More beginner help - macro focusing

pjm1

pjm1

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Paul
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Hello again everyone - thank you very much for the help yesterday... the learning curve is very very steep at this stage :)

So my next beginner question is where to focus?! The hoverfly pic below was snapped in natural light only at f/16. One mistake I know I made was too slow a shutter speed (1/90th) - I should have knocked the ISO up a couple (at least) of stops and frozen everything that little bit more.


Hoverfly feeding by pjm1 (Paul), on Flickr

But apart from that, where should I be focusing? The DOF is wafer, wafer thin even at f/16 so I can't even get the whole compound eye in focus (I've tried to get the front of the eye sharp)... does this mean I just need to bite the diffraction bullet and stop down to f/22?

Or is it simply movement and needing to get my shooting technique better as well as my shutter speed much faster?

Thanks in advance...

Edit: ok, I think the following one is better... I upped ISO to 800 and shutter speed was 1/500. Maybe overkill on the latter but hey ho. I do think it's sharper as a result. Only downside is I don't like the lighting on the eyes as much :(


Hoverfly attempt 2 by pjm1 (Paul), on Flickr
 
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#2 is the better of the 2 but you appear to be an extreme sort of guy... no slight modification to settings.

There will be a guide soon up when I get my ass :mooning: around to completing it

18-55 (were tubes used?) should cope ok with 1/90s but I would recommend shooting at least at 1/200s then work down from there as you get more comfortable

f16/f11 should give enough dof on subjects this size no problem at all think you need to work out where the focal plane is then shoot down that line. Face on shots will always have a shallower dof so I aim to get the sharp edge (you will learn where that is on your lens) at the front of the eye and then it will fall off at the back of eye.

Dont want to post my image on your thread but have a look at this

https://www.flickr.com/photos/115362543@N04/14764142328/
 
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pjm1 said:
:oops: :$

I might be a little heavy handed at times with my... erm... "tweaks". I will try to stick to SOOC a bit... I get the hint ;)

Thanks, Bryn - your photo is a cracker. No tubes used, just a Raynox 250 and focus set to min.
Click to expand...

Ok with Raynox bump up aperture to f18/20 and you wont notice diffraction I never have and @GardenersHelper uses up to f/32 to great effect on some of his shots... search the threads.

I will be watching your progress and have followed you on flickr.
 
Cool, thanks Bryn - will keep snapping and posting... when I think they're good enough ;)

I'm also experimenting with adding a little diffuse flash as well. Although the sun is reasonably bright, I've found an extra bit of fill seems to help bring out a bit of extra definition. Only downside is it's another variable to get wrong... And I need to avoid blowing out the yellow flowers.
 
pjm1 said:
Cool, thanks Bryn - will keep snapping and posting... when I think they're good enough ;)

I'm also experimenting with adding a little diffuse flash as well. Although the sun is reasonably bright, I've found an extra bit of fill seems to help bring out a bit of extra definition. Only downside is it's another variable to get wrong... And I need to avoid blowing out the yellow flowers.
Click to expand...

Good idea to post your cr@p too as will be able to advise on what's wrong etc... it will speed up your learning. You should look @Carlh photos from a couple of months back when he started posting in here.... ;) and mine from Jan. ;)
 
Thanks Bryn - I just didn't want to clutter too much.

Most frustrating shot so far - think I got the focus point ok but did the unthinkable and trimmed off a wing! :(


Yum... pollen by pjm1 (Paul), on Flickr

As for processing on this one - I just hit Auto tone in LR and then dragged the white point back down to zero. Had I had freer reign technofly might have made a reappearance ;)
 
Clipping bothers lots of people doesn't really bother me too much....

you could always clone out the edge and curve the wing to make it look like it was in the frame... cheating yes but gets around this issue especially when OOF. I have only done this twice in the thousands of photos on flickr and my hard drive full of images.

The main issue this needs rotating CW and also stay away from that awful AUTO button unless you want to ruin a photo... well thats what it does whenever I click it! (Normally after upgrade to see if it has improved)

Best to play with sliders and curves yourself.
 
Thanks Bryn. To be fair, the auto button only really changes exposure because I move the rest back afterwards... I just like to see what it thinks the scene should look like. For some reason it has a habit of moving the white point to blow out highlights - which is odd.

Good point re: CW rotation - doh!
 
For me, I always go for the eyes, but for others, different parts of the body seem to be a preference (maybe the wings, or its mouth) - you're doing amazing so far fella :)
 
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