Snoopdog
Valuable Member
From just the camera my pictures are horrible, I am having to do a lot of post processing, is this normal? These are the best shots I have gotten yet and I am blown away by other photos here. Any tips?
Nikon d800 and Tamron 90mm, tips please
- Thread starter Snoopdog
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Lbrdsoxfan
5000 Club Member
18-54mm maybe? Or even a true macro lens? Those photos look great btw! I'm too lazy anymore to pull out my now ancient nikon DSLR to take photos.
SPS2020
2500 Club Member
Are those post-processing? Looks darn good to me.
I'm struggling with my Sony Alpha III and Sony 90mm macro as well. I did install a Tiffen 85B, which helped as well as adjusting the WB quite a bit. Also, using a tripod to aid my shaky hands. ;-)
I'm struggling with my Sony Alpha III and Sony 90mm macro as well. I did install a Tiffen 85B, which helped as well as adjusting the WB quite a bit. Also, using a tripod to aid my shaky hands. ;-)
OP
OP
Snoopdog
Valuable Member
I thought the Tamron 90mm was a true macro lens? Is it not?
Lbrdsoxfan
5000 Club Member
It is, just a size I never used before. I own older nikkormat 40 & 55mm lenses.
gbroadbridge
2500 Club Member
You shuld preferably be shooting manual exposure. Say 1/125 - 1/160 and about f5.6 to give some depth of field.Tried two more pictures today. I still do not think I have the focus spot on.
If the cam has auto ISO set it on, and just try to keep iso under about 3600.
Shoot raw, and adjust WB in post - I use lightroom
OP
OP
Snoopdog
Valuable Member
I have read all kinds of things on the F setting, most things I find on the internet seem to say when shooting macro's to do between F9-F12?? I think these last two shots were at F12. At least thing is what the camera looks to be set to. I have read a small amount about the F setting and depth of field but dang if I can get it right.
Smite
2500 Club Member
I'm far from the best and am still figure it out too.
For me when it comes to macro shooting ( I also use a Tamron macro), prior was an old d80 and now I just upgraded to a D500.
For very close macro, I've been playing with getting f# as high as possible without having to really jack up the ISO or lower the shutter speed too much to get the exposure right. That's the only way I can get what I want in focus.
Lower F number up close of a tenuis. So not as much as I want in focus.
Not quite as close but much higher F, I believe in the high teens. I was able to get more in focus but was maxing out my low shutter/blur ratio. It's not 100% in focus due to that
Slightly lower, better focus with a quicker shutter and as close
Your pictures appear to be shot through the front glass. That's gonna take away some of that focus and pop in my experience. Its harder to maintain a low ISO as well. This is pending low iron glass, how clean the glass is as well as how polished the water is. Most of the decent shots I get are from top down.
Turn your lights all the way up if LED or controllable. This helps keep ISO lower while being able to shoot a higher F#. Turn off all ambient lights, specially if shooting front on.
For me I feel like the number one killer of a picture for me will be ISO, specifically macro shots where you're looking for detail. For day shots I really try to keep it under 800, but prefer as low as possible. The higher the ISO the more "noise" you'll get in an image making it appear less clear.
For non moving things like coral with flow off:
I find my white balance. I run pretty white lights so my max of 10,000k is spot on.
Take a picture and check my depth of field. Make sure everything I want is in focus. For macros usually as much as possibly.
I adjust my shutter speed as low as possible without getting blur from hand shake. I do this with a low ISO like >200 in day spectrum, top down. Top down will let you get a nice low ISO usually
Once I'm positive my shutter speed is not blurry from hand shake, I'll then set the ISO where it needs to be. Hopefully that'll be sub 400.
After all that, you'll probably still have some tint to the water from the light. Two things that help clear up the image post, is selecting the blue channel on the light graph. Slightly drag it down, you won't believe how much this will clear up and image. Second if need be and using something like lightroom, play with the "dehaze" slider. It will darken an image slightly but will pull some of that tint or noise out of an image.
For me when it comes to macro shooting ( I also use a Tamron macro), prior was an old d80 and now I just upgraded to a D500.
For very close macro, I've been playing with getting f# as high as possible without having to really jack up the ISO or lower the shutter speed too much to get the exposure right. That's the only way I can get what I want in focus.
Lower F number up close of a tenuis. So not as much as I want in focus.
Not quite as close but much higher F, I believe in the high teens. I was able to get more in focus but was maxing out my low shutter/blur ratio. It's not 100% in focus due to that
Slightly lower, better focus with a quicker shutter and as close
Your pictures appear to be shot through the front glass. That's gonna take away some of that focus and pop in my experience. Its harder to maintain a low ISO as well. This is pending low iron glass, how clean the glass is as well as how polished the water is. Most of the decent shots I get are from top down.
Turn your lights all the way up if LED or controllable. This helps keep ISO lower while being able to shoot a higher F#. Turn off all ambient lights, specially if shooting front on.
For me I feel like the number one killer of a picture for me will be ISO, specifically macro shots where you're looking for detail. For day shots I really try to keep it under 800, but prefer as low as possible. The higher the ISO the more "noise" you'll get in an image making it appear less clear.
For non moving things like coral with flow off:
I find my white balance. I run pretty white lights so my max of 10,000k is spot on.
Take a picture and check my depth of field. Make sure everything I want is in focus. For macros usually as much as possibly.
I adjust my shutter speed as low as possible without getting blur from hand shake. I do this with a low ISO like >200 in day spectrum, top down. Top down will let you get a nice low ISO usually
Once I'm positive my shutter speed is not blurry from hand shake, I'll then set the ISO where it needs to be. Hopefully that'll be sub 400.
