Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Dr. Pain
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Dr. Pain »

Had a go in photoshop adjusting levels, contrast, colours and layers. Made it a bit better.

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Speed
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Speed »

The main problem area with your photo is that it is soft. You can't really fix that in post processing.

Edit: After saying that, raw images do need a fair bit of sharpening in post. Generally a little in Bridge or Lightroom & then a touch more on export, or in photoshop if you're not exporting straight to jpeg.
When you shoot in jpeg, the camera takes care of those adjustments in most cases. The camera has default sharpening settings which can be disabled in user "picture styles".
I do believe that the softness in this photo is not an editing issue.
Personally I usually start with 100 in LR @ 0.7 - 1.0 pixel with a bit of masking if I'm doing portraits & then usually some unsharp mask at 100% @ 2 or 3 pixels in photoshop...depending on my image resolution.

I see that you shot it at 1/100 which, if you were hand holding, is too slow.
Seeing that the moon is so far away there is not really any need to shoot at f11.
Your exposure looks good so even if you went to f8 & iso 200 you could bump your shutter speed to 1/400th & it would remain the same.
You could even shoot wide open and your depth of field would be fine, although your lens might not be super sharp at that.

A general rule of thumb for shutter speed versus focal length is to do divide it by itself, meaning:
50mm @ 1/50th
100mm @ 1/100th
300mm @ 1/300th and so on.

Also here's a pretty good link for calculating your depth of field. http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://500px.com/Warren_Joyce" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Dr. Pain
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Dr. Pain »

Cool thanks Speed. I went out again and tried a few different things and found f8, 1/400th to be best and ISO 200 and ISO 400 gave a difference in brightness. These pictures were sharper but still not super sharp. Then again I didn't pay much for the Nikkor lens.
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Speed »

Dr. Pain wrote:Then again I didn't pay much for the Nikkor lens.
It could be that. Did you shoot handheld or on a tripod?
Not that I think that you need a tripod to shoot the moon at 1/400th with a 300mm lens but I do know that some people are better at holding a camera steady than others.
Emjay continually sickens me that she shoots super sharp images, seemingly, without effort, while I have to consciously squeeze the shutter button gently whilst exhale slowly to get remotely close to her quality. :nod:
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Dr. Pain »

I used the tripod and remote shutter release. I took some pic's earlier in the night that were hand held and they not too bad. I'm glad I have VR on these lens as I can't hold steady.

Not sure if this pic is viewable by all but it was the best one of the night.

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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by DexterPunk »

The softness may be due to back or front focusing on the AF of the lens. Switch off the AF, manual focus it, and use live view and should be able to zoom in to the live view to fine tune critical focus. And find out how to shoot with mirror lockup.

I'll guarantee you will always get a sharper image on a tripod than hand held. Whether you really care about that critical sharpness or not is another matter. Only really gunna be pixel peepers that would care so much.

I do use a tripod a lot though. Wherever possible. Its just better to be able to have it setup how you like and think about the other things that matter. This is obviously mainly when shooting landscapes etc.


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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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I went out and tried 260 mm focus and got a sharper image which I'm happy with so I'll play around in photoshop. I think I'm finding the limits of the particular lens @ 300 mm. It seems to produce a soft picture in some reviews I've read. I've also been using AF as I'm finding focus a little hard when on an angle with the tripod. I wear glasses and I can't get the view finder to my vision level with out glasses. Hand held it's not a problem. I figured too that a full moon is rather bright and AF should work ok. I should use the live view but I want to get into the habit of using the view finder first.

There's going to be plenty of chances to keep trying and you guys do have some good advice. :)
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Getting somewhere now. I happy with this. Gave it a unsharp mask in photoshop, 150%, and cropped it.

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:)
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Speed »

That looks 100% better...good work.

What Dex is saying about using manual focus and live view is that it will bypass any back or front focusing issues that may be present when using auto focus.
Although the auto focus of the camera is actually working ok, the focus can still be incorrect if your lens/camera tolerances are out and you need to perform a micro adjustment....if your camera has that option.
Also when using live view, I think you can magnify what you see on your LCD screen.
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by DexterPunk »

That's exactly what I was going to say :)

And yeah, you should be able to zoom in quite tight on live view to get your focus right.

Definitely try and use the viewfinder most of the time, this is just one of those applications where the live view comes in handy.


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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Big Kev »

The only caveat with looking at a zoomed live view is that the moon moved bloody fast!!! so you have to be quite quick :) The craters at the top (for you - bottom for me) are great for focussing when you have a half moon as they're easy to pick out.
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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I've been taking more shots of the moon of late and I've been finding that I get better focus on auto rather than manual. Being short sighted and unable to get the view finder to my eye focus with glasses is a pain. Normally I have the camera on a tripod and it's up on an angle that's a bit difficult for me with glasses on to get good focus. Yet this isn't an issue if the tripod head is close to horizontal or I go hand held, but then I shake too much. The live view is hopeless with moon shots as it's just a big bright blob on the screen. It's going to make me be very careful which telescope to buy in the future.
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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It shouldn't be a bright blob if it's focused. I've never seen it do that anyway.
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by norbs »

DexterPunk wrote:It shouldn't be a bright blob if it's focused. I've never seen it do that anyway.
Maybe it is a metering issue. Try spot metering if the moon is centered in the frame.

