Macro (help!)

[grazie42]

For almost a year now I´ve been trying to get good pics of local nudibranchs (without success ). I tend to manage a few such shots on tropical vacations but not here at home.

I tend to get a white "blur" instead of the beautifully spined thing I see during the dive :shakehead. They are kinda small though which may be part of the problem, from 5mm to about 20mm max if I were to estimate...

Because of the particulate in the water I don´t use the internal flash (that results in a "snowstorm"). I do have a 21w HID with "photo diffuser" that I use on the pics I (try) to take, either as direct lighting (which it is a bit to strong for) or indirect which is what I do most of the time.

I won´t say, categorically, that the blur is not a result of bad stability but I usually "anchor" the camera against a wall or other structure before I take a pic (and I like to think that I have, at least, rudimentary bouyancy control).

I do have the camera in autofocus and ½ the pics its in macromode as well.

The camera is a sony d10 (5mpixel).

What can I do differently:huh:

 

[alcina]

Examples?

If they are blurry, your camera could be choosing a very slow shutter speed - look at the EXIF data to see (you can get there on the original by looking in Windows Explorer, right click the image and a nice list pops up, you want Advanced - you should see your settings there). If you are shooting in any auto mode and don't have a whole bunch of light on the subject, then your camera's gonna want to open the aperture and slow that shutter right down.

You may also be closer to your subject than your camera can focus. Each camera has a minimum focus distance that needs to be respected.

 

[mislav]

Your nudi and My nudi

I'm guessing its the white balance thing, but I can't help you more with that - unless someone helps me set it up properly, I get the same results you do.

I'm far from being an expert in that area.

 

[herman]

A couple of things come to mind, first are you too close. I did not find the specs on the camera but if your in past it's minimum focus distance it will not focus. I suspect Alcina has the answer. Try turning on your flash. Unless you are in really dirty water, for close up macro shots the particulate in the water should not be a problem. A spot or 2 can easily be taken out in photoshop. Try to avoid shots that have a distant backround....shoot only when the subject is backed totally in the shot by coral or rock. For macro shots this is usually very easy to do.

 

[gert7to3]

Which Sony camera do you have? I don't think they made a D-10 model, however there is a P-10 which has an underwater housing. I owned one of those before going to the Olympus SP-350.

A white blur sounds like an overexposure and possibly being too close. If you aren't using the strobe the camera is auto exposing for a long time, hence the blur. Also this camera would only do macro down to about 10cm (4 inches) from the subject. If your home waters are dark this might explain the difference betwen tropical success and home based frustration.

Camera specs are at:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Sony/sony_dscp10.asp