new pic

southstar066

New member
I am trying to learn more about shooting, especially fish. Please critic. and give advice for better shooting.

Blotchy anthias
DSC_0490-2.jpg


Aussie Acans
DSC_0508.jpg
 
I'm far from an expert, but imo the anthias needed to be shot at a higher shutter speed to get rid of any blur from it being in motion. It just isnt a crisp picture.

The acan shot isnt bad, but it would benefit from having a bigger depth of field, to the point where you get all the tentacles in focus. You use a tripod? If not, you should. You can easily bump your fstop up to 9 or 11ish, and lower your shutter speed down to whatever you need. Just make sure you turn your pumps off a minute or two before you take the picture so it isnt waving in the current.
 
#1 is not in focus. I agree about the higher shutter speed since you only shot it at 1/30". Try 1/250 or above.


#2, you might need to stop down a little.. maybe move your lens back a few inches
 
Thanks for the imput guys, I am using a tripod. So raise the shutter to get ride of the motion blur. and how do you get the whole picture focused? would that be raising the F-stop. I would like to get the outside, tentecles and mouth all in focus. thank fior the help
 
When doing macro shots you'll have a very short depth of field... There are dof calculators on-line to give you an-idea of how narrow...

Image stacking is a good solution to this problem, but that technique takes practice and a specialized software tool.

Remember,
DOF is a factor of Focal Length and Focal Distance and Aperture. You can modify any of those to change the DOF.

To Increase your DOF you can do any or all of the following;
Increase F-Stop (Aperture)
Increase you Distance to the subject (Focal Distance)
Decrease your Focal Length

The challenge with macro photography is, you want to...
Minimize the distance to subject (get close)
And the light is typically "low" so you want to increase your Aperture
And our subjects are "alive" and move, so you need to increase shutter speed.. which often means opening up the aperture... Or going to Higher ISO, which could introduce un-wanted noise.

Hope that helps and doesn't confuse...

Increasing the F-Stop number (F8 increased to F22) creates a larger depth of field.
 
I would also set the focal plane on the acan shot on the mouth of the polyp, kinda like focusing on the eyes of subjects with eyes.
 
Thanks for the advice. I did the changes Fstop to about 20 and and shutter speed at abot 1/200 for fish shooting. Now all I am getting is dark black photos. What am I doing wrond. Thanks for the help.
 
Reducing the aperature (increasing the fstop number) reduced the amount of light coming through the lens. The faster shutterspeed also made the pics darker.

You'll need either more light or to bump up the ISO in order to compensate.
 
F stop is a little confusing to me too. I just remember that the bigger the number, the smaller the hole that light gets in. So you have to compensate with a longer exposure to let more light in with more time. I can get better, more rich colors this way (I think). The opposite goes with moving objects.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14939700#post14939700 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by panic
F stop is a little confusing to me too. I just remember that the bigger the number, the smaller the hole that light gets in. So you have to compensate with a longer exposure to let more light in with more time. I can get better, more rich colors this way (I think). The opposite goes with moving objects.

The more you "stop down" (bigger f-stop number), the greater the depth of field... meaning, a larger area is in focus. If you want to isolate a small object and blur the background, you'd want to "shoot wide open" (lower f-number).

When shooting macro, you have to experiment until you find the sweet spot on your lens. Too shallow and you don't get good focus... too great of a DOF (usually above f/32) can sometimes produce diffraction.

Don't be scared to use higher ISO's as you can easily clean it in post.
 
been said before, but one of the best books out there is Brian Pettersons Understanding Exposure. It should, IMO, come with everyone's birth certificate... :)
 
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