After all that, you'll probably still have some tint to the water from the light. Two things that help clear up the image post, is selecting the blue channel on the light graph. Slightly drag it down, you won't believe how much this will clear up and image. Second if need be and using something like lightroom, play with the "dehaze" slider. It will darken an image slightly but will pull some of that tint or noise out of an image.
Smite
2500 Club Member
All these pictures are awesome. If you could do a slightly higher F you'd have both the mouth of the polyp and the skirt on that last one. I'd manually focus on that mouth.You got the skirt I feel like, lower F number and you didn't get both. Play with it. Set a goal like shooting high F number as possible and play with the shutter and ISO, take some pictures and adjust.Tried two more pictures today. I still do not think I have the focus spot on.
OP
OP
Snoopdog
Valuable Member
That is what I am doing, the annoying part is moving the SD from the camera to the computer, unless I am doing it the hard way?
Smite the last two shots are through a porthole.
I have a dumb question though, when looking through the camera viewer, when changing the F setting, I should not visually see the change in field of depth should I? I am thinking I do not, at least what I am seeing through my old eyes.
Last edited:
gbroadbridge
2500 Club Member
I think you can program one of the function buttons next to the lens to give an optical depth of field preview.
I don't have that camera but that's what I've been told
Smite
2500 Club Member
No you wont see it through the view finder itself. I know on my Nikon I had to go threw the settings and have it display the image I just shot on the little screen. Prior to that I'd have to hit the play button everytime to see it. So I'll shoot my test shot. Step back and zoom in so I can see what's really going on.
You mentioned old eyes, so don't skip setting that +/- focus adjustment on the side of the viewfinder itself.
To a certain extent cropping the image too much can cut down on quality too.
That is the downside for sure. I was trying to get fish shots today, thought I got good ones based of the screen image. Once on the computer, full size, not so great and just a little blurry. I tried the Nikon app straight to phone, but that's not much better and takes too long.
When it comes to that macro lens though seriously play around with the high F stop numbers. Specially on really close shots. I got fed up only getting a polyp or two in focus and once I got my newer camera, it let me go into the 20's with the 90. I decided to max it out and change everything else to get the right exposure and that's when I started to get more in focus. I'm not saying you need to be shooting that high but worth playing with.
Don't get me wrong, your shots look great to me. I think our shots are pretty comparable, I just feel those steps above, and going high on the F have been helping my macro shots a bit more.
maroun.c
Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Excellence Award
Reef Of The Month
Photo of the Month
Article Contributor
My Tank Thread
Macro lenses do have a learning curve. I was fine taking closeups with a nokon 50mm 1.4 and a tamron 17-50 2.8 and extreeme microswitch those overvectension tubes... when I upgraded to the nikon 105 macro, it was evident that its harder to get things in focus and that DOF was shallower at same aperture and I believe that this is due to how macro lenses are designed. Also added focal length of 105 over 17-50 magnifies blur.
Typically better glass requires better technique as it magnifies bad effects like distortion noise and blurr. Also a.macro lense is designed to give better and smoother bookeh (blurr in the background)
Check out the photography articles in the sticky apart of this forum they might help.
My advise:
Be perpendicular to glass when shooting through glass and to subject when shooting top down especially zoas as shooting at angle causes forshortening and distortion, not always easy to shoot perpendicular.
I doubt you can shoot at smaller aperture than 5.6 to get more DOF due to lack of light, bumping iso to compensate adds noise, I'm shooting a D750 which is known for great high iso low noise performance and in tank shots I get noise starting 1000 isonon underexposed shotsnor in shadows. Also smaller aperture will mean slower shutter speeds when u reach ur camera iso limit that you think is noise free. Slower shutter might cause motion blurr due to corals motion.
As to post processing I shoot raw and my postprocessing is mainly in adobe camera raw :cropping, using the wb sampler on a gray item in the shot to get wb right or just playing with the wb sliders, an exposure adjustment and converting to jpg. If a photo is to be posted on forum, printed, shared.... then I open in photoshop to sharpen a bit, resize, clean up any flaws in the picture.
Doesn't take more than 30 sec per shot in camera raw and same amount in photoshop unless I have some imperfections to clean which can take time.
Typically better glass requires better technique as it magnifies bad effects like distortion noise and blurr. Also a.macro lense is designed to give better and smoother bookeh (blurr in the background)
Check out the photography articles in the sticky apart of this forum they might help.
My advise:
Be perpendicular to glass when shooting through glass and to subject when shooting top down especially zoas as shooting at angle causes forshortening and distortion, not always easy to shoot perpendicular.
I doubt you can shoot at smaller aperture than 5.6 to get more DOF due to lack of light, bumping iso to compensate adds noise, I'm shooting a D750 which is known for great high iso low noise performance and in tank shots I get noise starting 1000 isonon underexposed shotsnor in shadows. Also smaller aperture will mean slower shutter speeds when u reach ur camera iso limit that you think is noise free. Slower shutter might cause motion blurr due to corals motion.
As to post processing I shoot raw and my postprocessing is mainly in adobe camera raw :cropping, using the wb sampler on a gray item in the shot to get wb right or just playing with the wb sliders, an exposure adjustment and converting to jpg. If a photo is to be posted on forum, printed, shared.... then I open in photoshop to sharpen a bit, resize, clean up any flaws in the picture.
Doesn't take more than 30 sec per shot in camera raw and same amount in photoshop unless I have some imperfections to clean which can take time.
I have a Cannon 100mm macro and am still learning, very slowly I might add. The best pics I have seen were shot on a focusing rail and then stacked. Its insane.. Some day I will learn but no time soon. !
Similar threads
