my first macro lens by tamron

[rogerwilco357]

so this is my first macro before I figure out if the L series for the canon is worth the price tag..any tricks or hints you can offer me before I start playing with this lens do you guys use filters ? any tricks to shooting corals is appreciated.
Roger

[Recty]

Use a tripod.
Turn off all your circulation pumps, let the water settle.
Shoot perfectly perpendicular to the glass, otherwise you deal with softness caused from diffraction.
Higher f/stop value, like 11 or 13, will give you decent depth of field so more of your subject is in focus BUT you'll definitely need to do the first two things I mentioned to get that.
Keep your ISO as low as possible.

[rogerwilco357]

ahh what about the camera wanting to focus on its own should i put it on manual everything ?

[Reef Bass]

+1 for Recty's advice.

I'd use manual everything, especially focus. If you're not comfortable setting the exposure you could leave that on auto. Or just keep shooting and adjusting shutterspeed, aperature and / or iso until it looks good.

[Misled]

+2 for Recty.

+1 for RB.

Experimenting with digital is easy and costs nothing. I don't know what post processing programs you have, but shoot in raw and look over the EXIF data. You can go through the settings on the camera while looking at the pics and use what looks best. Which lens did you get???