First day with my new camera.

[DJChesnutRabbit]

I just got a D80 yesterday and these are my first attempts at some macro shots. I'm using a Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 macro lens. I can see that my field of view looks relatively small in most of the pics. I tried to change the aperture setting on the lens, but the camera kept giving me an error message, so I'm assuming I need to go change the setting in the camera to a manual setting. I have some reading to do on the operation of this beast.

Anyhow, if you guys have any tips or critiques, please share.
Watermelon

Bubblegum Monster

Purple War Coral

Prism Favia

AE Pink Lava

My Arc Eye Hawk

Garf Bonsai

Some Aussie Acans

 

[DJChesnutRabbit]

More Pics

More Pics

Rainbow Palys

Idaho Grape

Hyacinth Birdsnest

Ponape Birdsnest & PPE's

 

[Slakker]

I love the D80...been wanting one for years. Someday

Pics look good...focus is a little bit off on a few of them, but that will come with time.

 

[fancyfish]

what settings are you using. do you have a speed light? I use a d40x with a 60mm af-s lens and find that shutter mode vs aperture mode works better for close ups on the tank. I use the speed light sb 400. most of my photos are taken with iso 400. try to play around with this mode and see what happens.

 

[maxalmon]

It's so much fun when you get your first DSLR. Looks like you have a fantastic selection of coral so you'll have lots of fun in the future.

Once you get thru all the learning curves you'll discover that a Tripod is an absolute when doing macro, also use a remote shutter or the timer feature.

One of the best ways to learn the camera is to start in the "A" mode and teach yourself how to control depth of field. Easy way to learn this is to fix the camera on a specific coral(use tripod), set the camera to "A" mode dial the fstop to 2.8, take pic, then without moving the camera or changing anything else dial the fstop up one setting to 3.2, repeat this step till you get all the way to something like 22. Then review all the images and you'll see how this changes the depth of field.

Also, clean the glass on the inside of the tank and I mean clen it really good as there is always a thin film of algae on the inside glass this will cause minor focus issues and the trick with macro work is to eliminate all the small things that cause problems.

Have fun and look forward to see more images...

 

[DJChesnutRabbit]

This is my second DSLR, but my first real serious one. I have been holding out for the D80 while eyeing the D40 and D60. I was fortuate that some fellow reefer friends were upgrading and got a pretty good deal on the D80. It's a hard pill to swallow looking at cameras upwards of a grand. I just happened in to a right time, right place scenario.

maxalmon, thanks for the great tip adjusting the f-stop. I'll give that a try. It's been about 20 years since high school photography class. Back then though I was winding film on to my own rolls and developing my own film and paper.

I stopped by and talked to the guys I got the camera from and it does appear I had the camera set to auto, oops. I do have a tripod as well, but I left it in the wife's car, so after I come back from vacation next week, I'll post some more pics which, I hope, will be much improved.

Thanks for the comments and tips guys. It's much appreciated. If anyone has any websites dedicated to the D80 or Nikon cameras, with tips and tricks, please let me know. Thanks again.

 

[DJChesnutRabbit]

Oh and fancyfish, I have no clue what settings it was on, but I did have the common sense to set the ISO to 400.

 

[maxalmon]

Another thing I learned that when doing macro work on corals is to shoot directly at the subject, don't stand above the subject and shoot down, try and keep it at eye level.

Sometimes this requires staging the corals for the best shot. I created an area in my tank where I have a clean background and where I can move the corals around for the best possible shot. The war coral, if you were to tilt it down so that the polyps were directly infront of you would make for a much better shot.
When you shoot straight dead on, it give the image more perspective, like it's right in front of you. This Sunset is not the best, but gives you the idea

That Prizm Favia is killer! I got burnt on a coral buy several months ago on a 15 polyp Prizm frag, it was the one coral I was dying to photograph

 

[fancyfish]

your a lucky man getting a deal on the d80. I am surprised people did not bash me with my shutter speed comment as most will say use aperture or manual mode. I however shoot in the raw, adjust with aperture for mac and get decent photos. post more when you can. have fun

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

We would bash you for using shutter priority because with close up shots using a telephoto lens, DOF is super critical. You have a much wider DOF margine to play with using a normal 60mm lens. The OP is using a 50mm lens so hes in the same boat. The guys with the 100mm macros or the 150mm sigma...they need that narrow aperture or only 1 polyp will be in focus. If you are using a narrow aperture, the shutter speeds will probably be pretty low. With a tripod, which you should be using anyway, shutter speed just doesn't matter very much while aperture is huge. Shutter speed priority seems silly by comparison to aperture priority or manual. What sounded weird to me about your advise wasn't the shutter priority, but that you always use ISO 400. Unless you have to use ISO 400, 100 makes much more sense. What sounded very weird to me is that you recommend using a speed light with shutter priority...which doesn't make sense at all.

 

[fancyfish]

TitusvileSurfer
I just seem to get better photos with this. I am a total newbie at the photography but am learning. maybe when I get better I will change. Just throwing in my two cents as to what works for me. I am going to play around with the tripod and aperture mode and see what happens. Hopefully I can get better photos.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

When using shutter priority and a speed light...what shutter speed do you select?