Got the S45, macro is "okay"

Rob Harris · Mar 10, 2003

My Canon 1DS is a bit much for quick shots and too complicated for the wife, so we still used my trusty Nikon 990. I replaced the 990 with the S45. The Nikon was far superior to the S45 in the macro department, but the overall picture qualityof the S45 is better. Canon's colors are almost always spot on, while being a bit sharper than the Nikon. Anyone else have better luck with macro's with the S45? Is there anything to get better macro performance?
--
Rob Harris

Brian G. · Mar 10, 2003

Hi Rob,

Get the CKC adapter or equivalent and some 37mm close-up lenses for your S45, and you'll have better macro performance than your Nikon was capable of. I've gotten full-frame captures of only 8x11mm at a working distance of 19mm this way. If you'd like to take a look, there are many macro shots on my web gallery taken with my S30 and close-ups.

Hope this helps.

~~Brian~~

Rob Harris said:
Anyone else have better luck with macro's with the
S45? Is there anything to get better macro performance?
--
Rob Harris

--
Brian
Gallery: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/My%20Web%20Gallery/index.htm

AdamW · Mar 10, 2003

Rob Harris said:
My Canon 1DS is a bit much for quick shots and too complicated for
the wife, so we still used my trusty Nikon 990. I replaced the 990
with the S45. The Nikon was far superior to the S45 in the macro
department, but the overall picture qualityof the S45 is better.
Canon's colors are almost always spot on, while being a bit sharper
than the Nikon. Anyone else have better luck with macro's with the
S45? Is there anything to get better macro performance?

Many times I have tried to take macro shots with flash with the S45, and they're all overexposed. After the shoot two days ago, here's the tip: use maximum telephoto for flash macro. The slow aperture of F4.9 cuts down a lot of the unnecessary flash power, and there is much less distortion than the same shot in wide-angle. The tradeoff is that you get a larger minimum macro focusing distance.

Rob Harris · Mar 10, 2003

I'll look into an adapter for the close up lenses too.

Y · Mar 10, 2003

Brian G. said:
Get the CKC adapter or equivalent and some 37mm close-up lenses for
your S45, and you'll have better macro performance than your Nikon
was capable of. I've gotten full-frame captures of only 8x11mm at
a working distance of 19mm this way. If you'd like to take a look,
there are many macro shots on my web gallery taken with my S30 and
close-ups.

Hope this helps.

~~Brian~~

Rob Harris said:

Anyone else have better luck with macro's with the
S45? Is there anything to get better macro performance?
--
Rob Harris

Click to expand...

--
Brian
Gallery:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/My%20Web%20Gallery/index.htm

I've had the S45 for a month now and am quite happy with all the pictures I had taken so far. I'm new to photography and still learning. What I like to know is how to take macro shot of flowers with blurred background. Any help on this is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Godfrey

Steve110587 · Mar 12, 2003

isn't there a setting where you can decrease the flash output ???

AdamW said:
Rob Harris said:

My Canon 1DS is a bit much for quick shots and too complicated for
the wife, so we still used my trusty Nikon 990. I replaced the 990
with the S45. The Nikon was far superior to the S45 in the macro
department, but the overall picture qualityof the S45 is better.
Canon's colors are almost always spot on, while being a bit sharper
than the Nikon. Anyone else have better luck with macro's with the
S45? Is there anything to get better macro performance?

Click to expand...

Many times I have tried to take macro shots with flash with the
S45, and they're all overexposed. After the shoot two days ago,
here's the tip: use maximum telephoto for flash macro. The slow
aperture of F4.9 cuts down a lot of the unnecessary flash power,
and there is much less distortion than the same shot in wide-angle.
The tradeoff is that you get a larger minimum macro focusing
distance.

maynardf1 · Mar 12, 2003

To blur the background, ie. decrease the depth of field, you need to open the aperature as wide as possible, 2.8 for the s45.

The other thing you could do is use the flash on the second curtain setting, with a longer exposure and move the camera a little to blur the background. Different than just blurring the background but interesting too.

yap said:
Brian G. said:

Get the CKC adapter or equivalent and some 37mm close-up lenses for
your S45, and you'll have better macro performance than your Nikon
was capable of. I've gotten full-frame captures of only 8x11mm at
a working distance of 19mm this way. If you'd like to take a look,
there are many macro shots on my web gallery taken with my S30 and
close-ups.

Hope this helps.

~~Brian~~

Rob Harris said:

Anyone else have better luck with macro's with the
S45? Is there anything to get better macro performance?
--
Rob Harris

Click to expand...

--
Brian
Gallery:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/My%20Web%20Gallery/index.htm

Click to expand...

I've had the S45 for a month now and am quite happy with all the
pictures I had taken so far. I'm new to photography and still
learning. What I like to know is how to take macro shot of flowers
with blurred background. Any help on this is appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Godfrey

--
http://www.pbase.com/maynardf1/galleries

Carl Lum · Mar 12, 2003

Rob Harris said:
Is there anything to get better macro performance?

