new to macro photography, FZ50 and raynox 150/250

I have been lurking here for a long time admiring the very interesting macro photos in particular. I finally just a few days ago ordered both the 150 and 250 on Amazon and they just arrived yesterday. I must say these things are cool! I have been trying to figure out what to take pictures of and wanted to share a couple that I thought turned out well. There is no PP in any of these, only resize.

The first 2 are of a couple daisies in my backyard with just the 250





Then a close up of the fabric speaker grill in my living room, the magnification of the 250 and 150 stack at full zoom is amazing! I actually made it my PC background. I also took a picture of the carpet, but I cant show that or you will all know how badly I need to clean my carpet.



Then I caught this guy climbing around my roses... The roses were too tall for my tripod so I moved him to the petunias for a photo op. Shortly after I sprayed the rose for aphids. This is also with both the 250 and 150 and full zoom, as slow as aphids move I now appreciate even more some of the macro pictures I see on here!



So any suggestions what I may have done better/different for any of these? I learned the focus doesnt really do much, mostly I move in and out the whole camera to get in focus. Other than that I dont know much about what I am doing. I am sure some more light would help so I could use faster shutter speed. I shot these in full automatic mode, I should at least have manually controlled the aperature so maybe could have achieved slightly more DOF?

hi tom
glad you decided to change from lurker to poster!

the first two flower shots are nicely composed but like the aphid shot, show just how difficult it is to work with a small dof.

ideal settings? I am not in the same legue as some of the posters here but the general opinion seems to be f11 ss200(or higher) works well for the 50 and rays, so you do need lots of light. so here in not so sunny brit that normally means flash and diffuser.

holding the cam? most people here who bug shoot handhold the cam and "rock" back and forwards to get focus (thank God for the flip down lcd!) and then take lots of shots - on average I hit a keeper every 10-20 shots, so dont be afraid to put on ois2 and either continuous or 3 shots.
hope this helps till someone with more macro knowledge posts.
look forward to more
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greg.
somewhere on the fuzzy50 learning curve..........but loving every minute!

albums -
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/hipflaskorama

Good luck with your efforts Tom - it's a lot of fun and a lot of hard work! Do you have a sore neck/arm/shoulder yet? I sure do from my efforts today!!
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Fluzie20, C*n*n Es70, El One

Well done Tom! I'm in the same boat as you, in my case learning how to use the Raynox with the FZ18. Not easy is it?!

The helpful replies I've had on this thread may be of use:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1033&thread=27528611

Best wishes,
Linda
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Hi Tom,
Linda already provided some references for information you need.

I can say try, try, try, .... and try!

I am sure we can see wonderful pictures from you in few weeks!

Good work!

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Rino,
an amateur photographer, not a gear fan!

http://magich.altervista.org

Yes, F11 will give you max DOF. Shutter speed adjust for exposure. I normally shoot in M or A mode.

Have to manage the lighting too. Either using a ext flash, or diffuse your on-board flash to get a better lighting.

--
My Gallery: http://tchuanye.smugmug.com/
My Equipment: http://tchuanye.smugmug.com/gallery/271702

So mostly it sounds like lots of light, high aperature setting, and many many shots are the biggest things I need to work on.

The hardest for me is taking lots and lots of shots of the same thing and I dont know why. Its a digital camera, not like I am wasting film! For some reason I have a natural resistance to waste, maybe I feel guilty using my battery life
I never would have been able to learn photography if I had to buy film!

Thank-you everybody for the suggestions!

Bob Frank & tchuanye posts/galleries would be the places to go for info....

I won't even begin to question or disagree that following the advice of Bob who's pages are referenced in previous replies & or tchuanye isn't a good source for macro technique because I too used/use much of what they suggest when I use a cam that doesn't have a manual focus ring... So anything you can master from Bob or tchuanyes' methods surely won't hurt, regardless of zoom & focus controls.... I'm pretty sure Bob sways to & fro regardless if using either ringed or motorized methods too..

But since getting my FZ30 & now my 50... I've varied my technique to more appropriately take advantage of the features that I appreciate so much more with my FZs that my previous non-ringed cams lacked & that drove me nuts... Especially for such close work, motorized zooms & button-pushing type MF make proper framing & focus that much more difficult, IMO.. There's just no more precise way to do close-ups than with a manual ringed zoom & even more so manual ringed focus... The other zooms & focus methods practically force us to have to do the swaying back & forth to get that final framing & fine-tuned focus although the benefit of the ring control vs non-ring is IMO, more of an issue regarding focus than it is zoom...

I much prefer using the manual focus (Mag-View off) instead of the slight movement of the cam towards or away from the subject to place the field of focus just where it needs to be... It's just so much more fun & makes having the cams that can pull it off that much more of a pleasure.... Not everyone agrees but it works best for me...

I don't use anything as strong as the +8 Raynox 250 neither... I have a +2.5 Oly BMacro & a +4 Canon 250D, with the latter Canon my go-to, 1st choice & prefer to gain more strength via EZmode, when needed although I hope to try stacking them soon... I prefer these over the Raynoxs because they don't vig @ full wide, being they're 55 & 58mm wide diameter... Not a big deal though, since full wide isn't a normal zoom setting I use often during macro shoots... Plus I got those lenses for previous cams & had them already.. The Raynoxs are the best deal on the planet...

The higher the diopter & or zoom, the higher the degree of difficulty... I couldn't imagine hand-holding the Raynoxs stacked @ approx. +12 on anything that isn't pretty much flat, such as a coin, stamp or watch face, considering the DOF has to be barely much deeper than the thickness of a sheet of paper or maybe cardboard, especially @ full zoom & low F/stop numbers...
But I digress...

Even at the mercy of diffraction, generally, locking that sucker at F/11 is the way to go...

I generally use spot meter till I get what I want then lock it with AEL... Then take my time framing/zooming & manually focusing, when I can... Usually shooting bursts when the time to shoot finally comes.... I almost always view through the EVF, except if shooting from the ground up... If the LCD didn't tilt & swivel I'd have no use for the LCD, other than for display purposes for other people to see... I even review in the EVF...

The BMacro came with a flat plastic flash diffuser & I always hold that in front of a flash regardless if it's the on-board or an external... This year I have TTL with the FL50 to look forward to but till I get an off-cam extension cord, that light will always be coming from the same direction but I only use the flash when needed... I try to go with natural light as much as possible...

I try tripods & monopods but if I can get away without them, I will... Those are almost required with my 8080, which is a good cam but even more difficult in pretty much every respect...

Well those are my suggestions, right or wrong, I'll not argue, take em or leave em....
Good luck & don't spare us the embeds....

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magich said:

magich said:

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