It's all about DOF when taking pictures of small things. Slower aperature results in a larger depth of field, while a faster aperature means a smaller one. Get a tripod and shoot as slow as you can(aperature-wise), that should help you
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It's all about DOF when taking pictures of small things. Slower aperature results in a larger depth of field, while a faster aperature means a smaller one. Get a tripod and shoot as slow as you can(aperature-wise), that should help you
Thanks for all the great advise. I need to get a tripod. Here are a few pics, im getting alittle better
If you're daring and want some crazy macro shots, take your lens off, set it to the shortest focal length (ie mine goes to 28mm), put the end of the lens up to the body of the camera and shoot it in full manual mode. You can control the aperature (carefully) by pushing a little knob on the rear end of the lens.
Note that this makes a HUGE impact on the depth of field, the picture shown here was taken at f/3.3, and just a tiny sliver of the quarter is properly focussed. This shorter the focal length the higher the magnification, heres a pic of a quarter ($0.25)
^ yea, if youre gonna do that you can get a lens reverser ring for some cameras which holds it in place for you.
IseektheTruth nice bud pic
pu ekot neat trick, very detailed
GREAT TIPS pholks, I wish this was my thread lol
Photgraphy has been a serious hobby of mine for over 20 years. It started with a class in high school, then a few semesters in college, and so forth and so on. My favorite was always shooting black and whie and then developing myself. I'd love to have my own darkroom someday but finding a place for it is the hard part.
Now I shoot with either a Nikon N70 or a Nikon D100, usually the D100 since digital is so convenient. A while back I invested in some studio style flash units, mainly for taking pictures of my family but I've found they can be a lot of fun for other stuff as well since you can play around with different lighting techniques.
One thing I haven't seen anyone mention is using a close up lens for macro shots. By this I mean the filter type that you screw on to your existing lens. It's a cheap ($25-$50+) solution that works pretty well. The only problem is that it seriously reduces your depth of field.
Here's one of my favorite bud shots. For this pic I used the D100 with a 100-300 zoom( at 300) combined a x5 close up lens, tripod, 1/60, F22. For lighting I used an off camera flash unit set off to the side for kind of a dark side of the moon effect.
I have a digital cam and it isn't SLR, any other tricks?
Wow that was some bud shot! great all around focus!!!!!!!!!!!! very hard for me to do! Here is a close of the same bud with two different focus points. I used a spiral note book,stuck the stem in one of the spiral holes made it easier to photograph.
Great idea, I've also played around with a bunch of different ways to get the buds to "pose" the way I want them to. I've found that my daughter's playdough is very useful. What I've found works best is this little piece of stiff, but very thin, wire that I've glued down to a small board. I can stick the wire up into the bud to hold it and because the wire is bendable I can move it around as much as I want. My goal is to get the side of the bud with the largest surface area as parallel as possible to the lens. Then, although I prefer t use it as little as possible, I can use photoshop to take the wire out of the shot.Quote:
Originally Posted by IseektheTruth
I personally like your 2nd bud shot better than the first. I think having the foreground out of fucus is a bit distracting, unless there's a specific reason for it. Good detail in the in focus areas of both though.
A lot will depend on your camera. A few things I can think of though:Quote:
Originally Posted by SpiritLevel
- be aware of the closest focus distance for your camera. Each camera, or lens, has a minimum distance that they must be from the subject in order to get a good sharp focus. I see a lot of out of focus pictures on this board and my guess is that people are getting right up to the subject (buds) in order to fill the frame without realizing that they'll never be in focus that way. Stay back a bit, get good focus, and then crop on the computer if necessary.
-As I think someone else already mentioned, you want your subject and your lens to be on parallel planes. So, for example, you have a bud lying on the table, you'll want to get up on a chair or something so you are looking straight down on it. Or, like Iseekthetruth and I have done, find a way to get the bud to stand up straight.
-Good exposure is key so be aware of your cameras metering abilities and what can thow it off. Many cameras want to "see" grey. So, if you have something on a white back ground the camera will want to turn it grey and your picture will be underexposed, too dark. If it's on a black background it's likely to be overexposed, too light.
-pick up an inexpensive book on photography, there'll be tons of other useful tips