help with macro's

[JGoslee]

I got my canon XT around Christmas time along with the canon 100mm macro lens. I've been slowly getting better at taking pics but I'm still having trouble with a few things. I have a hard time getting the camera settings right for the amount of light that is over my tank. I usually have to put a piece of plastic on top of my tank to block out some of the light to get a decent pic. Is there something I can do with the camera settings that would help? I also have problems with my processing. I use DxO Optics elite to convert my pics from raw to jpeg and then I use paintshop to resize the pics. When ever I try to correct a photo it usually looks fake. So I just use the DxO auto processing. Here's a few pics I took recently. If someone could give me some feedback on how I could have made the pics better that would be great. I had the camera on aperture priority, iso 200-400, f12-20. Thanks

 

[jafoca]

I think your photos look great! I am planning on getting that lens sometime soonish, it is $$$ though (as are most lenses...).

Just curious - do the second palys you posted pictures of have a name? I got some of them recently in a pack. The mouth on mine seems a bit greenish though, but same disc pattern and green on fringes..

 

[JGoslee]

Those are called Titanium palys.

 

[MarvinsReef]

Those are called Titanium palys.

that reminds me Jesse... wanna submit those to ZoaID?

and I think your photos are great... but I know how it is.. always want to improve...

keep it up bro...

 

[ryno212]

great photos!!!!

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Those are spectacular. Depth of field is really good and the color is great. The improvement I see is frankly astounding.

A bit of an improvement might be made by under exposing both of the shots by a half to a full stop. That would eliminate the hot spots that you see and create a bit more texture.

But by all means both of the shots are very, very good.

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Very Very nice pics IMO... Keep up the good work. I need to get one of those fancy cameras. I'm still rockin the $100 fuji finepix point and shoot.

Yes, come on over to the dark side.

 

[surfn]

I got my canon XT around Christmas time along with the canon 100mm macro lens. I've been slowly getting better at taking pics but I'm still having trouble with a few things. I have a hard time getting the camera settings right for the amount of light that is over my tank. I usually have to put a piece of plastic on top of my tank to block out some of the light to get a decent pic. Is there something I can do with the camera settings that would help? I also have problems with my processing. I use DxO Optics elite to convert my pics from raw to jpeg and then I use paintshop to resize the pics. When ever I try to correct a photo it usually looks fake. So I just use the DxO auto processing. Here's a few pics I took recently. If someone could give me some feedback on how I could have made the pics better that would be great. I had the camera on aperture priority, iso 200-400, f12-20. Thanks

i use the cannon software that came with my XTi, and I take all of my pictures in RAW format, and then just mess with the lighting in the program. the camera settings quite complicated, and i figured out (after alot of reading and studying), that it takes pretty good pics in AV mode at 200 ISO, can't remember the f stop is...i just leave it as is though.

but yeah, key is taking the pics in RAW then formating them before you change them to jpeg.

theres an option on the "digital photo professional" package that you use to change the RAW pics, and when you convert them to jpeg you can resize them at the same time. unless of course you are cropping etc.

 

[JGoslee]

Those are spectacular. Depth of field is really good and the color is great. The improvement I see is frankly astounding.

A bit of an improvement might be made by under exposing both of the shots by a half to a full stop. That would eliminate the hot spots that you see and create a bit more texture.

But by all means both of the shots are very, very good.

Is the f stop the same as the aperture dial? If it's not then I have no idea where it is on the camera and what it doe's!

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Yes, exactly. For example if you shot these at say f8, leave the shutter speed as it was and take them again at f9 or maybe even f10 without changing the amount of light hitting the subject.

If you need a certain depth of field to make the shot look a certain way, you can also under expose by raising the shutter speed.

A little more detialed, but really the best tool would be to play around with EV bracketing to get a proper balance with the highlights vs low light areas.

 

[JGoslee]

Ok I think I understand what your saying. So if I wanted to underexpose these pics I would use a higher f stop?

 

[Nikon_Guy]

Ok I think I understand what your saying. So if I wanted to underexpose these pics I would use a higher f stop?

Yes, that is the basic idea.

If you have the manual to the camera, look up and read about EV bracketing capabilities. That will let you over expose or under expose in much smaller increments. Some pros will take several pictures of the same subject with different ev values and combine the images to create a really rich and detailed photograh. Of course this doesn't work well with a moving subject or camera.

 

[JGoslee]

Thanks for all the great help Nikon guy!