New Guy

[amwilliams9]

Hello all, I'm not new to taking pictures (if that what I can call it) But I am new to the SLR cameras. Up until today I had really just used a point and shoot camera to take pictures of my hobby. I collect watches and love taking Macro shots. The problem is I really suck at it. So I received a gift from my lovely wife a Olympus 510 SLR camera for my birthday. Problem is I have found out quickly that.....I'm in really deep trouble. I can't use the same techniques(if you can call it that) to take pictures. Sooooooo I NEED HELP!!! First I am baffled at the settings I need. Everything I have tried leaves me depressed. I have a better camera but worse pics. Suggestions?

[Frog]

Welcome to the forums.
You will be able to get better macro shots with your dslr but it will take some learning and probably a macro lense or some extension tubes.
The best thing to do for people here to help you would be to post a shot or two and we could probably guide you in what you'll need to learn and/or do.
Good luck!

[Anbesol]

You need to pay much more attention, and be much more conscious of your metering, pay more attention to your focus type, and focus point, and be more familiar with your lens. Once you are, you probably won't want to touch your old point and shoot ever again ;)

Macro's are a heck of a lot of fun, and when very few subjects or scenery around to shoot, you can always find something fun for macro. BUT, Macros are much more difficult - they have much narrower depth of field (due to enlarged magnification), their is significantly more camera shake, and composing (by hand) is a lot more difficult.

look at these two images

one is shot at f/6.3, the other is shot at f/2.8

The ant in the grass is clearly the f/2.8 - giving me great shutter speed leverage but very narrow depth of field. The ant on the gravel was the f/6.3, it gave me very little shutter leverage, but much wider depth of field. Wide depth of field is not always a good thing, in fact, it usually is not. A very precisely controlled but very narrow depth of field is much more ideal (as narrow as you can make it, anyway).

To learn to use your camera you will need to understand enough to triangulate a metetring formula for each and every shot you take, if you keep throwing it in auto mode, it just won't work. Learn ISO, Aperture (F-stop), and shutter speed. Within each of those is an abyss of technical detail that you could drown in, but the better you understand it, the more your images will reflect your understanding.

I don't much care for many of the books about 'how to use a camera', I found learning about the science of sensors and optics to give me a better more personal understanding of metering. Learn your lens' and your sensor, and you will master your camera.

And finally - stick around here! This is a great community of great photographers and they can and will be very helpful.

[OldClicker]

Welcome! Macros are a lot of fun. I started shooting last fall and went through a couple of months of macro-frustration. For me, getting everything to hold perfectly still was the key. A good tripod was a must. - TF

[amwilliams9]

This is with my P&S:

This with my 510:

As you can see they both suck!! HELP!!!!!!!

[Anbesol]

Get more perpendicular to the watch.

That second watch was not taken with a 510, the exif data says it was taken with a Powershot A560. ??? Whats going on here?

[amwilliams9]

Get more perpendicular to the watch.

That second watch was not taken with a 510, the exif data says it was taken with a Powershot A560. ??? Whats going on here?

OOPS!! Sorry!! I grabbed the recent pics I took off of photobucket. I think I just got confused with the ones I cut and pasted. I'm really sorry still new at this.
This is the 510:

[Liz]

Welcome to the forum! I agree with the others - macro is a challenge! However, once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun.

Which lens are you using with your new Olympus? The lens is the key! As the poster above mentioned, you will most likely need a tripod to produce good macro images. Camera shake has to be taken into consideration when you're doing macro photography. Your shot isn't bad - and with a little work, you might be able to improve it quite a bit. Lighting is also very important with macro shots, so maybe the aperture on your lens isn't letting in enough light.

I would suggest picking up a book on macro photography which will help you understand exposure, techniques, etc. Actually I'm cleaning out my photography equipment right now and would be happy to send you a wonderful (used) book "The Complete Guide To Close-up & Macro Photography" by Paul Harcourt Davies. It was written in the "film" days, but it is all about exposure, technique, what to look for, and includes a lot of information - it's a fun book to read, you learn a lot - and it's inspiring. If you're interested - send me a pm and I'll be happy to "donate" it to the cause. It's been sitting around on my shelves for a few years now.

Liz

[Frog]

I'm no expert but aside from the bg and lighting, your shot with the 510 does appear sharper to me.

[Anbesol]

Well, that image has no exif data so I can't tell what your exposure settings were. But, for this specific purpose - very fundamental technique would be to place the watch exactly paralel to the image plane, this way perspective distortion, and dof distortion are both entirely eliminated, and it brings everything into proper focus area.