First attempts with Av Mode for Macro work

[Hepialid]

Folks, had some time on my hands this afternoon due to being on hols. Decided to start having a dabble with some of my cameras functionality. Had a go using the preset Macro mode, which has yielded some ok results. Wanted to try and increase the depth of field a little though.

I would appreciate any thoughts and constructive critiscm on these couple of samples of an open pine cone taken on the table top. Settings used were Av mode, ISO 100, F20, 1 and 1/3 under exposure with a shutter speed of 0.8 seconds on a Canon EOS 500D with a Canon IS 18-55 kit lens.

1,

2,

hopefully second attempt works at getting the pics up here.

 

[ChrisA]

Yes, your shots work well. Not sure why you need quite so much exposure compensation in them but they look ok here.

The DOF you've obtained is now probably too high at F20, as you can see the field of view is going far back into the table. If that's what you want to achieve then fine. However now you've moved off the auto mode, you might want to experiment not only with increased DOF, but also with shallower DOF, try just getting cone in focus, or even move to a v.shallow DOF say F4 and only get a bit. It'll help you work out what you can get with the lens at different apertures.

 

[Hepialid]

Chris, thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. I tried to go for a greater depth of field as the standard macro gave a shallow approach, probably took it a little too far though. Will keep experimenting.

Andy.