You're pretty well stuck with what you've got, unless you go for a close-up adapter. But here's a hint that'll improve the quality of your macro shots: set the camera to Vivid--this really brings out the detail of your close-ups.

If you use flash and the shots are overexposed, use the telephoto trick that someone mentioned earlier and/or hold a sheet of tissue paper over the flash. I hear that this works quite well.

I'm not sure if shooting with manual flash and then dialling down the power will work, because presumably the camera has already attempted to "dial itself" down to its minimum setting when flashing in auto.

Carl

Brian G. · Mar 12, 2003

Hi Godfrey,

There are three things that will affect Depth of Field and consequently, how blurred your backgrounds are. They are:

1) Aperature. You will have achieve the shallowest depth of field using the most open aperatures. Lower F number=wider aperature opening=lesser depth of field.

2) Focal length. You will achieve the shallowest depth of field using the longest focal lengths. Higher zooming=shallower depth of field

3) Camera-to-subject distance. You will achieve the shallowest depth of field as you get closer to your subject (as your camera-to-subject distance decreases.)

So to get the shalowest possible depth of field, you would want to be at full zoom, with the most open aperature (smallest F number) and at the minimun distance you can be to focus on your subject. This will blur your background the most.

Now having said all that, it should be mentioned that it is not always possible/desireable to go for the absolute shallowest depth of field. There are optical distortions associated with wide-open aperatures, for example, and there may be creative reasons also for not doing this. Still, it will get you maximally blurred backgrounds.

Hope this helps. Also- I've got a bunch of macros on my web gallery taken with my S30 if you'd like to take a look. Feedback would be appreciated.

Regards,
Brian

yap said:
I've had the S45 for a month now and am quite happy with all the
pictures I had taken so far. I'm new to photography and still
learning. What I like to know is how to take macro shot of flowers
with blurred background. Any help on this is appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Godfrey

--
Brian
Gallery: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/My%20Web%20Gallery/index.htm

Y · Mar 12, 2003

Thanks a lot for your tips!

maynardf1 said:
The other thing you could do is use the flash on the second curtain
setting, with a longer exposure and move the camera a little to
blur the background. Different than just blurring the background
but interesting too.

yap said:

Brian G. said:

Get the CKC adapter or equivalent and some 37mm close-up lenses for
your S45, and you'll have better macro performance than your Nikon
was capable of. I've gotten full-frame captures of only 8x11mm at
a working distance of 19mm this way. If you'd like to take a look,
there are many macro shots on my web gallery taken with my S30 and
close-ups.

Hope this helps.

~~Brian~~

Rob Harris said:

Anyone else have better luck with macro's with the
S45? Is there anything to get better macro performance?
--
Rob Harris

Click to expand...

--
Brian
Gallery:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/My%20Web%20Gallery/index.htm

Click to expand...

I've had the S45 for a month now and am quite happy with all the
pictures I had taken so far. I'm new to photography and still
learning. What I like to know is how to take macro shot of flowers
with blurred background. Any help on this is appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Godfrey

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/maynardf1/galleries

Y · Mar 12, 2003

Hi Brian,
Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.

Rgds,
Godfrey

Brian G. said:
There are three things that will affect Depth of Field and
consequently, how blurred your backgrounds are. They are:

1) Aperature. You will have achieve the shallowest depth of field
using the most open aperatures. Lower F number=wider aperature
opening=lesser depth of field.

2) Focal length. You will achieve the shallowest depth of field
using the longest focal lengths. Higher zooming=shallower depth of
field

3) Camera-to-subject distance. You will achieve the shallowest
depth of field as you get closer to your subject (as your
camera-to-subject distance decreases.)

So to get the shalowest possible depth of field, you would want to
be at full zoom, with the most open aperature (smallest F number)
and at the minimun distance you can be to focus on your subject.
This will blur your background the most.

Now having said all that, it should be mentioned that it is not
always possible/desireable to go for the absolute shallowest depth
of field. There are optical distortions associated with wide-open
aperatures, for example, and there may be creative reasons also for
not doing this. Still, it will get you maximally blurred
backgrounds.

Hope this helps. Also- I've got a bunch of macros on my web
gallery taken with my S30 if you'd like to take a look. Feedback
would be appreciated.

Regards,
Brian

yap said:

I've had the S45 for a month now and am quite happy with all the
pictures I had taken so far. I'm new to photography and still
learning. What I like to know is how to take macro shot of flowers
with blurred background. Any help on this is appreciated. Thanks
in advance.

Godfrey

Click to expand...

--
Brian
Gallery:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/spiritmist/My%20Web%20Gallery/index.htm

AdamW · Mar 12, 2003

stephen rudolph said:
isn't there a setting where you can decrease the flash output ???

Yes, but it isn't nearly as effective as using a smaller aperture, IMO.

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Got the S45, macro is "okay"

Rob Harris

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