A blog on gardening, life by the sea, photography and wildlife

Saturday 24 May 2014

Photographing the winged insects. Part 2

Most macro lenses for digital SLR cameras apart from being expensive are not ideal for photographing the more nervous subjects since being so close tends to scare them off, there is also the problem of blocking the light out.
Most standard lenses enable you to get quite close to your subject, and if you have a large megapixel sensor on your camera to play with, and most are now, you can magnify the image afterwards by suitable cropping in a photo-editing programme.
With older SLR cameras consider using a close up filter on the lens they cost a few pounds and are ideal to experiment with. Independent small camera retailers that traditionally gave good advice are in short supply, so the internet may be the best option now.Try Here for probably the best advice available on all aspects of photography.
This picture of a hoverfly was taken with a Nikon D40 6Mp camera, standard 18-55 kit lens and +4 screw in filter cropped in Windows Photo Gallery.




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9 comments:

  1. Sue Garrett24 May 2014 at 03:51

    So would you use a zoom rather then a close wide angle David? I have a macro (I think it's a filter for my older Luimix (doesn't fit the newer one - typical!) The problem is I never really got the hang of it - my images appeared in a circle with a black surround so I was obviously doing something wrong - any tip?

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  2. David Ford24 May 2014 at 04:44

    I would use a wide angle close up it will give you much better depth of field than the zoom (more of the picture in focus) without looking at the old camera and lens difficult to say, the lens hood (if it had one) if fitted incorrectly would have that effect.

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    1. Sue Garrett24 May 2014 at 06:45

      That's what I do at the moment but at times it puts a shadow on the subject. I don't have a lens hood attached . I lose the circle if I decrease the wide angle and then pull back from the subject but I'm not sure if I am getting the best out of the fitting. I'll try and post a photo on Facebook showing what I mean.

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  3. WILLIE...! =(^..^)=24 May 2014 at 06:15

    Hello there David.....!
    Just left a comment on Jean's Blog....
    The reason l'm here, l notice your interests in
    insect life..I've followed a Blog for a while now,
    you might be interested in taking a look at....
    It's.....bagsy-thecaptainslog.blogspot.co.uk
    Cheers....All The Best....! :).

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  4. David Ford24 May 2014 at 06:27

    Will have a look thamks

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  5. Martyn29 May 2014 at 05:58

    Hi David
    Your post got me searching the internet for some close up filters for my Sony DSC HX 300 camera. Found a set of 1x, 2x, 4x and 10x for not very much cost. Had a play and they look promising. Needs some dry weather now for an outside play.

    Brilliant tip.

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    Replies
    1. David Ford29 May 2014 at 08:40

      That`s excellent news look forward to some pictures some time

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    2. Sue Garrett29 May 2014 at 09:03

      And what's even better is that the filters will fit my Lumix FZ100

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  6. David Ford29 May 2014 at 11:02

    Good news all round then Sue

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