Photo help - Proper colour - Canon SLR

[Coasting]

Okay so I seem to suck at taking any kind of decent photo of my tank be it all in 1 or a close up of my coral.
I cant seem to get the colour right no matter what f-stop, speed, WB, or ISO I use and its driving me up the wall because I'm just not sure what to try. I see so many stunning photos posted on here, even cell phone photos seem to be better then what I can take!
Nevermind how you guys show the fluorescence in photo.

My shots seem very... greyed out.

I've given up on shots that are clear and not blurry since I have a bow front.
Camera is a canon 7d




Maybe somebody can share what settings they use, gah!

I've used SLR's for years and never have an issue with them.... For the most part the FW tank is easy enough but SW photos are driving me insane!

Thanks!

[Snaz]

Let the camera do what it was designed to do... Take pictures. Colour balancing is best done in post with Photoshop or ANY other picture software.





The settings you changed to balance the colour on the camera might have resulted in a poorer shot. Try just plain jane shots with correct aperture and speed and correct colour in post. Good shooting!

[MarkoD]

Shoot RAW and then adjust it later

[Coasting]

Well theres my problem, I HATE using photo editing programs. In my mind, if I cant take the photo properly to begin with so it doesn't need editing, then I didn't do it right.
I haven't used photoshop since highschool either.
Would need to find what closet I have Paintshop (it was free) buried in.... Then learn how to use it again.

Is there a better WB to select for the tank with the actinics? Maybe that will get me closer as the options I have gone through just don't seem right and the pictures get uglier and uglier.

Maybe I will have to try this photo editing thing....

[Nano]

actinics is where I am having most of the trouble too. tagging along

[Snaz]

The photo editing was literally three clicks with a mouse. It is an auto-fix feature that analyzes the colours in the photo and then does some corrective magic.

Most programs include this auto-fix or auto-correct feature.

Post editing is a must for reef shots. We bombard the subject with super violet rays to get the colours to pop and as a result our pictures are blue. Cameras are built to take pictures and not deal with atypical washed out blue coral under actinics.