Some freshwater & marine shoot

[Shadow]

After years of drolling, I finally get my self macro lens last week. Some of the shot I took.

[hwchoy]

second tetra looks good, first one seem to have soft focus, how come?

[Shadow]

not sure, maybe my hand shaking , I'm newbie

[hwchoy]

no no it is not out of focus, it looks like "soft focus" you know those romantic wedding portrait look

[Shadow]

that interesting, I though you need special filter to do that?

[hwchoy]

hahaha that's why that shot so power

[ripley]

Looking at pic 3, I think adjusting the f stop may help.

[Shadow]

you mean need the background to be blurrier? Currently using f/6.3. No idea why I set to 6.3 probably after taking other photo forgot to set it back . It my first time having macro lens, will pay attention next time.

[desmondekker]

very nice shots. magazine style

[Shadow]

Thanks for the complement. I'm still newbie on fish phototaking, I was attending fish photo workshop organize by AQ last year or 2 years ago but only buy the lens few weeks ago . Lucky still remember Benny teaching

[zonkkie]

Very nice! Got the lens from the PC show? Surfing this forum really makes your poor, buy fish, buy equipment. Then have to buy camera to take your nice aquascapes and fishes....

By the way, it is 2010 already. Time to update the (c) 2009 Robert.

[Shadow]

arg....... FORGOT .....

[fotoudavid]

The 3rd picture you focus on the wrong place, try to remember to focus on the eyes. Anyway, you use 100mm lens?

As unsure of the iso you set, i notice that you set 1/100 on the shutter, handheld?

If handheld, gotta use faster speed.

[Shadow]

Iso 400, shutter 1/100. The camera+lens is heavy and the fish keep moving. I aim for the eye but miss by a bit. Bellow is the focus info

[fotoudavid]

No wonder, the fin is in focus not the eyes.
anyway, iso 400, push to 1200, wb need to set, as may have orange cast, and speed go faster, so you not that worry about movement.

the reason is been the subject moving, and the gear is heavy, so you need higher speed for it.

[desmondekker]

i'm rather surprised that you're shooting at ISO 400. you mean flash wasn't fired? anyway good point about keeping the eyes sharp, i read the "notes for contributors" for PFK magazines, that's the top of the list.

[hwchoy]

Robert, did you flash? was it RAW? and what's your aperture?

if you use flash in aperture priority mode, you may set your custom function to fix your shutter speed (usually 1/200 or 1/250s).

lastly, when photographing anything with an eye, it must be in focus. for larger creatures, the eyes should also have a catch light (a reflection of a light source, usually your flash). this is why when we should portraits even bright day light we still use a flash or reflector to generate that catchlight.

[Shadow]

Thank you for the tip did't know that need catch light

Aperture is f/6.3, currently I always shot raw. I shot in manual mode.

I think the maximum shutter speed I can set was 1/200. I do not really understand the shutter speed. My Canon 400D spec says the shutter speed can go up/down to 1/4000 but I can't reach that with Canon 100mm USM lens. Does my camera have problem or it is dependent of the lens?

[hwchoy]

Thank you for the tip did't know that need catch light

Aperture is f/6.3, currently I always shot raw. I shot in manual mode.

I think the maximum shutter speed I can set was 1/200. I do not really understand the shutter speed. My Canon 400D spec says the shutter speed can go up/down to 1/4000 but I can't reach that with Canon 100mm USM lens. Does my camera have problem or it is dependent of the lens?

for a good macro (unless you are messing with bokeh and such) you should be looking at ƒ/11 and smaller (ie larger f number) in order to maximise depth of field. so very soon you will realise why we have been emphasising flash and the more the merrier ;@)

when you use flash, the shutter speed is limited to a max of your camera's x-sync (which is 1/200s in your case). however you can bypass this by enabling high speed sync on your flash units (the H symbol).

in your custom function you can force the shutter to be fixed at x-sync, or be governed by metering, when in aperture mode. in any other mode it will be either through metering or via your setting. if you enable high speed sync you can push your shutter speed higher than 1/200s in shutter priority mode.

continue shooting in RAW

[Shadow]

ah.... so that the H symbol for

Thank you for the tips