[jockwav]

Any help on what i may have done wrong would be great,i think i need it.

[jockwav]

[WOODY]

GREAT SHOTS.

[jockwav]

Thanks woody,i have a lot to learn but i have picked up a few pointers on here already.

[Boofers]

Grass hopper looks great, the others are little to washed out in the whites. If your using a flash it needs to be diffused. Keep try'n, I have been using my tripod without my flash just to get used to moving the tripod. It is paying off as I am getting used to moving it around and adjusting it more then I ever have,,making me feel good plus the pictures come out sharper. I might start using a flash when I get better.

[jockwav]

Where i was it wasnt possible to use a tripod,but i take your point about a little washed out,but for my first macro shots i am fairly pleased but will work on the lighting more next time,thanks for your comments.

[stepheno]

As Boofers said the grasshopper is superb. But...the others are soft with no point really tack sharp. Also I think they are rather saturated. I'd be well pleased with the grasshopper though

[jockwav]

Thanks stepheno i will just have to keep on practicing.

[Rob Barron]

The difficulty with these is getting a large enough depth of field to keep the focus sharp. But more important is that you keep the part sharp exactly where you want it. In other words, I would want the head and eyes of the insects to be very sharp and can then live with other parts blurring off. However, with butterflies I definitely want to see most if not all of one wing nice and sharp.

To keep a wing in focus, you either need to go down to a smaller aperture or to set the camera so that the plane of the wing is parrallel to the plane of the sensor so that it is all within the sharp DoF area.

If you are using a macro lens, and actually even if not but trying for macro shots, put the camera in manual focusing and then move the camera backwards and forwards to focus the camera. This is not easy, especially hand-held, but definitely the best way rather than using autofocus. The problem with AF, especially when this close, is that the camera will likely choose the part nearest the camera to be sharpest and that will often not be the part you want.

Keep on practicing and show us some more of your endeavours. I am certain you'll pick up a lot as you practice this technique and the results will be well worth it

Cheers,
Rob

[jockwav]

Thanks for your comments,i was using my tamron 90mm macro in manual mode for some of the shots.
Now after taking a lot of shots at the weekend,a lot of which i discarded i am begining to understand a bit more about different f/ number settings,i will keep at it,thanks.

[Leezon]

do you have focus points through when you look through the view finder? I'm not sure about on your canon but on my D200 i can focus on any one of 11 points in the shot by selecting which one i want to be in focus.. If you can do that then you can just select the part of the subject you want in focus without having to move around

[Rob Barron]

The problem with that Leezon is that you will struggle to get pin sharp focusing with AF at close range with macro. Bear in mind, you will often have a depth of field as low as 1 or 2mm and it is hard to make certain the camera is focusing precisely on the point you want it to, even with the focusing points indicating in the viewfinder. With macro, manual focus is nearly always better when you can.

Cheers,
Rob

[dreamland101]

They are great shots! If I could get shots like this I would be a happy man!