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I wasn't sure whether i should post this up on the first image section or not but i will give the image reviews and critiques section a go because I would be really appreciate some critiques and advise on macro shots that i'm planning to attempt later on. (i already got flash and tripod for action) I don't intend to bring my aquarium side of hobby across here but they are good for my 1st try out excise....(no, i don't have nemo ) Anyway, I got the Tamron 90mm lens after many many decisions afterward....









Hope you like them.

A

I like the colours in the first one but think you should crop it a little so you don't have two focus points in the Image, if you want to use a large F-stop my eyes just get drawn to the left hand corner.I would try this on with a very small F-stop to get as much DOF as possible.

The fish is great, lovely colours.

Great shots for your first macro attempts.

As Craig has suggested, you need to use a smaller aperture* for macro work. While the Trachyphyllia doesn't seem to have suffered, the zoanthids and Acropora don't look sharp at all. Using a smaller aperture will increase the depth of field so more of the image appears sharp. Your shutter speeds are much faster than you need so you can afford to have smaller apertures. Using a tripod for the cnidarians will give you even more flexibility with the f/stop.

As you used f/18 for the mandarin fish, it has good sharpness, however, the image suffers because you used available light and so the colours are off. I use flash for fish and available light for corals and other cnidarians (at least in aquaria). I almost always use flash underwater.

* A smaller aperture is characterised by what appears to be a larger f/stop (sometimes called f/number). i.e. f/22 is a smaller aperture than f/11 (in fact 4 times smaller). As the f/stop is a ratio, f/22 is actually smaller than f/11 (just like 1/22 is smaller than 1/11).

thanks Craig and Andrew for your inputs and compliments, much appreciated. i was hand held shooting these pictures because i found that tripod does not give me an angle/scene that i'm happy with. When I was using the A mode, the pictures was very blurry. that's why i use the S mode to take these pictures (faster speed so i can get better picture quality over all.)

However, after seeing you guys advises then i finally realised that i can actually customize my setting by using the M mode which allows me to have a faster shutter speed and small f number to create DOF with hand held shooting. (i'm sorry that if i offended the rules on here, so i will post link for the 2nd try out after the advises)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/amashun/marine/13-08-2009/take%202/DSC_0986.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/amashun/marine/13-08-2009/take%202/DSC_0989.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/amashun/marine/13-08-2009/take%202/DSC_0990.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/amashun/marine/13-08-2009/take%202/DSC_0991.jpg

Craig, Yes, that fish itself is very colourful and that is my missus favorite too

Andrew, i always lurking your site and galleries. I have noticed that most of the time you use flash for fish photography even you have a DIY soft box for it. I will try that next time when my Mandarin fish come out to show off as it doesn't come out very often. btw, i have noticed that one of the acropora sp. from your site, i may have one very similar too

Once again, thank you for your inputs and advises again. I will try some out \door shooting in a few weeks time, i think this is a good practices overall

Cheers,
Adrian

Adrian,

Note that you can still use shutter priority (S) and achieve what you want. As you are using a 90mm lens, the rule of thumb for shutter speed for handheld is one over the focal length. i.e. in theory you should be able to shoot at 1/90s. That assumes good handheld technique, so perhaps you should go for 1/200s (which should be more than enough based on the Exif of the first 3 shots you posted).

The last 4 you posted look pretty good, but you still have the lens wide open. This will give you almost no depth of field and also won't be in the sweet spot of the lens. Most macro lenses have a sweet spot somewhere between f/11 and f/16.

Another problem with shooting macro handheld is keeping focus. Unless you can hold the lens perfectly still, there's a good chance that what was in focus just before you pressed the shutter won't be in focus when the shutter is pressed. This is mainly because of the very narrow depth of field in macro shots (even with smaller apertures). When using a tripod (or even a monopod), you have much more stability and it is easier to both focus and keep the focus, especially while pressing the shutter.

Be aware that while shooting into an aquarium you are shooting from a medium with one optical density (air), through another medium with a different optical density (glass) to another medium with yet another optical density (water). This means that if you don't shoot perpendicular to the glass, you'll get refraction. The further off perpendicular you go, the greater the refraction and the more distorted the image will be. I say this because you say you found the tripod does not give you a good angle. While you may be able to get a "better" angle with respect to the scene without the tripod, you may be introducing distortion into the image.

Off topic, but that Acropora on my site was taken at a depth of nearly 30 metres, which just goes to show that the claim of many aquarists that Acropora require high intensity lighting is bogus.

thank you Andrew, i do very appreciate you spend so many times to walk me through this, i can't thank enough for your inputs and helpful advise.

I was going to response early this morning but i though i would try some more before i comment. I'm sorry that i was misread your message earlier but your last post has cleared everything in regards to this field so i guess i would dare to say i fully understand what you were saying now. Cheers.

I have taken some pictures between f11-f16, so please let me know what you think about them again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/ ... C_1011.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/ ... C_1007.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/ ... C_1006.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/ ... C_0999.jpg

I feel that i can easily take these pictures without a major problem, however, i think that by comparing to my last pictures, it seems they are not much different in my eye? But i guess when we come to outdoor photography, that could be a big different. would you mind to share your though again please?

Re off topic: i agreed with what you said Andrew, even i place it very low in my tank. I'm currently using 250W 14K lights so it is actually sitting at the low to middle section of my tank. what people missing here is that they do not maintain the optimum water level as required for these beautiful animal instead of providing plenty of lights. Btw, a lot people on the US site said it is a "deep water acropora" species.

I have to say that these first shots are very nice and the improvements suggested will help you a fair bit...great stuff for a first go. I have not had the chance to go through all the links but it is good to see that your taking advice on board I always try to do this when I post images although I dont always post it up.

thank you Cameron for your kind compliments. there are still a lot for me to learn and always endless. in other words, i'm trying to catch up with you guys

Adrian...I have yet to summon up the courage to post up macro work as my skill level here is....to be frank....far below the average. You are ahead of me!

Adrian,

To my eyes, the last four shots you posted appear significantly more sharp. It's chalk and cheese. Just look at how much of the image appears sharp.

The Trachyphyllia is gorgeous. The Acropora and Montipora also look great.

Maybe you need to set up a simple shot (using a tripod) and take a series of photos with different f/stops so you can see the difference. With macro photography you have to find the happy medium between too much DOF and not enough. You need enough so that the important parts of the subject appear sharp but you also want good separation from the background. A flower in the backyard would be a good choice of static subject to experiment with.

They might not be technically perfect, but what else is in nature? I like them all!

Thanks zafra52, yeah, reef aquarium is very addictive and they are so beautiful IMO. I think this was part of the reason i upgrade to DSLR.

Cameron, as you can see i'm still learning as we go. I think Andrew is the legend who taught me all the way .... And if you want to counting backward.... then..... i'm also afraid to post up other general pictures on the forum.... but after this post, i think i will start to post more as i want to learn more from you guys.

Andrew, noted with thanks. I will try to take different f number pictures on tripod as you recommended and see which one is better. but i have to thank you once again for all the advises and critiques you have given, they are all very helpful and i've learn a lot.

I think they are great. The colours and textures you have captured are beautiful.