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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by DexterPunk »

Yeah that might help.


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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Big Kev »

Any tips on photographing fish in a tank?

I've got to get some pictures of zebrafish for work. They're about 3-4cm long and I think they're in tanks roughly the size of a couple of shoe boxes on top of each other.

I'm thinking 100mm macro (although that might be too long) and I suspect flash (for a bit of off camera illumination) won't be allowed. My plan is to put the lens hood flush with the glass to cut out reflections. I've also got 50mm F1.8, 24-105mm F4, and 16-35mm F2.8 available. Something like 150th, ISO 1600 and F4 are my guesses as a starting point.

Someone took this on a phone. I basically need to reproduce it but sharper.
http://www.imm.ox.ac.uk/_asset/image/aquatic.jpeg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Big Kev wrote:Any tips on photographing fish in a tank?

I've got to get some pictures of zebrafish for work. They're about 3-4cm long and I think they're in tanks roughly the size of a couple of shoe boxes on top of each other.

I'm thinking 100mm macro (although that might be too long) and I suspect flash (for a bit of off camera illumination) won't be allowed. My plan is to put the lens hood flush with the glass to cut out reflections. I've also got 50mm F1.8, 24-105mm F4, and 16-35mm F2.8 available. Something like 150th, ISO 1600 and F4 are my guesses as a starting point.

Someone took this on a phone. I basically need to reproduce it but sharper.
http://www.imm.ox.ac.uk/_asset/image/aquatic.jpeg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've found that flash generally works poorly in a fish tank anyway. If you do go down that route, make sure the tank glass is really clean (inside and out!) as the flash will highlight every little spot and streak and bit of algae.

given the size of the fish (Danios?) your biggest issue will likely be focusing. I suspect you're going to have to shoot a lot faster than 1/150th as fish don't generally stay still, and if they are danios, they can really move when they are motivated :)

I have a few shots of my fish.. i'll see what settings I used when i get home :)
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Big Kev wrote:Any tips on photographing fish in a tank?

I've got to get some pictures of zebrafish for work. They're about 3-4cm long and I think they're in tanks roughly the size of a couple of shoe boxes on top of each other.

I'm thinking 100mm macro (although that might be too long) and I suspect flash (for a bit of off camera illumination) won't be allowed. My plan is to put the lens hood flush with the glass to cut out reflections. I've also got 50mm F1.8, 24-105mm F4, and 16-35mm F2.8 available. Something like 150th, ISO 1600 and F4 are my guesses as a starting point.

Someone took this on a phone. I basically need to reproduce it but sharper.
http://www.imm.ox.ac.uk/_asset/image/aquatic.jpeg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Go oil immersion Kev, it works for microscopes! :)
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by DexterPunk »

Fish are usually a royal pain in the arse to shoot. Crank the ISO.
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Big Kev wrote: I'm thinking 100mm macro (although that might be too long) and I suspect flash (for a bit of off camera illumination) won't be allowed. My plan is to put the lens hood flush with the glass to cut out reflections. I've also got 50mm F1.8, 24-105mm F4, and 16-35mm F2.8 available. Something like 150th, ISO 1600 and F4 are my guesses as a starting point.
here's some i took ages ago..
IMGP0559.jpg
IMGP5176.jpg
IMGP5016.jpg
IMGP4408.jpg
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Yeah if I can get anything like that I'll be happy. It's got to go in to a wide web banner picture so hopefully I can get lucky and have them in a bit of a line, if not I could maybe 'shop some in from other pictures.

I don't think these fish zip about too quickly but until I get in there I don't know for sure. I'll see how the settings go tomorrow.

Apparently I have to do frogs as well :)
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Big Kev wrote: I don't think these fish zip about too quickly but until I get in there I don't know for sure. I'll see how the settings go tomorrow.
well, the fish that you showed are the same as the fish in the first photo.. they're always moving and they can really move when they want to! :) on the up side, their motion is fairly predictable, unlike the other fish i showed! the other issue with fish photography is that even when they're stationary, their fins are still moving, so there's even more opportunity for motion blur across the body.

Good luck! :) i'll be interested in your results :)
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Big Kev »

Not too bad. They'll do :)
I ended up just setting the focus at a point in the tank and shooting about 100 pictures in the hope I'd get a half decent one :D

Image

Image

Got a couple of pictures of these porky boys as well.

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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

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Big Kev wrote:Not too bad. They'll do :)
I ended up just setting the focus at a point in the tank and shooting about 100 pictures in the hope I'd get a half decent one :D
they turned out ok! :)
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Re: Hints, help, tips and general questions

Post by Big Kev »

I moved the fish around a bit in photoshop to fit them in a bit better

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