My first images with the 100mm Macro

Had the house all for myself so could play around with my 100 mm Macro without kids running around and messing up with my kit.

Starting to enjoy it now but obviously still lacking in technique and improvements.


Any of the images below worth putting on my flickr site :roll

So all suggestions comments and advice on how to improve from the images below are deeply appreciated.




















many thanks

Amin

Are you using a tripod? as most are lacking sharpness.

The water images were a pain to take. Although I used tripod but focusing with one hand and pouring water droplets with the other was a task by itself. Struggled to try to keep aiming the spot I wanted to have the water dropping. Tried various options, manual focusing and fixing it, AF.C and AF.S also, still that was the best I could come up with. Must try some other way so can concentrate solely on the focusing and camera.

The flowers were on tripod but I had to use 2sec delay and aparently still lack sharpness. My wooden floor boards could well be the culprit here as I could feel it still oscillating as I pressed the shutter.

Would be interesting to see if I just put at 30 sec and moved away. I do have a dodgy wooden floor board.

Thanks

Amin

For macro, I'd recommend a remote release cable. Pushing the button by hand can cause loss of sharpness.

1 and 5 look great to me

Back to the drawing board and thought that it was probably aperture settings in the flower shots rather than shake, so gave it another shot.

Water play definitely has to be with the remote triggers, time to order one.

Any views on this one? Tried to improve sharpness on these ones, not sure if I have managed to improve, I still lack that photographer's sharp analytical eye, so any suggestions would be really welcome.

thanks

Amin

The bunch is with the 50 mm 1.4 lens, wanted to test the sharpness on it too.

I would say watch the backgrounds, stop the lens down further for more DOF and use a solid tripod on a solid floor.

The more of these you shoot the better they will be and the easier it will become.

For me they're all plenty sharp enough but it's the "flash" look that I'm not very keen on - makes everything look a bit two dimensional and sterile. If you're using a tripod indoors then don't be afraid of long exposures - you can set the shot up, press the shutter and even if it takes 15-30 seconds or more that's fine. Natural light just makes things look more "real" to me.

Hefty,

That detail about artificial light did in fact bug me, and I picked that one up instantly, you are absolutely right. Even I with the lack of experience can feel that the flash is somewhat ruining a little but I thought being indoors and not having enough light I was limited to the situation. Now that you tell me to open up the shutter I am so keen in doing that I cant wait for tomorrow to try it. I get reasonaly enough light from my patio doors, not enough for small shutter values but I am sure going to those numbers you suggest it should be more than enough.

I had learnt to appreciate the natural light captured images when I started using my 50mm prime and instantly I could see the difference.


John, thanks for the advice. This is definitely something that I am battling with and very conscious about it, but still a bit confused. Perhaps if you could exemplify what exactly it means in practical terms please I would really appreciate. I understand the terminology like DOF, but when you say "stop the lens down further" how does it translate in practice please?

With the 100mm Macro I suppose I physically have to move forward or backward, just like with the 50mm prime, but I suppose if I am using my 16-45 one would you clarify it better? Then I can apply to the macro and prime one too. I guess I am following partially what you are advising, I hope , but then I get lost along the line.

Thank you so much for all your help.

Amin

Hi Amin, stopping down is Say with your 100mm F2.8 that f2.8 is the largest aperture and f22 the smallest in other words make the aperture smaller, stop the lens down.

Red doesn't normally photograph too good with normal lenses. It should be better with the Macro lens though, but still a poor colour for comparing sharpness.

shim

Thanks for the clarification. Definitely a technical jargon that I was unaware of . Got the idea now.

Many thanks.

Shim,

thanks for the advice and suggestion. I will flag that one in and next time I am around reds while taking some shots I will bear that in mind and be more conscious of it

Amin

Hi Amin,

to make setting up and focussing easier with a "still life" subject; if your tripod has a geared centre column, then set the camera to point down exactly at 90° from horizontal looking at the object. Now you have a pretty accurate (vertical) focus rail. Adjust the height of the camera, with both legs and centre column, ideally keeping the centre column about half way extended to get the zoom to your liking, then focus to somewhere close using the focus ring on the lens. For minor adjustments in focussing from there, just move the centre column up or down accordingly using the winder a mm at a time, whilst looking through the viewfinder. Far less fidly than moving the lens whilst focussing.

I find that a far more accurate way to focus for macro.. especially if you're down at 1:1 or less, where the DOF is going to be measured in millimetres.. or microns if you get hooked on macro.

Cheers

Liam

That's the joy of having a tripod though! With a still life (like these flowers) you can set the camera up on the tripod, stick it in Av mode, stop the lens down to (say) f11 and the ISO to 100 (for best results) and it doesn't matter if the shutter speed is incredibly long - nothing's going to move! For best results without a remote use the camera's delay function - you can then press the shutter and retreat to a safe distance to minimise any chance of shake during the exposure.