Macro pics (first attempts)

[scorpiocasper]

Just got my 100mm macro lens for the Canon Rebel Xsi.

Still playing with it and trying different adjustments. My next task will be to do the White balance. I am still having problems getting true colors and hitting the focal point. These are some of my better ones (least embarrassing), I took hundreds!

Any other suggestions? I was using a tri pod and do my best to shoot straight on.

angel

Bennett tort

blue ric

bubble coral

cardinal

clown pair

clown yawn

zoos

frogspawn

green yuma

 

[scorpiocasper]

neon green acro (this one is in the back of the tank and has the most color distortion)

purple lace

micromussa

pbt

pectina

platy mountain

red shrooms

 

[scorpiocasper]

sailfin

"Stay away paparazzi!!"

radient wrasse

yellow tang

 

[littletruong]

nice! i love the colors on the radiant wrasse!

 

[lockekeyy]

looks good! I love the clown yawn pic!

 

[Recty]

Nice pictures, one thing you could do differently is up your ISO and your shutter speed.

1/60th shutter speed is what you are using for your fish, which is really slow really for a moving object. You should bump it up if you can to at least 1/125th or 1/160th. You can lower your aperture to f2.8 to get more light into the picture, just know that it will make your depth of field less so you'll really have to pick your targets carefully.

But anyway, they are good pictures.

 

[scorpiocasper]

Thanks Recty! I tried playing with the shutter speed and bumped it to 1/200, but didn't seem to get much better. I was trying to wark a newer camera, a brand new lens (less than a week old) and a new tripod too! Lots of new things to remember.

I will try again tomorrow after some more research and reading. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Haha you'll get it. For round 1 I would say you are doing just fine. Have patients and stick with it. A couple of guys got this lens in today, was there some sale I didn't hear about? Pushing up your shutter speed is always going to be plus. 1/200 should be plenty though. You might want to try mirror lockup on the coral pictures...but again 1/200 shold make that point invalid. Maybe you aren't hitting the focus dead on and your DOF is so tiny it didn't work out? Look at the mushroom for instance. The fold crossing over the smaller shroom is VERY sharp and the rest is just kind of...ehhh. That would be DOF. For your colors, RAW is your friend. If you want "true" colors I think you would practically have to shoot RAW.

 

[90sShooter]

Sorry to drop in, but what is mirror lock-up? Also if you shoot in RAW, do you HAVE to do PP on your photos? I am still a little confused about RAW other than it is "RAW" and does not compress the photo, how exactly does it differ? Again sorry if I am hijacking...

Thanks TS!

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Yes if you shoot RAW you have to PP. If you have no intention of PPing, your better off shooting JPEG. When you look through the viewfinder (of a DSLR) a series of mirrors transmit the image through the lens to your eye. The image sensor (film) is behind one of these mirrors. For the image sensor to see through the lens, a mirror has to flip up (this makes the viewfinder go black as the picture is being taken). Then the aperture closes, the shutter opens, the flash fires, the shutter closes, and the aperture opens. Finally the mirror flips back up and you can see through the lens again.
The mirror flipping up crates a lot of internal vibration. You can use a custom function (Canon) which will flip the mirror up and lock it in place. You can't look through the viewfinder anymore but your camera is shaking around that much less. For a still subject (especially long exposure) you can focus where you want, set the shot up, lock the mirror up, and take a sharper picture than before.

C. fn III_7 is the setting on my 40D. Each camera will be a little different (some can't even do it).

 

[90sShooter]

wow that makes sense actually Where would I find this on my XSi and can how would I execute this? is is something the camera will do automatically when set to do so. For example, is it a setting that will make the camera flip up the mirror, lock it, pause for a second to stop vibration then take the photo? or is it a option that I have to go into, lock the mirror up, then get out and take the picture, then go back and undo it? On the XSi can I still access live view? as I believe in liveview the mirror is up anyway right? cause the sensor is what allows the image to display on the screen, right? If so, can I just not worry about this if I use liveview for macro shots anyway?

Also one last question, a little off topic, do you know much about using liveview via computer? I am pretty sure I read that you can hook up the XSi to your computer via USB and access liveview on your computer monitor (luckily my computer is adjacent to my tank ). What are major pros or cons of using such a feature? Can I snap the picture via the computer to also help reduce vibration (without using a seperate remote or self timer)? Just curious, I am sure I can read up on it, but I wanted your take on the feature. Thanks again!

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Live view is basically mirror lockup. Just use live view and your good. =)

I have only used the feature on the compute once, just to try. Unfortunately I don't have anything particularly interesting next to my computer so I took a picture of my surf board quiver. It seemed like a cool system. If you work in a sudio, DMV, jail, or a reef tank is right next to your computer I think this could be a great asset. The pros are having a huge true color (if your monitor is calibrated) LCD instead of the 3" on the camera. You can change your settings and wait patiently from the comfort of your computer chair for a fish to swim at just the right spot. The cons are you have to have the camera within an USB cords reach of a computer. You don't seem to have many cons.

 

[scorpiocasper]

Don't worry 90s shooter, this is info I need too! Thanks!

I just found the live view today and will play around with that. Will have to try the computer hook up, having a laptop has some advantages here.

Now to the dumb questions.. how do you get into RAW mode? What is PPing? I have a 2 yr old and that means something very different right now. lol

 

[90sShooter]

That's what I figured

Well I got my 100mm macro in the mail today and WOW! I am loving this thing, I will post pics in another thread... Live view is definitely useful with Macro shots! In fact, I don't know how I would do without it... To shoot in RAW hit menu, if it does not default in the first category (with red camera icon (with one white dot in upper right corner)) then scroll left or right to get there. The first option is quality, hit set. Then scroll right and down to "RAW" or just to the right and it will record in RAW AND JPEG ( I think... lol)

o and "PP" = Post processing

HTH :thumbsup:

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Post processing = editing

Editing isn't cheating. Editing is the intelligent way to go about it. All RAW files MUST be PPed in some way. Most computer programs can't even see what the photo looks like until it has been edited. JPEG is a setting where the camera does the editing for you...for better or for worse. It creates much smaller file sizes than RAW, because after the picture is edited any unnecessary information is discarded. This will allow you to fit many more pictures on a memory card, but all of that unnecessary information becomes very desirable if you decide to edit the picture later. Memory cards are so cheap these days, I don't see any excuse not to shoot RAW, especially when shooting a reef.

 

[scorpiocasper]

Figured it was editing, but wanted to make sure.
Thanks everyone!