# Any tips for the casual, point and shoot, photographers?



## GraphicGr8s (Apr 4, 2011)

Kind of funny you started this thread. The last few days it's a subject I've been thinking about a lot since this forum has started. It's also changed my thinking quite a bit. For the 30+ years I've shot professionally every shot I took had to meet certain standards. Every time I grabbed my gear I approached it as if it was a paid gig. (I stopped shooting professionally about 5 years ago.) The problem with that is sometimes a snapshot is a better photo. My current favorite shot is one of my son and his abuelo sitting at the kitchen table. It's just a snapshot but it's close enough. I still take him to the beach and do a proper shoot with all the fill lights and reflectors (and sometimes the associated fees) Many times it's not the perfect composition and exposure from a point and shoot. Most of the time it's what's in that shot that makes it a great shot.

Unfortunately I really can't offer advice on the P&S aquarium shots.


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## beetea (Jan 27, 2012)

Most color issues that I have, I just correct in post processing. If your camera didn't come with its own software for editing pictures, there are free options out there (eg. picasa).

Another thing you can try is to turn off all lights except the ones in your aquarium. Different types of lights put out different colors and can throw off the white balance.

The biggest problem for me when shooting with a P&S is that the auto focus is too slow to focus on individual critters. So what I usually end up doing is focusing on something in the tank and holding the focus there (the shutter button is halfway pressed). Then, I just move the camera closer/further away from the tank to manually focus on objects.


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