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Danelaw — Hoverfly
Published: 2008-01-08 23:34:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 1200; Favourites: 12; Downloads: 37
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Description
One of my earliest shots with my tamron 90mm macro lens, and the first (and last 8D) of an insect.The lens is great, the only problem is keeping up with the insects. or wind. or whatever nature feels like throwing at me. The fact i can have the shutter speed at 1/200 (max for my camera with flash sinc) with the big flash I have is really quite helpful.
It was sheer luck i had this in focus
As people may be able to see, I am not the best at cropping, so feel free to give me info and tips!
P.S. full view is worth it for the detail.
*minor edit* changed the crop. only hours after it was subbed
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Comments: 26
I really like this shot, I think you have a good crop. The main improvement in my opinion is having the wings in focus, but the body out of focus. For my taste there's too little in focus. To be able to get a slightly better DoF up your ISO, which will then enable you to adjust your f.stop. Be careful with the ISO though because of noise!
With regards to the wind problem, try shooting in areas near a fence, for example, as it acts as a wind-breaker. Also are you using a tripod & shutter release cable? These things always help 
With the max speed issue, on a bright day instead of using a flash you could try using reflectors
If you've got any questions about that, feel free to get in touch. I see you're also an MBC member, so feel free to check the forums for advice etc
Please don't feel I'm being patronising, I just don't know the extent of your technical knowledge!
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Thanks, i spent a while today reading up on use of aperture and DOF, so it makes a lot more sense now.
I should be able to have a higher F.stop, the flash is on one of its lowest settings.
Thanks for the wind tips, they should come in useful. I find traveling lightly is the easiest, to no tripod for me. (wouldn't the remote shutter mean you wouldn't know if it was in focus?)
Any other tips you want to give
P.s, No, you were very sincere.
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As for the cable release, if you set the camera to manual focus you then set everything, step away from the camera & click the cable button & everything should be fine. Obviously this won't be the case with bug macro as they move lol Although a tripod will still help with bugs!
It's never easy to understand the f.stops & DoF at first, but once you get what they do it becomes second nature.
One tip I can offer you is if you want good quality macro shots, carry a piece of dark cloth in your bag that you can drape over foiliage etc behind your subject. It will isolate it more & get rid of often unsightly background clutter
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So you would use the cable in indoor or posed situations?
I did hear the trick with the fabric somewhere else, but to me it just looks too removed from the environment, though i may try it with some more natural colours. Would you use felt or just a normal fabric?
And thanks so much for the watch! (and did i forget to mention the favs)
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Yes, purely to eliminate camera shake from pressing the shutter button. The other way around it is to set your camera to timer mode.
Yes that's true, but you can get some stunning flower/insect portrait shots with the backdrop. Felt is your best option, as a) the weight will stabilise it & b) you won't see any weave from the fabric.
And you are welcome
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Nice shot Danelaw. I like the detail across the eyes. I agree with you, the wings when out of focus look good. Especially those sprinkle's of red and light blue
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Thanks man, are you going to upload any more photos?
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Thanks for asking but at the moment I am very busy at work because our currency has been changed to Euro. Lots of overtime and no time for me 
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Thats k dude, your photography was great!
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nice shot!! i have the same lens for my nikon d40, great lens
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Thanks, does the autofocus work for you?
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no the autofocus does not work with that lens on a d40 or d40x, only manual focus. the reason for that is because the d40 and d40x does not have a inbuilt focusengine. so to be able to get autofocus with those cameras you have to buy a lens that has an inbuilt focusengine and the tamron lens does'nt have that.
I guess the reason why there is no focusengine inside the d40/x is to get a smaller and lighter camera but the bad side is that you have to buy a lens with focusengine to be able to have autofocus.
but manual focus is the best way for macro and a use of a tripod helps a lot, it becomes too shaky to get sharp images by holding the camera with your hands when doing macro
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Thanks for the info! (and yeah, for macro auto foucs is basically nul.)
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Nice one. Good colours and focus. Depth of field is a bit shallow, though. Is the exif info correct (10/1250 second)? Because if that is the case, you could've gotten a longer exposure time and narrower aperture to increase depth of field. I usually take my insect shots at 1/200 if the light allows. Unless it's a hoverfly in flight, or something like that, for which I need a faster shutter speed.
You better get used to wind and focus troubles.
At least here it's rarely ever windstill. I try to get several captures of each insect, so at least one will have good focus.
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It was meant to be at 1/200 
I might try it with a little deeper Dof later.
Yeah, its fairly still here though!
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That's the Nikon shutter speed thing there; it's actually 1/125s, not 1/1250s.
Also, it seems that the flash was in use, so the shutter speed is only really determining the amount of background light.
In saying that, the DoF could have been a little deeper, but, like this, you are just totally drawn to the eyes and wings. Any deeper and you'll start seeing the stick or whatever it is perched on, and that would ruin this shot I think...
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Its standing on a stamen. But i do thing the wings wouldn't look that good if they were sharper.
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Ah crap, I sort of overlooked it's 10/1250 s. *feels stupid*.
I wouldn't want all the background in focus, but a bit more of the eyes (the back of the eyes isn't really in focus in more), that's what I meant.
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Yeah good call, but I think Danelaw is right (in the comment below) about having the wings out of focus.
I guess that's one of the tradeoffs with macro, eh?
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I know it's probably a bit late now, but I'm going ot have to sing the praises of the Canon USM (and, I guess, the Nikon/Tamron/Sigma equlivents).
I was doign a simlar shoot today, trying ot chase bees and flowers in the wind with my macro lens (which doesn't have the USM). Needless to say, my fingers tired quite quickly.
I switched to one of my USM lenses, and, like magic, I could use autofocus again. It just lets you aim and deal with the exposure and such whislt keeping it all in focus...
But nice shot, the diffraction on the wings is awesome.
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Just another thing, i changed the crop, what do you think?
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Yeah ,the more angled crop looks nice.
And the Autofocus thing is a bit of a risk, really. You need the fast motor, else any little change throws the lens back into search mode, and it's impossible to track your target.
I'm not sure what the Nikon term is, btu on Canon, the mode you're looking for is AI Servo; which means that so long as you're in AF/AE lock (half-shutter) or shooting, it will continue to search.
When you're outside, the "moving the camera" trick doesn't always work so well, especially if your target goes one way and the thing it's resting on goes the other...
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Thanks man, i just find i lock the lens at 1:1 move the camera / lens to compensate.
Just a Q, would auto focus be that accurate once you are approaching 1:1, i would think it could be getting very easy for it to throw out the focus?
(haven't had the auto work with the D40x yet. Its is supposed to work 
The diffraction was completely accidental, but i do have to admit it looks good
Thanks~!
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