I got a bit fed up trying to get Dragonflies and Damelflies where I could photograph them so have provided them with a perch over my pond. It is just an old branch stuck into the bank at a slight angle, but this Damselfly soon took up residence and perched on it for about an hour:-
Don't know why but I find these harder to focus on than much smaller flies and I am still not happy with the sharpness though I tried Karl's pop-up flash method and I was working at ISO 100. Maybe it is diffraction creeping in because I was stopped right down?
I have yet to identify the species as it seems different from my previous ones.
Good job, I prefer the second shot. You do have to get exactly perpendicular to these guys, between that and their flightiness they are a pain to photograph!
Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome
"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
--Calvin
They are still not sharp to me though. I think I may be using too small an aperture at this magnification though as I was at f32 so it may be diffraction that is ruining the resolution?
Will have to do some more at a wider aperture if I get chance. This is obviously a different species to the previous one, so with the Dragonfly the pond has so far attracted three species so far. Not to bad for an urban pond in one of Nottingham's dormitory suburbs.
I think this is one of the Blue Tailed ones, the others were just completely blue.
Dave i was advised to stick between F11 and F16....i did try some at F32 and sufferd the same result.
So far i'me very happy with the way i have set my cam up for macro work though a proper flash set up would be a bonus, but sometimes we have to stick with what we have until the time comes to have proper equipment....
I hope you don't mind but here is a reminder with using my pop-up flash....
ISO 200, Shutter speed between 80 and 200, F-stop 16 and set to RAW format, then the usual editing with CS3...and a touch Neat image pro to remove some grain but not all, i don't like images too smooth....
Thanks Karl. As I said I found I can get away with f32 for my plants, but they are taken at less magnification. I certainly will have to back off to a larger f-stop as the magnification increases though. I have a book which I think gives minimum apertures for given magnifications. I must look it up. Meanwhile I will try your f11-f16 and sacrifice a bit of DOF.
I will have to get my flash guns set up, but I hate menu systems having been brought up with knobs and levers! I have to set the camera to Commander Unit mode through it's menu, then set the guns through their menu's for this! Need a child of four in my camera bag to set them for me!
What I was concerned about is being able to easily switch the camera backwards and forwards between Commander flash and conventional photography. I always found it so much easier with a simple on and off switch, but in those days we did not have flash guns with several dozen functions, plus cameras likewise!
The camera has a function button rather like the "F" function keys on a computer so I am trying to find out if I can set this for Commander Mode and then just toggle backwards and forwards between this and a conventional photography set-up just by pressing this button.
