just can not get right. Camera is Canon 40D main lens I am using is 24-105 F/4L. I have tried every combination of ISO, aperture, White Balance & shutter speed I can think of. The tank is bow frounted which is not helping but my main issue is light. I have 220W of T5 a couple of inches off the water.
tank is 30" deep. With any combination of lights I either get the high corals washed out or lower corals dull. colour saturation is not too good either. Now I know this camera is superb, the lens is about the best money can buy for quality so the problem must be me!!!!
Any tips? Should I be trying a different lens?

thanks!

[Alastair]

Post a couple of examples.. I also have a 40D but not that lens.

All I can suggest is the basics.. tripod, remote/timed shutter, no flash, ISO100-200, AV, F4-5.6.. shoot raw and correct for white balance, colour and tone in post-production (much easier than trying to work it on the camera).

Post a couple of images.. ideally load up the raw images onto somewhere like flickr.

[aep]

Alastair, this is maybe where I am going wrong, I was always taught to get it right in the camera! 90% of my favorite pictures have no post processing at all. tbh I find the post stuff time consuming and boring. Are the majority of pics on here "tweaked"?? Had a read on HDR a while ago, maybe this is worth a try

[Alastair]

HDR is tough for tanks.. things keep moving, but I do know of someone that is developing a technique for FTS (proper multi-exposure FTS, not faux-HDR tonemapped single exposure) and is getting very good results.

With white balance it's much easier to get it right in post processing, although I've had good results with no post processing under LED evening lights.. under full lights there is always a tendency for the highlights to wash out. But you'll have to switch to shooting RAW to do this right..

Post a couple of your shots with a link to high resolution versions.. tweaking with the DPP software that comes with the camera or in free editors like GIMP is very easy.

I would guess that 90% of the shots posted that make people wonder why their own photos don't look that good are post-processed - at the bare minimum to correct the white balance.

If you shoot film you have to get it right in the camera as unless you're developing yourself you have little control of the post-process.. in digital there is a lot of the final image that is either easier to post-process or can only be done in post-process.

[cardiff_gareth]

I'm not familular with your camera but if you have a manual white balance setting on your camera then use that. Get some white card and hold it infront of your tank so the light fromyour tank reflects on it. Then point your camera at this reflected white light and set that as your white balance.

Make sure the camera is square on to your tank as if its not the glass will distort your shot, I know you have a bow front so this'll be tricky but and get it as square as possible and if you can shoot from the side of the tank where the glass is flat then even better.

If your fish are fast moving, pre focus on something and then switch to manual focus so the camera doesn't hunt and delay the shutter going off. It can help panning the camera in time with the fish firing at your chosen spot, depending on your shutter speeds this may blur the background but keep fish focused or freeze the lot nice and sharp.

When I shoot my tank I turn off the lights in the room so all the light is from the tank, use centre weighted metering and if required up the ISO slightly to maybe 400.