Macro Photography

For Christmas this past year, my husband, David bought me  a DSL Nikon 3200 camera.  I have been asking for one for while now.  It sure is a far cry from our Kodak Easy Share we used to use.  My husband, David liked the camera so much that he purchased one from Kijiji just last week. He got himself a Nikon 3100 with a Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.8G lens.   This lens is great for a crisp image but making the background blurry.

If you own any type of camera and would like to know more how to use it I would highly recommend joining a camera club.  That is what we did.  We had our first session the other night and I found it so interesting.  I learned so much and can't wait to go again. 

I am no expert when it comes to photography, so bere with me, this is another new learning curve for me just like blogging.

The topic of the evening was Macro photography, I found it fasinating.    Macro photography is extreme close up photography.  Depending on what lens you use you can see the detail in your photo that cannot be seen by the naked eye. 

I know for me when I get to close to an object the camera will not let me take the picture,  That is because the distance between the lens and the film sensor is to close.  The further the lens from the sensor, the closer the focusing distance, the greater the maganification.  Got it whew!! It took me awhile for that to sink into my head. 

There are many ways to help with the distance.  You can spend the money and get a Nikon Micro lens.  (notice Nikon calls them micro not macro)  Or a less expensive way would be to purchase extension tubes.  They go between the normal lens and the body.  Another option,
I have seen on line is what is called a continuously adjustible bellow.  It looks like an accordian on your camera. 

There are six different settings on the camera. They look like this.

 

When trying to shoot macro, it was suggested to have it on close up mode.  The mode with the flower on it.  Nikon also offers macro shooting mode.  I don't have it on my camera but it has the 2 flowers on it like this.

 

 

We were given a few objects to practice with, mainly flowers.  My first photographs look liked this.
 

See how yellow it is?  We were shooting with two flourensent lights on it.  Thank goodness I was at the club because if I was on my own I would been so fustrated with my result.  It was suggested that I adjust the lighting.  You go to Menu, Shooting Menu, White Balance, There you can change your settings if you are shooting with a different kind of lighting.  The options are incandescent, fluorescent, direct sunlight, flash, cloudy or shade.  We changed the white balance to fluorensent and this is how it turned out.

 

 

 


Much better.  Can't wait to go next month and see what subject they will be talking about next..