How do you guys get your awesome pics?

I can not figure out for the life of me how to get great in tank shots...i have tried every setting and i still get blurry pics...how do you guys do it? i can get great close ups of absolutely anything else...just not anything in my tank lol....which has me a little POed because i just fixed this camera mainly for good tank shots i couldnt get with my phone...but look here are some coral pics...




My personal fav coral,especially when its closed, can you guess why lol





Notice that they are still pretty blurry and not too focused...now look at this one i took of my dog doing nothing special with the camera



You can count every hair on his face!!! (and his pic makes me realize how grey he is getting, my little old man!()
WTH??? what am i doing wrong for good tank shots? Does anyone have any good tips for me??

 

newb question but do you have your camera set for macro shots? -- a tripod would help, also clean inside and outside of the glass, there is almost always a small film of slime on your glass that will mess up the camera focus

 

i dont think my camera has a macro setting...just super super super zoom hahaha! i just ordered a tripod because i thought i may be shaking too much...but i even try steadying the camera against the glass...i usually clean the glass every day too...maybe i need to try right after i clean it

 

For some reason I cant use super zoom on my tank shots, it makes them blurry. I zoom out and lightly touch the button and my camara will automatically focus on an object and then i take the picture. I take patience and a lot of practice.

P.S dont use your flash, it bounces off the glass and makes crappy photos lol

 

i have even tried not zooming but i get crappy shots then too...idk i think i just suck at taking pics lol...and surprisingly i have used flash a few times and those pics ended up looking the best haha...but thats not saying much as you can see hahaha

 

even older camera's that arent the basic digital camera but something like a nice nikon should have macro settings. even my old p.o.s. camera has one :/ or try the flower setting? something like that -- i've also had the same problem too

 

it isnt an older camera...just an everyday normal digital...i dont even have a flower setting haha...its a sanyo...not the greatest but it isnt a complete peice of crap so idk...would the macro setting be under another name maybe? ive been playing with this camera for days and i havnt found anything even close to a macro setting....

here are the settings (modes) it has
program AE (no clue what that means lol
anti shake
panorama
potrait man
portrait lady (wth the difference between man and lady is idk)
landscape
sports
night portrait
night scene
candlelight
fireworks
text
sunset
sunrise
splash water
flow water
snow
beach
pets
user setting


as fa as i can tell the only thing they do is make the pic lighter or darker lol, none of them make it any clearer:

 

i would try pet, splash water, flow water, and text. only because all those seem to be used for smaller items that are harder to focus? i have personally always wanted to bring a piece of coral to best buy or something and test the camera's to see what it actually takes to get an awesome true high def image

 

You need a tripod. It would also help if you turn off your pumps a few minutes prior to taking pics. Also clean the glass a few hours before taking pics.

 

my tripod actually came in today while i was at work...im going to try to take a few pics in a little with it and see what happens...i need a few min off my feet, ive been up and running since 6am so i deserve a break haha! i never thought of turning the pumps off...good tip thanks!!

PS your tank is AMAZING!!!! everytime i see your avatar the only thing that runs through my mind is "the colors Duke, the colooooors" bahahaha! what lights do you have on there? and do you photoshop...i just cant see hwo something can really be that gorgeous without some photo doctoring lol!!!