Difficult subjects

[PeterD]

The hoverfly has been a challenge to me over the last two days. I was using a Sigma 150mm 2.8 Macro lens with my old Olympus E3 camera. I spent a long time trying to catch one of these in flight. The problem is the size of the insect, it was so small I could not get the camera to focus on it. I tried C-AF and S-AF and still no success. I then tried MF and this is one of the shots I managed to get. The backround colouring is from an oof fence panel and provides a good background to the image.

Any comments would be welcome
Peter

[NickCantle]

I know your frustration Peter, and you've done well. As you say, the background is very complimentary, though not distracting. I too tackled this subject last year and my results were hit and miss, though this was by far the better shot of them all;



Nick

[squishy]

i've been attempting these for ages, and i end up with out of focus little blurs

i'm not giving up though

[foxy mars]

I learned somewhere, that the background out of focus is depth of field. Can't remember now, but something to do with the f.stop setting.

[big bill]

Like the rest tried this out the other day for something new too do and its not easy ,have not looked at results yet still in camera will pluck up courage at some stage to upload to pc and look .
Wanting to try and push myself this year away from bird and landscapes to insects and other macro stuff for the challenge out of the comfort zone that I seem to have got into

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by foxy mars

I learned somewhere, that the background out of focus is depth of field. Can't remember now, but something to do with the f.stop setting.

dof is the area considered to be in-focus. From the actual focus point you get a dof area in-front and behind this point.
The dof varies by a number of factors. The larger the aperture (inverse of f-stop number), the smaller the dof and vice-versa. The further away the subject is from the lens, the greater the dof and vice-versa. A combination of these will give the dof for a particular image.

These factors help to explain why true Macro shots have very shallow dof. To increase the dof for these, you have to significantly increase the f-stop (decrease aperture).

I used the information above to my benefit and focused on the hoverfly from about 2 feet distance.

It also is nigh on imposible to use AF for this type of shot so I opted for MF. The dof therefore became very important to get a reasonable image.

Hope this explanation helps.

Peter

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

I know your frustration Peter, and you've done well. As you say, the background is very complimentary, though not distracting. I too tackled this subject last year and my results were hit and miss, though this was by far the better shot of them all;



Nick

Lovely shot Nick. You have set me a challenge to get a sideways view.

Peter

[PeterD]

Thank you all for replying and contributing to this thread.
Peter

[Connor7]

Best ive got so far with my fz28
Im waiting for one on a sunny day, and just hope i got a macro lens by then

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by Connor7

Best ive got so far with my fz28
Im waiting for one on a sunny day, and just hope i got a macro lens by then

Good shot given poor lighting. I have cheated a bit in using a Macro lens as a 150mm prime. There is a lot to be said for the Macro, it seems to capture lots more detail than a standard lens - even at this distance.
Peter