Sigma APO 150mm f/2.8 EX DG Macro

[fozzie]

Well I am back again, prepared for some more bruising .

Weather overscast all day with light rain, not ideal and that is my excuse:



Shot in 'RAW' and coverted to 'JPEG' with little cropping.

Cheers,

[birddog114]

fozzie,
Need to see Sirhc55 asap.

[fozzie]

Birddog,

I am just waiting for Chris to come along, and come to the conclusion that I am a lost cause .

Come on sirhc55, where are you: help I'm drowning here .


Cheers,

[sirhc55]

Fozzie - Fozzie - Fozzie

If it helps I have taken a lot of macro shots that went straight into the rubbish bin!

Basically, your shot is not bad but could have done with some better lighting. Another angle, to bring a focal point into focus - in other words another perspective (now where have I heard that word?).

Macro is, in itself, not easy. It takes time to get into a work flow that produces the results that you want.

Chin Chin

[fozzie]

Chris,

After down loading my shots from today, I immediately formatted (my ribbish bin) the CF card. BTW: and expression I use from time to time, while there is life, there is hope .

This is another one that is not quite wright.



Await your comments.

Cheers,

[birddog114]

fozzie,
You have the Nikon 60mm, have you tried it? and is it difference?

[fozzie]

Birddog,

Yes I do have the Nikon AF 60mm f/2.8.

I think what I will do on Sunday, when we expect to see the sun again, is to experiment and use both lenses. I do not think it is the Sigma, it is more to do with the so called photographer: me.

ta ta for now,

[Matt. K]

Fozzie
The 60mm macro is a great lens! A couple of macro tips....use a small f/stop...say f/11 or smaller. Use a tripod. Brighten up the images in Photoshop using levels or curves and sharpen.

[birddog114]

Birddog,
I do not think it is the Sigma,

fozzie,
I don't want to stir it up cos all the admins are about 1000Km from home, if something happens, i'll get the blame

[yeocsa]

Hi Fozzie,

Don't be discouraged. Good attempt. Keeping shooting and you will improve. Try again on a sunny day. Because macro means small apeture (f11 - f22), you need plenty of light. As you are starting out, try to make the shooting conditions as favourable as possible. Concentrate on exposure and composition.

It will help alot if you also indicate the shutter speed, aperture and ISO as they will important troubleshooting data.

The first picture of the flower - if you trying to show the flower as your primary subject, include the whole flower. Once your composition improve, your picture will start to look better.

Due to weak lighting conditions, the picture is not contrasty. But you can improve this in Photoshop or Nikon Capture. An immediate thing you can improve on is to learn to check the histogram on the D70. The bell shape should be somewhere in the centre on the graph to indicate good constrast and exposure.

Use your Nikon 60 Macro for flowers and subjects that don't run away because your lens is too near them.

Use your Sigma 150 Macro for subjects that needs to be more distance away from you such as insects like butterfly etc..

Keep shooting.

regards,

Arthur

[kipper]

Ditto to what yeocsa said. Don't even bother doing macro if you don't have a bright sunny day or artificial light (pro setup or cheapy tungsten halogen lights from bunnings) to light the subject. I haven't done a lot of macro work but when I have it's been usually around 5-6pm on really sunny days. I usually find this is about best, I think midday with the subject at the full brunt of the sun is too much light.

Darryl

[birddog114]

fozzie,
Where are your armories? RRS Flash bracket? SB-800?
Those things can bring you heaps of lighting. On macro lens, even it's f.2/8, it's fast but still useless for macro at some shooting, I don't take into account the fast lens in macro mode, not useful and not required.
As other said, the small apeture (e.g f8, 11), lighting and distance are important issues when shooting macro..
I have the Tamsom 90 + 180Di/ f3.5 and happy with it.