C&C on my Very First Macro Pics Please?

[Ancike]

I shot these using a Canon Powershot SX120 IS. These are my very first macro pictures with any camera. I am pretty new to photography. If anyone has any questions, please ask.

I know this one is a little blurry.

 

[Rekd]

If you've got bigger copies, post them up! It's hard to see any detail on these.

I LOLed at rollie-pollie

 

[Ancike]

Here they are bigger.

 

[Rekd]

What lens did you use? Seems they should be a bit crisper, closer. Especially 2, 4 and 5. 1 could use better bokeh, perhaps with a focal point at the bottom of the pods.

Also, if you can get closer, zoom in, and use a tripod if you can. Overall not terrible for your first ones. I'm sure the originals have much better detail. Keep shooting!

 

[Ancike]

I used the lens that is on my SX120 Is. It's a point and shoot. I don't think I can change the lenses. I agree with you about bokeh and #1. I just don't know how to do it. Also, I may invest in a tripod if I think about doing this seriously. Thank you for your C&C.

 

[Overread]

Firstly I always find it harder to comment on point and shoot shots simply because I don't know how much control over the camera you can have as a user - so I'm sorry if I say suggest something that you can't do with the camera.

Right now that is out of the way onto the shots: First thing I have to say is that you appear to be getting the focus right where you want it to be in most of the shots, I think you did in the first, but you might have been aiming for the very tip of the flowery thingy (can't remember its name) and in the last shot it appears that you caught the back of the leaf and missed the bud.

Secondly your getting the one advantage and disadvantage of shooting with a point and shoot camera and that is the fact that they actaully have very good depth of field (Area of a shot in focus) even when compared to a DSLR (infact point and shoots have more). This of course gives you the advantage that you can cover the detail in a subject well, but it also means (as your finding out) that backgrounds can becomes busy with distracting elements that have not quite blurred away.
If you have control over it - then I suggest varying the aperture for your macro shots - a smaller f number means a bigger aperture, which in turn means a smaller depth of field (small number small depth). That means more background blur as well. So play with it and see what the different apertures give you and how you can adjust it to give you what you want.
Secondly you can control the scene - select areas where there is a bigger divide between your subject and the background (rather like the last shot). That will help you throw hte background more out of focus still.

In addition a fiar few of the shots are very central in appearance and I suspect this strongly links to the fact that AF is the best way to focus and any manual focusing is not working that well for you thus far (typcally manual focusing where it is present on point and shoots is slow and innacurate). One way to overcome this (again if you can do this with your camera) is to set the focus to manual, set that to focus as close as you can and then move the camera toward and away from the subject untill the area on the shot that you want in focus is - then gently press the shutter button.

A tripod will give you a lot of help for such shots and for static things like flowers its a great thing to use. Also try to pick very still days, if its windy your subjects will be blowing in all directions.

Overall for early work I like what I see and I think your doing well with the gear you have. If macro is a bigger interest for you I would suggest having a look around flickr and the net and considering a Raynox DCR 150 or 250 macro diopter (also gets called filter). That would give you even more magnifiaction that you are currently getting - something that would let you frame the fly or woodlouse filling a considerable amount of the shot.

 

[Ancike]

Overread, thank you so much! You gave me a lot of great information and I will definitely try some of the tips you gave me!

I'm still learning about my camera but there is a manual setting so I will see what I can do with that.

 

[jack lumber]

Try this trick for a make shift support ,HOWTO make a camera stabilizer out of string, a screw and a washer - Boing Boing

 

[Ancike]

Thanks!