Macro Help Needed

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alexoki

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Okinawa, Japan
This is a request for any info from those of you who take macro shots. What settings do you have on your camera when shooting macro subjects. Do you manually set the aperature/f-stop to a particular size? Do you take any control over shutter speed?
Any input/info would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
alexoki:
This is a request for any info from those of you who take macro shots. What settings do you have on your camera when shooting macro subjects. Do you manually set the aperature/f-stop to a particular size? Do you take any control over shutter speed?
Any input/info would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Best done manually. I set the shutter to something relatively high, unless I want to expose some of the background. For fast moving stuff set it high to keep it sharp.
Say 1/200 or higher (max speed for A70 to sync is 1/500). Against open water high shutters make for black backgrounds so you have to decide on what you are trying to produce. Fully understanding how the apeture and shutter work allows you to create the type of image you want.

Always set the aperture for macro. For very close focus, especially on the tele end DOF is very small. So use the highest aperture you can, say F8 (for small digicams). Correctly using DOF makes for striking macros but to just make sure you get something in focus set the aperture high. Small digicams at wide in macro are actually provide a reasonable DOF even very close (2.5cm away).

It all really comes down to practice and understanding how cameras capture the image. Read any book on cameras and you can learn the basics. Macro is the easiest type of photo to shoot as you generally have no need to consider the ambient light. Starting out just use aperture priority (let camera set shutter), let the strobe do the work and then try to use the shutter to add creative elements to the photo.

Sorry for the long winded response, but it is very hard to say just do this or do that. If you really understand the basics of how everything works together you can apply this knowledge and then only have to focus on composition which is all that is really important right?
 
Thanks for the great advice, now I just have to wait for the sea to settle down a bit (recent typhoon) so I can get in there and experiment.
 

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